This first image was photographed by another Concordia student. This is her site. Last year, another student moved a for sale sign from someone's yard and placed it here. The artist saw this and found it humorous. In these photos I took of The Son of Man be Free at 8:30 one February morning, you'll notice someone has put a snowball in his hand.
I didn't photograph it, but another student this year informed me that he saw a cigar placed in between the statue's fingers.
I wouldn't call these pranks graffiti, but some of them have resulted in lasting damage to the sculpture. Most likely, pranks were as common during Marxhausen's years with Concordia's art department. I wonder what Marxhausen would have thought of these pranks? Considering his comments praising the Christian-symbolism and technique of the sculpture, would he have been annoyed by this disrespect shown to an image of Christ?
On the other hand, here is something he wrote about graffiti on a wall:
The graffiti wall was the result on an uncontrolled activity. It was not planned, it broke rules...The wall is important. The wall is ugly when it shows neglect and indifference. The graffiti is really beautiful when you think of the function they performed for the people who created them. -- Written in Bless Kids [Emphasis added]
I've written earlier that I find a poetic irony in the fact that a sculpture of Christ is poked fun of and disrespected. Christ himself was treated with even less respect during his passion.
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