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consummate-deviant · 4 years

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I reckon I’m gonna talk about Hordak for a minute

So, I feel the need to talk about Hordak. This is, perhaps, not unusual. Once upon a time ago, writing stupidly long pseudo-essays about characters I rather liked used to be my thing… and it’s still a bug that bites me from time to time. The timing certainly seems right! Homeboy has been the topic of conversation lately, thanks to the recent release of She-ra season 4, and the manifold feels associated with it. I’m fond of Hordak, as it were, so I don’t mind sharing my perspective on the subject, since there’s some confusion as to his appeal.

The two stances I see taken on Hordak most often, by those who don’t like him, I should specify, are as follows:

A.) He’s an irredeemable villain who has done terrible things, and I don’t see why anyone would like him.

And

B.) He’s a lame, nonthreatening villain.

I’m not going to be engaging with mindset ‘B’ quite as much as with mindset ‘A’ in the following post, in part because the reasons why he’s so lame and nonthreatening are kinda tied to what I’ll be discussing by implication, but mostly because my response to mindset B can be summed up with the following: “You are not wrong, at all. However, that’s literally the entire point of his character, so while you aren’t wrong to be disappointed if you were hoping he would be a more measured, megalomaniacal sort, it’s also not a failure on the part of the writers, since his lack of suitability for the role he was trying to play was always going to be what his story was about.”

Mindset ‘A’, though... well... that’s a bit tricky. Ultimately “irredeemable” is a personal value judgment. The threshold a character must cross before one audience member feels they no longer deserve forgiveness can vary quite wildly from another, and while trying to pass one’s personal opinion off as an objective fact is something of a pastime on the internet, I am- and I cannot state this emphatically enough- NOT your dad… probably. At least, I hope to god… Look, odds are really good that I’m not your dad, so… you do your thing and shine like the crazy diamond you are. I probably can’t change your mind, and considering I don’t even know you, it’d be kinda creepy if I thought I could! What I can do, though, for those genuinely curious how anyone could consider him redeemable, is share my own perspective on the character, and why I think redemption is the direction the story is going, based on how I’ve read the text thus far… So I’m gonna do that. Let’s go over Hordak as he has appeared in the She-Ra reboot.

Part I: Season 1 Hordak

Now see, when we kick things off, I totally get where both the ‘A’ group and the ‘B’ group are coming from. Hordak, as he appears in season 1, seems ruthless, intimidating, and single-minded. Hordak doesn’t carry the conflict in season 1, serving as more of a background presence while Catra and Shadow Weaver, who have a more personal investment in the central narrative, do all the heavy lifting of antagonizing the heroes and angsting.

This keeps the attention off of Hordak, which is precisely how he likes things. When people aren’t going out of their way to interact with him, then it’s easy for him to control what few interactions he does have. That’s what season 1 shows us: Hordak, when he has perfect control over his own narrative. Every scene that features him is shot with a low angle, often with his form either concealed in shadows or with his face partially out of frame. When he speaks, he’s always calm and distant… but calm in that ‘he could totally fly into a rage at any instant’ way that keeps people on their toes. Pragmatic, taciturn, perfectly measured and groomed,… pretty tall! By any metric a reasonable person can measure a competent, intimidating villain, Hordak circa season 1 seems like he’d pass the test.

Part 2: Season 2-3 Hordak

Here’s the thing... though... about season 1 Hordak... that we learn pretty quickly when we transition into season 2: Season 1 Hordak is a massive fraud. Like, seriously, he’s a fabrication created out of necessity to hide a single, prevailing truth: Hordak is an awkward dork who is kinda terrible at being an evil overlord.

I’ve seen some people describe Hordak’s season 2-3 character development with the expression “You thought I was Ozai, but I was actually Zuko this whole time!” Now, I like this expression fine. I’ve borrowed it a time or two in the past, but with regard to Hordak, I prefer to phrase it like this: “You thought I was Emperor Palpatine, but I was really the Wizard of Oz this whole time!” The former expression gives someone an idea of the tropes of the character pretty well, but the latter does a better job, I feel, of showing the relationship between season 1 and later seasons with Hordak. Hordak is a competent, unflappable, all-seeing leader… hey, hey! Pay no mind to the man behind the curtain! Hordak’s past… as a mindless clone created to lead other mindless clones in a mindless clone army… has left him laughably unprepared for the task of leading others. He’s smart, like, in a general bookish sense, but he has no charisma, no interpersonal talents to speak of, and doesn’t really seem to have any grasp of how to motivate his underlings, save to reward talent with promotion.

Out of necessity, Hordak keeps his true self buried underneath multiple layers of protection. The first layer is the season 1 illusion: Delegate direct command of his soldiers to a single adjutant, interact with that adjutant just enough to keep them in line, and remain in his sanctum all day, like the geeky shut-in he is.

The first layer is pretty nice, and seems to have bought him quite a few years running the horde… but what happens if, say, some uppity Force Captain decides to pester him with personal status reports… or some absent-minded inventor decides to raid his lab for a six-sided hex driver? Personally interacting with his minions for too long will reveal the illusion he’s been hiding behind! Well, fear not... This is where the second layer of protection comes in handy.

Yes, Hordak’s second layer of defense: blustering, shouting, and intimidating. Threaten them with dire consequences for bothering him, let them visit the planet with nearly-enough-atmosphere for a few seconds… do everything in his power to frighten them so badly they never want to directly interact with him again. What should happen if this second layer fails him, though? They learn of the most terrifying secret in Hordak’s entire arsenal.

...There is no third layer…

Nope. If a minion is plucky enough to peak behind the curtain of his grand illusion, and then bold enough to stand their ground at the explosion of hot air that follows… he has basically no follow-up left. One of my favorite nonverbal scenes in the entire series is the moment where he realizes that his screaming is having no visible impact on Entrapta. There’s a look on his face that seems to say ‘What the hell am I supposed to do now!?’… like, it’s clear the dude has never needed a third step to scare someone away before.

Ah, but you, my savvy reader, have no doubt cottoned on to the error in my argument thus far. Establishing that Hordak is an awkward, introverted nerd doesn’t really change the fact that he built the Etherian horde. The fact that he’s not especially competent doesn’t change the bad deeds his committed! Well, rest assured, you beautiful person who can claim no paternal relation to me, I agree! However, characterizing Hordak like this goes hand in hand with the other big reveal of season 3: his backstory.

Now, cards on the table, I’ve been taking Hordak as he comes, and up until this point I didn’t really have any strong idea of whether they were going the big-bad or redeemed-bad route with him. It wasn’t until season 3, when his origin was revealed, that I genuinely began to suspect that the redemption path was where the writers were headed, because it re-frames his actions in a subtle, but pretty important way.

With no Horde Prime, when one looks at Hordak, they see a man who orchestrated a corrupt and oppressive system for his personal benefit, who holds others in disdain due to self-aggrandizement, and is motivated by a desire to be seen as greater than everyone else. That is a character who would be very hard to convincingly redeem. While I’m loathe to raise the specter of Steven Universe discourse here, it’s a lot like the notion of redeeming the Diamonds… and, while I have no strong feelings about that show one way or the other, suffice it to say I can at least see why their redemption is controversial.

Horde Prime shifts the context of Hordak’s actions, though. Now, Hordak is a man who perpetuates the very system he is, himself, a victim of, because it’s the only system he knows. His conflict with others is born from the projection of his own self loathing. Said self-loathing comes from his chief motivation, which is to be acknowledged as worthy by an authority figure who has no interest or desire in ever offering him that acknowledgment.

Such a character is still flawed and villainous, because of course it is. If a character has done nothing wrong, they don’t need redemption in the first place. It’s a lot easier to accept the struggles of a flawed character if they’re a victim of oppression rather than its source. To borrow the SU comparison one final time, the Horde Prime twist reveals to us that Hordak isn’t a diamond, he’s just another one of the countless gems caught in their system.

By the by, does “perpetuates a system they, themselves, are victims of, suffers from conflicts born of projected self loathing, and desire to be acknowledged by an authority figure who has no interest or desire in providing said acknowledgment” sound familiar? I hope so! It ties into my final point of the day.

Part 3: Season 4 Hordak (aka “Hordak and Catra have basically the same arc”)

Now, implying similarity in the character arcs of Hordak and Catra has, historically, been a fraught endeavor. Even I, Hordak stan extraordinaire, felt that we needed to see a bit more of where the writers were wanting to take Hordak before we went and made comparisons. Then season 4 happened… and guys… the subtitle of season 4 may as well have been “Hordak and Catra have basically the same arc.”

Well, that’s a bit of an oversimplification. Catra had people she could perceive as her peers, which granted her a social circle outside of her direct superiors whom she could feel camaraderie with, which added a dimension to the emotional turmoil she felt, but in broad strokes it seems to be a comparison that the writers are inviting us to make. Their alliance in season 4 is based around their commonality. They motivate one another by feeding into the insatiable hunger both of them feel for external validation… in that regard, they bring out the worst in each other, and thus season 4 ends with both of them brought to their lowest point.

At the end of season 4, if the princesses had never arrived, and Double Trouble hadn’t been there to finally force her to confront the emotions she insistently projected onto others, Catra would have assumed the mantle she claimed from Hordak. She would have ruled the horde, devoid of satisfaction or happiness, and any children she took into her numbers she would have treated in exactly the same way Shadow Weaver treated her, and the same way Horde Prime treated Hordak.

To escape that fate, she needed her chance to face the system that oppressed her, and then the chance to face herself… and only once she had done both, could she start to move forward again. That’s why we see the start of her recovery in the final scenes of the season. Catra did unspeakably terrible things- by the end of season 4 her atrocity count easily rivals Hordak’s- and not everything can be blamed exclusively on others, but we, as an audience, have seen enough of what made her the way she is… that’s why most of us are onboard with her eventual redemption.

Catra is, beneath all the layers of spite and illusions of who she thinks she should be, a sweet kid who ultimately wants to reconnect with a friend she fears abandoned her, and to be respected and appreciated by the authority figures in her life. Hordak is, ultimately, a hikikomori dweeb who, not too long ago, was content to spend the rest of eternity with his gamer girlfriend in his lab, pretending to put together a portal machine.

The villain of She-ra is Horde Prime, and the system he put into place to feed his arrogance at the expense of those trapped within it. For those inside that system, like Catra or Hordak, they don’t cross the line and become truly irredeemable until they are given a clear and unambiguous chance to escape from that system and change their life for the better… but refuse to grasp it. Even then… sometimes it takes them a little while to see the hand being offered to them… and sometimes that hand is in the form of a fist.

In conclusion

Look, guys, I’ll be real with you… I made a play at pretending that I wrote this for some point or another… but I kinda didn’t. When I get into a fandom headspace, words get stuck in my head, y’know? When they do, they buzz around like bees until I write ‘em someplace… so here we are.

I’m not so arrogant as to assume I can change anyone’s mind with my 4 AM word vomit about the emaciated bat villain in my favorite children’s cartoon. This is just a thing I wrote! Maybe if you agree with it it makes you happy, and if you disagree with it then it doesn’t get’cha too worked up! I was gonna include Hordak’s relationship with Entrapta into the proceedings… but honestly, that would have doubled the length of this thing, and would have been kinda tangential to the point. I may do a more shippy essay thing later on… but if there’s one thing I learned from the last time I wrote a bunch of these… it’s that planning them out never works well. I guess if people wanna see it I can write it though.

Anyway, I’m rambling, so I’m gonna letcha go! Thanks for listening to my TED talk. Remember, villains are an artform, people are complicated, and hot cocoa is the best winter beverage. I’m going back to fanfic writing until the next bout of insomnia!

#she ra hordak #entrapdak #hordak #she ra 2019

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variantia · 4 years

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(Tell us all about Pearl culture! We need it!)

bellum. some of these are headcanons that @nacreousknight and I have been squawking at each other about, some of them are things I’ve thought of – but really you have them to blame for even getting my brain into overdrive thinking about this shit in the first place, so 8^) these are all going to definitely be included in my portrayals of my various Pearls

also a lot of these are as they relate to Nacre or my other Pearl OCs because they’ve taken over my blog’s Pearl-essence ( hehehehehe ) and I also don’t wanna step on anyone’s toes if they have different headcanons so–

Pearls are touchy-feely ! with each other at least. most other Gems don’t touch them unless it’s a painful touch, and they’re obviously not allowed to touch anyone else without explicit permission. plus they can’t always speak their minds around everyone even if they’re talking to each other, so a lot of the inter-Pearl communication is touch-based. it’s very noticeable in Nacre because for a Gem who everyone thinks is a stoic, she’s always got that natural urge to touch people in some way.

the Gem language has words for “sister” and “daughter” as concepts – i.e., sister-in-arms, a Gem of the same type as you, are what “sister” is used for, especially if they’re from the same batch or same kindergarten. “daughter” exists mostly among Matrons to refer to the Gems they’ve created, although it might also exist among Gems who have secretly created their own offspring. however, there’s no real word for “mother” ; the closest word the Gems have for that is “Matron”, the Gem who created you, a maternal presence, someone who you hold in utmost reverence. the only Gems that Pearls respect more than Nacre are the Diamonds. some of them don’t even respect their OWNERS as much as they respect Nacre.

Pearls who have shitty owners often fantasize about having Nacre as an owner, don’t you dare @ me on this

there are some Pearls who have developed a sub-dialect of communication that has to do with humming or vocalization ! Fuchsia and Abalone are some of them because the Pearls who communicate this way in addition to touch tend to be bolder personalities.

because they’re formed on super watery planets, Pearls tend to be very good swimmers !!

they like to share their memories if they’ve learned something they consider useful or interesting.

Pearls in general like to experiment with styling their forms, hair, and outfits – especially during Era 3 when they have a lot of freedom to do so. when the opportunity presents itself, they’ll even chatter excitedly to each other about their own opinions for what they think would look good on each other.

some of them can be cutthroat in finding ways to make sure they look better than other Pearls. because they’re at the bottom of the food chain, so to speak, they don’t have many opportunities to better their station. although it’s not overwhelmingly the norm, Pearls have been known to sabotage one another. it’s usually the Pearls whose owners are strict and mistreat them who feel the need to do this ; it comes from a place of “ if she looks worse, then I look better ” and although it’s not VERY common, it can absolutely be vicious.

for Pearls whose owners have more than one Pearl, there’s even more competition. the Diamonds are the ones who approve requests for Pearls, but because requesting a Pearl when you already have one is seen as ungrateful and questioning the Authority’s decisions, it’s not common for a Gem to own two or more Pearls. the Gems who do have more than one Pearl almost certainly had the second / third / etc. given as a gift for exceptional performance rather than requesting her. Pearls who are not their owner’s only Pearl can become true friends, but more often they’ll fall into “frenemy” territory. they’ll be rivals competing to be their owner’s current favorite, especially if their owner is not a kind personality, although their bond as Pearls is strong enough that they typically won’t do anything that would risk a consequence as horrible as the other being shattered.

Nacre’s official title that most other Gems and some Pearls address her by is “Her Iridescence”. otherwise, Pearls call her “My Matron” or “Her Brilliance / Radiance / etc.” or simply address her by name. rarely, some Pearls will address her with an archaic Gem word which translates literally to “Nurturer”.

other Gems’ space inside their gemstone is pretty big, but still limited. Pearls’ gemspace is almost totally unlimited. these bad bitches can fit SO MUCH trauma in them !!!

Pearls as a rule tend to be very tall and wiry. they’re the slimmest, most delicate Gem type, and stand maybe half a foot to a foot shorter than most Quartzes. because of this they have a habit of bending / almost perching to talk to shorter people or simply if they need to do something close to the ground.

if they’re speaking to a Gem who isn’t their owner who is high in status, they may close their eyes as they speak. this is because they’ve developed a superstition that laying eyes on someone in high rank who isn’t their owner is rude and disrespectful, and will bring bad luck on them and / or their owner. some Pearls will close their eyes, some will just avoid eye contact with the other Gem, and some will actually go balls to the wall and face another direction entirely while they speak to the other Gem.

they have a goddess, Ender Pearl, whom they pray to for, most notably, beauty and safety. nearly every Pearl who comes into existence is created believing in her, but whenever a Pearl is mistreated or shattered by an owner, there are waves of lost faith in Ender among the Pearls. if she’s supposed to be watching over them and answering their prayers and protecting them, then why would she allow such things to happen ?

there are Pearls in existence who have completely lost faith for Nacre as well, because of the same reason they lose faith in Ender. ouch.

Nacre’s kindergartens are seen as less successful than other Gems’, producing maybe 75 % of what other Gems produce. it’s not because these lost Pearls never emerge or don’t live long. it’s because Nacre takes defective Pearls and shuttles them off to planets where they can live without worrying. she sometimes does this with other Gem types, if she’s able to do so, but if anyone ever found out, she’d be shattered in a heartbeat. in Era 3, she can now be honest about it, and new kindergartens are going to be difficult to produce ; some Gems don’t believe that someone as unassuming and unobtrusive and nice as Nacre could do something like smuggling defective Gems to other planets. there’s a lot of controversy surrounding it, but the fact is, she DID actually do it.

all Pearls love their mommy don’t @ me on this either

all Pearls are 10000 % babey and if you try to fight me on this one I’ll actually come for ur kneecaps AND ur toes thank u

#you scream into the void ; the void screams back. ( ANSWERED ASK. )#is that a fucking gremlin ? ? ( OOC. )#that’s just what I think anyway. ( HEADCANON. )#nacreousknight #(( hey nerd I'm fucking tagging you tHIS IS ALL YOUR FAULT ))#bornofscarlet

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parentingguide8-blog · 5 years

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UPDATE: Parents Forced to Shut 2-Yr-Olds Life Support Off After He Opens His Eyes, Dad Yells "Its Not Over!"

New Post has been published on https://parentinguideto.com/must-see/update-parents-forced-to-shut-2-yr-olds-life-support-off-after-he-opens-his-eyes-dad-yells-its-not-over/

UPDATE: Parents Forced to Shut 2-Yr-Olds Life Support Off After He Opens His Eyes, Dad Yells "Its Not Over!"

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Over the last several months, 23-month-old Alife Evans has been making headlines as his parents battle doctors and the British courts to keep their undiagnosed son on life support. The case has strikingly similar parallels to the Charlie Gard case of 2017, in which the infant’s parents, Chris Gard and Connie Yates, tragically lost the fight to keep their son alive.

Alfie has been in a coma for over a year after being struck with an unidentified illness. Though he was born a perfectly healthy infant, Alfie started having complications at around 7 months old.

He started having “seizure-like movements” after missing several development milestones, but doctors concluded at the time that he was merely “lazy and a late developer.”

After he caught a serious chest infection that induced more seizures, the boy was placed on life support at Alder Hey Children’s Hospital in Liverpool, and medical professionals were forced to reconsider their diagnosis — or lack thereof.

Alfie is now in a “semi-vegetative state” with an unspecified degenerative neurological condition that some experts believe may be a mitochondrial condition, the same disease Charlie Gard had.

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While the British justice system has ruled that Alfie’s life support be shut off, his parents, Tom Evans and Kate James, vehemently disagree.

The two were allegedly “in bits, distraught, in pain,” after the horrifying death sentence for their son. They couldn’t believe the decision that he was “about to be murdered.”

The couple, appearing to hold Christian beliefs, referenced the 10 commandments in one court case. “Thou shalt not kill,” asserted Tom.

Through the healing power of God and the vehicle of modern medicine, they still believe there is hope for their baby boy, and an army of strangers has rallied around them in support.

On Thursday, April 12, nearly 500 waved banners in front of Alder Hey Children’s Hospital as part of “Alfie’s Army,” protesting the ruling and demanding his release from the hospital.

Tom claims they were “failed disgracefully by the system.”

“Does our son look in any of these pictures like he is dying!!!!!” he later wrote. “We as parents are not giving up … Our son is about to be murdered, taking [sic] away from us, his innocent life is about to be taken.”

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True to their word, Tom and Kate have continued to fight.

Their controversial case has even caught the attention of Pope Francis who tweeted, “It is my sincere hope that everything necessary may be done in order to continue compassionately accompanying little Alfie Evans, and that the deep suffering of his parents may be heard. I am praying for Alfie, for his family and for all who are involved.”

It is my sincere hope that everything necessary may be done in order to continue compassionately accompanying little Alfie Evans, and that the deep suffering of his parents may be heard. I am praying for Alfie, for his family and for all who are involved.

— Pope Francis (@Pontifex) April 4, 2018

Now, even after obtaining legal documentation saying their child is free to leave the hospital, police have blocked Tom and Kate from leaving Alder Hey Children’s Hospital with their son.

Tom documented the heart-palpitating chain of events on YouTube.

Lawyer Pavel Stroilov of the Christian Legal Centre has informed the father that they have the right to remove Alfie from the hospital.

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“Alfie is only in hospital because you, his parents, voluntarily sought its healthcare services,” the lawyer’s letter reads, in part. “Alfie retains the right to self-discharge from hospital. He is not imprisoned there. Because of his minority, it is for you, as his parents, to make a decision to self-discharge or to stay at hospital.”

Still, authorities have blocked the frantic parents from doing so, even after they equipped themselves with their own medical team and ventilator to safely and effectively do so.

“So anyone joining in, I’m live in the baby’s room,” says Tom in the video while pointing the camera to Alife. “There he is. Look at him. There he is. I’m here now with Alfie James.”

“There’s his stats,” he continued, redirecting the camera to the machines. “There’s his numbers. Look what I have in front of me,” he said of the lawyer’s letter. “I have a documentation saying that I have the right to take my son.”

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Tom says he removed the “duty of care” from Alder Hey and placed it with an air ambulance company.

“Alder Hey is stopping us,” added Tom. “Alder Hey is calling the police. To murder my son. Alder Hey has phoned the police to stop me from taking my son out of the hospital.”

“This is my son. Look at my healthy, healthy young boy who’s undiagnosed and is certainly not dying,” said the distraught father while hovering the camera over his 23-month-old. “Look what the world’s coming to… we’re eagerly awaiting for them to release our boy legally. I’m shaking like a leaf. I’m shaking.”

Watch Tom’s emotional video below, and please join us in praying for a miracle for his sweet son, Alfie.

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UPDATE:

Earlier today, Alfie’s parents, Tom and Kate were dealt a heartwrenching blow as top judges rejected the couple’s appeal. According to The Sun, the Court of Appeal agreed with medical specialists at Alder Hey Hospital, declaring that Alfie “could not be saved” and further treatment would be “unkind” and “futile.”

In addition to losing their case at the Court of Appeal, the Supreme Court and European Court of Human Rights have also refused to overturn the decision.

But the determined young couple refuses to give up yet.

“It’s not over!” Tom told reporters after he learned of the devastating court ruling.

They have entered yet another legal bid at the Court of Appeals as hundreds of other supports have surrounded the hospital to fight for of Alfie. Pictures of the boy opening his eyes have fueled public opinion that he’s still fighting for survival.

“I’ve been in the room with Alfie and he opens his eyes and looks at you,” said Tom’s friend, 26-year-old Liam Sorrell.

“Their lawyer Paul Diamond has now said he will apply to the Supreme Court for permission to appeal the decision by 4 pm tomorrow,” the Sun reported.

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Read more: http://www.faithit.com

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nofomoartworld · 7 years

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Hyperallergic: Chicago Celebrates 50th Anniversary of Its Picasso Sculpture, a Gift Many Residents Didn’t Want

The restaging of the 1967 Chicago Picasso dedication (photo by Jake Silby/Hyperallergic)

CHICAGO — A baboon with wings, a bull-moose hybrid, an Egyptian revival sculpture, and even a vampire.

Fifty years after its public unveiling, the untitled Picasso sculpture that sits in the center of Daley Plaza continues to elicit a wide range of interpretations from mystified passersby. The 50-foot-tall steel figure certainly caused a ruckus when it was first dedicated on August 15, 1967: Many people were simply baffled by the abstract sculpture; others showed up with signs that deemed it a “colossal booboo” and “an insult to Chicago’s greatness.” One urged, “Let’s give it back now!!!” Not exactly an ideal welcome for what the modernist master intended as a gift to the people of Chicago.

Protestors at the 1967 dedication of the Picasso sculpture, photographed by Robert W. Krueger (photo courtesy Chicago Public Library – Northside Neighborhood History Collection)

No protestors turned up yesterday afternoon (though that would have made for a fun spectacle), when the city restaged the sculpture’s dedication to celebrate the 50th anniversary of an oddity that’s gradually grown into a beloved Chicago icon. The aforementioned interpretations were among those I received from individuals in the crowd, which numbered in the hundreds — just a fraction of the approximately 50,000 people who packed the streets in 1967.

Among them was Bonnie Diamond, who was a little girl when her parents took her to what was then known as Civic Center to witness Mayor Daley pull away the giant, blue veil with a grand flourish. She had appreciated the sculpture upon first sight.

“It was very exciting,” Diamond told Hyperallergic. “It was just wow. We didn’t really know what it was and had never seen anything like it. Now I’m not sure what I think it is, but I always thought it was a horse with angel wings.”

Unveiling of the Picasso in 1967 (photo courtesy Barbara Bogosian, used with permission)

Much of the anticipation back then stemmed from photographs of the statue and its maquette that the press circulated widely as part of the city’s publicity campaign. Everyone, it seemed, had an opinion on the Picasso — a hulking, modernist vision that had no apparent connection to Chicago or its history, unlike other commemorative statues that dotted the city streets. The choice must have seemed particularly curious considering the Spaniard had never set foot in the Windy City.

The restaging of the 1967 Chicago Picasso dedication (photo by Jake Silby Hyperallergic)

Readers of the Chicago Tribune wrote in days before the dedication, with a number calling it a “monstrosity” and some decrying the city’s showing of the work of a Communist. Others were enthusiastic and even proud, although many fixated on what exactly the stern-faced creature was supposed to be.

“The Picasso piece depicts a baboon, without a doubt,” a skeptical Helen Mckee wrote. “Picasso has perpetrated a hoax.” One Mrs. Joseph Savler suggested that the piece represented a phoenix, “the bird which like Chicago was consumed by fire and arose from its ashes in renewed beauty and freshness.” And area person P.K. Thompson was adamant about their guess: a giant sea horse.

Still others believed it represented Picasso’s pet Afghan hound, Kabul, an argument that photojournalist David Douglas Duncan laid out in a Chicago Tribune Magazine article. It was published months after the dedication and illustrated with an elegant portrait of the long-nosed canine.

Today, most people believe that Picasso meant for the figure — with its knob-shaped face, eyes and nostrils like donuts, core of radiating lines, and gradually widening stem — to represent an abstracted woman. What is certain, however, is that his sculpture paved the way for modern art to play a significant role in Chicago’s city planning, which had until then largely focused on functional public structures.

The 1967 dedication of the Picasso sculpture (photo courtesy City of Chicago’s Department of Cultural Affairs)

“The Picasso really changed the way public art began to appear within the city,” public historian Paul Durica told Hyperallergic. “What’s interesting is that, over the past 50 years, it’s more or less become part of the city’s built environment — people don’t really look at it as a work of art anymore. This anniversary is an opportunity to once again try to approach it as a work of art and think about its meaning and value to the city.”

Durica conceived of the dedication restaging, which also celebrated artists and cultural organizations in Chicago. The 1967 program had featured performances, readings, and speeches, and for yesterday’s event, locals stepped in to represent them with largely new material. Participants included the Chicago Children’s Choir, artist Avery R. Young, and Gwendolyn Brooks’s daughter, who recited the poem her mother had read 50 years ago.

The only thing missing was the drama of the original event: the Picasso was not kept under any veil but left exposed and untouched as celebrations unfolded around it. Instead, artist Edra Soto led a symbolic unveiling, asking people to cover their eyes with pink fans she’d designed and then remove them after a few seconds. It was a creative alternative to what may have proved a complicated endeavor, but I imagine it would have been quite striking to see Rahm Emanuel (who was present) whip away a cloth and watch it slowly billow in the wind as the gigantic Picasso was revealed, glinting in the sun and gazing fixedly forward.

The restaging of the 1967 Chicago Picasso dedication (photo by Jake Silby/Hyperallergic)

The 162-ton work — which has turned from bright orange to dark gray, thanks to years of weathering — exists because of Chicago architect William E. Hartmann, who wanted to commission an artist to create a monumental work to serve as the focal point of the plaza. And he wanted none other than Picasso — Hartmann considered him “the greatest master alive.” He visited the artist at home in Mougins to propose the idea, which the city’s Public Building Commission had approved. To persuade Picasso, as well as familiarize him with Chicago culture, Hartmann brought along gifts including a White Sox uniform, a Native American war bonnet, a Chicago fire department helmet, and photographs of Ernest Hemingway and Carl Sandburg.

Picasso not only agreed to the task but also refused payment for it; he wanted his work to be a gift to the people of Chicago. He also gave the 42-inch-tall maquette to the Art Institute, where it remains on view today. His design was realized by the United States Steel Corporation at a cost of $300,000, which was covered by three different charitable foundations.

The theme of yesterday’s events was in keeping with the spirit of the artist’s generosity: “Everybody’s Picasso.” But that idea was briefly contested when the sculpture became the subject of a copyright controversy. In 1969, the Letter Edged in Black Press filed suit against the Public Building Commission, which claimed it had copyright on the sculpture. The art publisher had commissioned Claes Oldenburg to reproduce the Picasso and was fighting licensing fees, arguing that the sculpture was in the public domain, as the artist had given it to the people. The commission maintained that the deed of gift was a copyright grant that Picasso had given to the department. The next year, a judge ruled in the publisher’s favor.

The restaging of the 1967 Chicago Picasso dedication (photo by Jake Silby/Hyperallergic)

Today, even if you haven’t seen the Picasso in person, you’ve likely seen it on screen, thanks to cameos in films like The Blues Brothers and Ferris Bueller’s Day Off. It’s become a marker of the city’s center, an unmistakable and familiar home base.

When the late Chicago Tribune arts editor Edward Barry wrote about the sculpture’s origin story days before its unveiling, he concluded with a grand premonition.

“For decades, possibly for generations, Chicagoans will dispute about this huge semi-abstract head of a woman — or is it something else? — which will be like a brooding presence in the center of the city,” Barry wrote. “It will be derided, defended, laughed at, and — who knows? — maybe eventually loved.”

From the array of people sitting on the Picasso’s granite pedestal and enjoying lunch to the children who slide down its sloping base every day, you can see that he turned out to be exactly right.

The restaging of the 1967 Chicago Picasso dedication (photo by Jake Silby/Hyperallergic)

Pablo Picasso, “Maquette for Richard J. Daley Center Sculpture” (1964), on view at the Art Institute of Chicago (photo by the author for Hyperallergic)

The 1967 dedication of the Picasso sculpture (photo courtesy City of Chicago’s Department of Cultural Affairs)

The 1967 dedication of the Picasso sculpture, photographed by Robert W. Krueger (photo courtesy Chicago Public Library – Northside Neighborhood History Collection)

The 1967 dedication of the Picasso sculpture (photo courtesy City of Chicago’s Department of Cultural Affairs)

The 1967 dedication of the Picasso sculpture, photographed by Robert W. Krueger (photo courtesy Chicago Public Library – Northside Neighborhood History Collection)

The 1967 dedication of the Picasso sculpture (photo courtesy City of Chicago’s Department of Cultural Affairs)

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