Melania Statue Remade: Looks Like It Still Sucks

A bronze statue of Melania Trump has been put up near her hometown in Slovenia to replace a wooden version which was damaged in an arson attack in July.

Artist Brad Downey unveiled the bronze statue Tuesday near Sevnica, the small town in central Slovenia where the US First Lady grew up.

Downey told CNN that he had always intended to make a bronze version of the statue to exhibit in an institutional setting, but decided to put it to replace the wooden sculpture after it was badly burned.

"I didn't think it was a good ending for the artwork, I didn't think it was a good ending for the community," he said, referring to the arson attack.

Full story here.

I’m going to raise a couple of points in this blog, but I want to be sure not to confuse the main point: this sculpture still sucks. I mean, it sucks bad. I keep on bouncing between whether it got worse with the remake, but either way it for sure did not get better. For those of you that missed out on the first blog, here’s your chance to catch up- TLDR this block of wood could have been carved up by a blind third grader. While in that case, I would have praised the third grader for accomplishing this piece of art, I possibly questioned the town for parading the piece around. Of course, the artist was not a blind third grader- but a grown person, with eyes, and apparently no sense of decency. As I wrote previously, this piece of art was so bad it could have been considered an act of war. 

So, first statue gets burnt up because it was bad- and instead of taking the hint, the artist remakes the entire thing except this time as a giant chunk of metal. First of all, the fact that I just referred to it as a ‘giant chunk of metal’ correctly insinuates that it doesn’t look that much better than the original, which looked like ‘a giant chunk of wood’. For real, if this is the bar we’re setting for art then I’m in the wrong game. With all that in mind, I’m fairly certain that this guy is delusional. That or he’s dumb as rocks. Like, please man stop making this sculpture it is making this town uglier. On the other hand- It’s hard not to respect his tenacity. “Oh you burned my statue, good luck burning this!” as he wields his new, bronze magnum opus in a crane. Judging from the reaction to the sculpture last time, and thanks to this professor’s advice on how to dismantle bronze statues- we may well get to see what my new favorite artist has planned for round 3! 

The burned statue is currently on display as part of an exhibition in the Slovenian town of Kroper, titled "F**k Off Illusion," which runs until the end of the month.

Well that sounds like some modern-art type stuff. I don’t hate modern art. In fact, I think it’s kind of cool. I think it’s ill advised to use modern art to depict people who are currently alive, and married to powerful, crazy, crazy, bad men. Again I do respect the hustle. This is a crazy rebrand for that piece of artwork, almost like posting it in an exhibition called ‘fuck off illusion’ was the whole plan with it getting burned. Of course, that’s not what happened. It got burned because it’s garbage. 

When it comes down to it- I’ve got to grade the newer version slightly higher. For one, leaving the blue dress that looks like it was haphazardly painted on at the last minute while the rest of the thing wasn’t even washed- that was the right move. Also, at least with bronze you give the impression that you gave a shit. Wooden Melania easily could have been the result of a chance meeting between the town drunk and a piece of firewood. However, the guy will still not learn and just leave out the face. Do it, man. The brows, crooked eyes, and haphazard nose aren’t details that are helping anybody pick up what you’re putting down. 

I’m not necessarily rooting for another act of sabotage, but I think with each remaking I fall more in love with this artist and his art. It’s trending in the right direction!