Folk Art in Chapel Hill

During a school outing to a Russian exhibit in the People's Republic of Chapel Hill (ultra-liberal home of UNC, noted for its recent forum of anti-American speakers demanding that the US "apologize for our excesses which caused the conditions forcing the downtrodden to attack the WTC and the Pentagon") , Cat ran across this sand sculpture in a little park near Franklin Street, Chapel Hill's "main drag" of tea rooms, occult bookstores, and "aromatherapy" head shops.

Amazingly, the sand sculpure has survived - due, no doubt to our current months-long drought and the chicken-wire fence someone erected around the site. Evidently, there are at least a few human operatives living in "deep cover" among the academic automatons of Chapel Hill.

The only "title" or identification is sculpted into the base, and reads "A to Z". Everything else about this work is a mystery. Here's a photographic "walkaround". Cat says that the kids (and her) found lots of meaning in the types of people represented in the work. (And notably, none of the "types" are professors...) The woman leaning against the statue reminded those present of a WTC "jumper" - scary. To me, it looks more like she is simply doing her part to shore things up.

Very difficult photography here; half of the sculpture was always in deep shadow from the overhead trees. (Lots of manipulation in Photoshop to make things visible...)

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Photos taken 09 November, 2001