Gentility

by Rob Hemphill

Title

Gentility

Artist

Rob Hemphill

Medium

Photograph - Photography

Description

Capturing photographs of the Little Mermaid in Copenhagen, Denmark is not an easy feat due to the numbers of visitors who crowd around it all day. It's a very small sculpture and is situated close to the shoreline, meaning that when visitors visit the attraction they tend to congregate all around it - and almost on top of it! I enjoyed the challenge and decided to take various shots from further away using a zoom lens to exclude all the people who were close to the statue.

The Little Mermaid statue by Edvard Eriksen, depicts a mermaid becoming human. The sculpture is displayed on a rock by the waterside at the Langelinie promenade in Copenhagen, Denmark. It is 1.25 metres (4.1 ft) tall and weighs 175 kilograms (385 lb).

Based on the fairy tale of the same name by Danish author Hans Christian Andersen, the small and unimposing statue is a Copenhagen icon and has been a major tourist attraction since its unveiling in 1913.

In recent decades it has become a popular target for defacement by vandals and political activists and has been damaged and defaced many times since the mid-1960s for various reasons. However, thankfully it has been restored each time.

On April 24, 1964, the statue's head was sawn off and stolen by politically oriented artists of the Situationist movement, amongst them Jørgen Nash. The head was never recovered and a new head was produced and placed on the statue.

On July 22, 1984, the right arm was sawn off and returned two days later by two young men. In 1990, an attempt to sever the statue's head left an 18 centimeters (7 in) deep cut in the neck.

On January 6, 1998, the statue was decapitated again; the culprits were never found, but the head was returned anonymously to a nearby television station, and reattached on February 4.

On the night of September 10, 2003, the statue was knocked off its base with explosives and later found in the harbour's waters. Holes had been blasted in the mermaid's wrist and knee.

In 2004, the statue was draped in a burqa in a protest against Turkey's application to join the European Union. In May 2007, it was again found draped in Muslim dress and a head scarf.

On July 3, 2020, the statue was defaced with graffiti that reads "RACIST FISH."

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Featured in the following FAA Groups:

"Monthly Theme and Artist Promotion Group" 08/16/2020
"Bedroom Art Gallery" 08/03/2020
"Hodge Podge" 07/28/2020
"Your Very Best Photography" 07/24/2020
"Whats New" 07/24/2020
"Just Perfect" 07/23/2020
"The Road To Self Promotion" 07/22/2020
"Daily Promotion" 07/22/2020
"Exploration Photography" 07/21/2020
"Fine Art America Professionals" 07/21/2020
"Art and Meditation" 07/21/2020
"New FAA Uploads" 07/21/2020
"Images That Excite You!" 07/21/2020
"The Space Between" 07/21/2020
"Promote Your Work Here And Get Noticed" 07/21/2020
"Water Forms" 07/21/2020

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Uploaded

July 13th, 2020

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