Saturday, October 24, 2009

Lady Justice Plays Rough

Red billboard with metal bas relief sculpture attached of Lady Justice holding her scales, but instead of weights there are round rings attached and a boy is dangling from the rings
I was cruising through the Minneapolis Saint Paul airport when I found myself under this bizarre sculpture, brought to the traveling public by the law firm Robins, Kaplan, Miller and Ciresi.

What the heck!? Lady Justice dangles a child from her scales? I suppose the idea is that RKMC makes justice work for children, but it's much easier to read it as either a marionette reference or even some kind of torture message.

And where's Lady Justice's blindfold? She's watching the kid as he dangles on those rings, and her dispassionate visage, which is usually appropriate, looks cold or even manipulative.

This is clearly a case of sculpture run amok. Wonder if they did a market test on this bit of public art before they put it up?

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