“Some critics denounced it online as a ‘waste of wood’…” h/t Boris & Nancy
Slovenia Has Another Trump Statue. This One Has Vampire Teeth.
by Palko Karasz
The New York Times
Aug. 31, 2019
LONDON — It is not often that President Trump follows in the footsteps of his wife, Melania Trump, but he has received a wooden statue in his likeness in her homeland, Slovenia, after the same, dubious honor was bestowed on her in July.
Like the effigy of Mrs. Trump carved with a chain saw and unveiled on a riverside near her hometown this summer, this new work — a slatted structure nearly 26 feet tall — has its share of detractors.
Some critics denounced it online as a “waste of wood” and said it should never have been built, according to the BBC.
It’s not hard to recognize the navy suit, the long red tie, the tanned jowls and the jutting blond hairstyle. Nor is it difficult to draw conclusions from the closed fist of an upraised arm, or from the pouting mechanized mouth, which swings open to reveal spiked teeth.
According to the local sports and cultural society that built the figure in Sela pri Kamniku, a hamlet of 144 people, it’s not a portrait of Mr. Trump at all, but rather a version of the Statue of Liberty. Hence the spiked headpiece and the upraised arm.
The creator, Tomaz Schlegl, an architect, had a clear vision, and message, in mind when he began building the statue in August.
“I designed the statue because people have forgotten what the Statue of Liberty stands for,” Mr. Schlegl told Reuters on Friday. “I want to alert people to the rise of populism, and it would be difficult to find a bigger populist in this world than Donald Trump.”
“Like all populists, the statue has two faces,” Mr. Schlegl added. “One is humane and nice, the other is that of a vampire.”