Vandals hammer naked baggage handler statue in B.C. resort town

PENTICTON, B.C. — Trouble began as soon as Baggage Handler, a statue of a suitcase-toting naked man surrounded by luggage, was installed in a turnaround at the marina in this lakeside resort town.

A plate was installed over the groin, then was removed because it drew attention to that area and looked silly.

Now vandals have bashed away at Michael Hermesh's 61/2-foot epoxy-impregnated plaster statue, broken the ankles and knocked over the 24 suitcases.

"It's like being censored for the second time," Hermesh said. "It's like all of a sudden, I have a silent critic and I don't know what's right or wrong. Before I worked with no consideration for that."

At a town council meeting in January soon after the publicly funded statue was unveiled, Mayor David Perry and a number of local residents demanded that it be removed.

Council members said they were unaware of the nudity last year when they approved the statue as one of four temporary art works for the roundabout in 2005-06 but voted 5 to 1 to allow it to remain through September, when it is scheduled to be replaced. Perry cast the lone no vote.

Hermesh says he's disgusted by the attack on his work.

"Someone said to me, 'Well, what did you expect, putting a nude statue up in Penticton?' That's like saying to a woman who's been raped, 'what did you expect wearing a skirt that goes above your knees.' Disgusting," he said.

Shortly after the unveiling, Curtis Collins, director of the Art Gallery of the South Okanagan, convinced Hermesh to obscure the groin area with a square steel plate. Then Collins decided the effect was only to draw attention to the figure's midsection and make the whole statue look ridiculous, so the plate was removed.

Hermesh said he hoped he would be commissioned to repair his work.

"What's upsetting people is that someone would have the audacity to be free and create something without listening to other people," he said. "What is the next artist supposed to do now? Put a block of concrete in, make sure it doesn't offend people, put fence around it and hire security guards?"