UPDATED Wed. June 3, 2020 with the latest status of the Eye, additional comments from artist Tony Tasset and additional reaction.
On Friday, May 29, Tony Tasset’s three-story eyeball sculpture was one of many structures vandalized downtown during protests in response to the death of George Floyd while he was in police custody in Minneapolis.
The message “NOW UC US,” along with Floyd’s initials and last words, “I can’t breathe,” were spray-painted on the enormous sclera. This made the bloodshot eyeball — which was purchased in 2013 by Tim Headington, one of the wealthiest men in Dallas, for the garden of his five-star hotel, the Joule — even creepier and gave it new meaning.
By Saturday morning, the spray-painted words on the Eye were covered with plastic, but it remained on view to the public.
The timing is awkward for the Joule. After temporarily closing because of the coronavirus pandemic, the hotel had just reopened, with events such as socially distant picnics and fitness classes scheduled for the Eye starting next weekend. A publicist from Headington Companies had no comment.
We reached the sculpture’s Chicago-based artist, Tasset, by phone on Sunday. He was unaware that his work had been vandalized.
“I have mixed emotions,” Tasset said, after he was texted an image of his altered sculpture. “It’s one of those pieces that is ripe for puns, which I guess even the protesters weren’t able to resist. I empathize with their feelings, but I really don’t think hurting my piece is helping anything.”
“I think most people in Dallas have embraced that piece,” Tasset said, in response to questions about the meaning of his work being subverted, or the sculpture possibly being targeted as a symbol of wealth. “I don’t want to say it’s an icon for the city, but people know it and it’s been reproduced quite a bit. It makes sense that it became a target for somebody wanting attention, and it’s working.”
In 2018, Dallas artist Giovanni Valderas was shocked when the message of one of his public art pieces was altered. Intended to highlight the negative effects of gentrification, one of his sad house piñatas went missing, but later reappeared at a punk rock concert reworked as an angry cartoon house holding a sign that said, “Gentrifiers get the [expletive] out!”
“I was concerned,” Valderas said. “On social media people were saying they thought my message was bringing awareness, but it was causing division. I had to be willing to accept what the universe gave me back. Looking back, it became a vehicle for people to share their frustrations.”
When asked about what happened to the Eye, Valderas was more cynical. “Let’s just be real,” he said. "Conceptually there’s not much there. It’s doing its job for the hotel. It’s a branding thing and a selfie thing for social media. But it’s been given a whole new context now and the message is a lot more interesting. That piece is not a symbol for equality or civil rights, it’s a piece for the wealthy. But the community decided to do something different with it and it broadcasted new meaning.”
Sergio Garcia has always been interested in political graffiti. Now a successful Dallas artist known for his sculptures, he has a background in graffiti and murals. He acknowledges that the spray-painted words on the Eye are vandalism, but also recognizes them as a powerful form of expression. “When I saw the photos of the Eye it was very impactful,” Garcia said. "Graffiti in general can be pretty egotistical, but this was more of a message that needed to get out.”
And that message continued to evolve last week. Tasset’s Eye has been marked with exponentially more graffiti. The majority of what is below the enormous pupil is apparently altered, but the garden is now closed and the spray-painted words have been blocked with potted plants.
Many on social media have called for the sculpture to be left as-is.
“I’m not a fan of that idea,” Tasset told us in a followup phone call on June 3. “My piece just happens to be caught in the crosshairs of a very upset America. I’m not sure it really had a specific meaning, but the rioters absorbed its meaning into what they wanted. That’s not my piece anymore. That’s something else. I just try not to take it too personally.”
Asked about future plans for the sculpture, a publicist from Headington Companies had no comment.
Dallas artist lauren woods [who spells her name in lowercase letters] is among those calling for the graffiti to be left on the Eye. “Now you see us wasn’t just expressing protest solidarity — it acknowledges the symbolic power of the eyeball plopped down in the heart of downtown,” she said in an email. “How could a massive, larger than life, all ‘seeing’ bluest eye not be also read as symbolic of the surveillance state and white supremacy? Tony Tasset should stand in solidarity with protesters and tell Headington Companies to stand down and let the work speak.
“It should be left in perpetuity so that no one can stand in front of that sculpture and take a selfie without remembering that the fight to end systemic oppression is ongoing.”
