The recently installed statue of two girls taking a selfie has passersby reaching for their cell phones, not to take a selfie, but to send a tweet. “I’m embarrassed for everyone,” one person tweeted.
A number of residents took to social media to voice their outrage, especially after word went out, mistakenly, that the city had paid for the statues as part of a beautification project. ABC News reports that one angry resident texted, “I’m salty [expletive] about that ‘selfie’ statue in Sugar Land. Who approved that s—?”
Actually, the statue in question is part of a 10-piece collection of artwork donated by a Sugar Land resident to the City through the Sugar Land Legacy Foundation. Besides the two statues in the town square’s public plaza, (the other statue is a seated man playing the guitar), other statues can be found at Sugar Land Memorial Park, Oyster Creek Park and Fire Station 4 in First Colony. A future installation is planned for Highlands Park.
ABC News identified the generous donor as one Samuel Levin but was unable to immediately reach him for comment. The statue collection was approved in 2014 by two different citizen’s committees, the Parks, Art, Recreation, Culture and Streetscapes (PARCS) board and the Sugar Land Legacy Foundation, before being approved by the City Council that same year.
Click2houston.com reported that Anna Villareal wrote, “This is why people hate the young generation! Stupid things like this. This is an actual new statue in sugarland town center. Good god help us.”
This writer actually liked some of the comments on Click2houston.com’s web page. here is just a couple of the comments that have some sense to them:
Michael Lunsford wrote: “Some people will criticize anything. These are really well-done art sculptures. It’s an upbeat non-political moment. What’s not to like? Realism showing people what people do in 2016. It will mean even more in the future. People will see it as a snapshot of our times.”
Decoff Decoff wrote: “I am a 70 yr. old lady and a real stick-in-the-mud person (old fashioned morals)… So, here goes. This is the 20th century. Town Center is a fun happy place…I LOVE IT. Can’t get around that much anymore, but used to take grand child there.The least we can say is Thank You!! Shissh! Not ‘ol grumpy the cat! Now you can crawl back into your cave. Be Thankful we are free to put “nice” statues of free people doing fun things!”
