Florida Man Crashes Automobile Into 14-Foot Hunt Slonem Bunny Sculpture
Increase your hand if merely the mere sight of an paintings (say, Sam Durant’s drone sculpture on the Highline, or possibly a Jeff Koons “Balloon Canine“) has ever unleashed a lot uncontrollable rage and fury that you just simply needed to run it over together with your automobile. No? Can’t relate.
In a perplexing case of public artwork vandalism, police in Wilton Manors, Florida, arrested a person earlier this week after surveillance footage confirmed him intentionally driving his automobile right into a 14-foot blue bunny sculpture in a neighborhood park.
Officers obtained calls barely earlier than midday on Sunday, Might 21 a few vandalized sculpture in Justin Flippen Park, as per the division’s press launch. When officers arrived, witnesses described a driver who had appeared to purposely ram his automobile into the bottom of the statue.
Digicam footage from close by confirmed their statements when the grainy video confirmed a pink automobile driving off-road to crash into the glittery blue sculpture. Shortly after the collision, the footage reveals the driving force stepping out of their automobile to examine the entrance bumper, earlier than refastening an object that seems to have fallen off throughout the influence, after which driving away.
The broken paintings, titled “Thunderbunny” (2021), options 30,000 glass tiles atop a metallic base and is the work of Hunt Slonem, a multidisciplinary artist recognized for his brightly-colored depictions of rabbits, butterflies, and tropical birds which have taken form within the type of work and large-scale sculptures.
Hunt informed Hyperallergic that he was “shocked” when he realized his work had been vandalized.
“My hope was to uplift the world, after which this occurred,” the artist mentioned. This isn’t the primary time certainly one of his works was broken as a consequence of unexpected circumstances.
“I had an enormous mural on the World Commerce Heart that was destroyed when [the buildings] collapsed, which was devastatingly upsetting,” he informed Hyperallergic. “Issues occur. We’re not resistant to plenty of uncommon actions on this world.”
So far as the perpetrator goes, police mentioned that it didn’t take lengthy for officers to find the automobile accountable for the vandalism and its driver, 49-year-old Derek Alan Modrok. Because it seems, this encounter was not Modrok’s first vandalism offense. After being detained, Modrok admitted to different public injury, together with tampering with the Justin Flippen Park signal on Might 16 and toppling over a popsicle paintings at Rachel Richardson Park on Might 18.
Initially, native residents expressed issues that the motives behind the vandalistic acts had been fueled by an anti-LGBTQ+ bias, as per reported by the New Pelican. However when officers requested Modrok his motivation behind the offenses, he defined that he was pushed by his dislike for Wilton Manors’s late mayor, Justin Flippen. Flippen died unexpectedly in 2020 throughout his time period when he suffered a mind aneurysm, in accordance with a tribute web page memorializing his legacy.
Modrok informed officers that Flippen, who the park is known as after, was the rationale for “the birds that we hear.”
Police charged Modrok with three counts of prison mischief. He was later launched, in accordance with native experiences.
Hunt informed Hyperallergic that whereas this occasion received’t cease him from persevering with his artwork apply, he does hope extra safety for public artworks will likely be put in place going ahead.
“I do know it’s laborious. There’s by no means time or cash. However I’d identical to to see extra protections for public artwork and extra public artwork. I feel it’s a optimistic, uplifting factor,” he mentioned.
Hunt mentioned the sculpture’s injury is at present being assessed.