Australian Teen Charged for Supposedly Attaching Sticker Eyes on ‘Blue Blob’ Sculpture
A teenager from the Land Down Under has faced legal proceedings after allegedly defacing a large art piece of a mythical creature by applying plastic eyes to it.
Amelia Vanderhorst, 19 years old, participated remotely at Mount Gambier Magistrates Court in South Australia on that day, charged with one count of property damage.
In a statement at the time of the September incident, the municipal authorities explained that CCTV footage showed a person putting artificial eyes on the sculpture, which residents have nicknamed the “Cast in Blue”.
Ms Vanderhorst did not enter a plea and told the court she was ill, as reported by news outlets, with the magistrate advising her to secure a lawyer before her upcoming hearing in December.
A day after the alleged incident, the local mayor stated that restoration to the much-loved public artwork would be expensive as the stickers could not be detached without harming the art piece.
“This intentional vandalism to a valued community art is inappropriate and disrespectful,” City of Mount Gambier mayor remarked in September. “It is not innocent amusement, it is costly - it is also frustrating to those people of our community who have embraced the Blue Blob.”
She added the council would pursue the “significant” repair costs from those responsible for the vandalism.
At the time the artwork was first proposed, it received varied responses from the area residents due to its cost and design.
Costing A$136,000 (eighty-nine thousand US dollars; sixty-eight thousand pounds), the sculpture depicts a mythical megafauna, with the sculpture’s designers influenced by an ancient marsupial ant-eater discovered in local caves that was “massive, lumbering and fascinating”.
