Wow! “Welcome to the world of public art,” I tell myself. Still, could have been worse, they might have received no reaction at all. Besides, and it is important to stress, that these pigs are no longer functioning as they did as seats. They’ve not been designed with sitting in mind or to be aesthetically in-keeping with a particular location operating in the way that public seating is supposed to do. Love or hate them, they’ve been turned into ‘art’ objects that are to be auctioned for charity then after their purpose or destiny is a mystery yet to be defined.
So if, ‘Four legs good’ is the pigs and ‘two legs’ bad is us, (the humans) then perhaps there is an irony in that quote that is similar to the reaction towards our (the artists) intervention with the pigs. Maybe we should have left the pigs alone and succumb to their own ends, they may have started a revolution and created a political upheaval before in a megalomaniacal reverse in fortune become the makers of their own undoing. But then again, maybe they are just pig shaped blocks of wood that had it not been for our involvement would have been on three legs and quite frankly on their last legs! Or who knows, could have even eventually found their way into Tesco frozen beef lasagne!
You should be proud to have done something so controversial so early on in your career! I think a lot of people are being very close-minded. As you say, these things were due for the scrapheap, and now someone has attempted to do something interesting with them everyone is furious. I also don't think they appreciate the time, thought and effort that went into this project, on an unpaid basis as well! The only thing I do think is a shame is that these objects were obviously once loved by a lot of people, and are now going to be privately owned. Perhaps it would be nice to have a similar project to create something new in place of the pigs that everyone would enjoy just as much.