Australian Teen Charged for Allegedly Attaching Sticker Eyes on ‘Blue Blob’ Artwork
A young person from the Land Down Under has appeared in court after reportedly defacing a large blue sculpture of a legendary being by affixing googly eyes to it.
Amelia Vanderhorst, 19 years old, appeared remotely at the local court in the state of South Australia on that day, facing with one count of damaging property.
In a statement at the time of the September incident, the municipal authorities explained that surveillance video showed a person putting artificial eyes on the artwork, which locals have dubbed the “Cast in Blue”.
Ms Vanderhorst did not enter a plea and told the judge she was unwell, according to media sources, with the judge recommending her to find a lawyer before her upcoming hearing in the final month of the year.
The following day the reported event, the city leader said that repairs to the much-loved public artwork would be expensive as the adhesive eyes were impossible to be detached without damaging the sculpture.
“This wilful damage to a valued community art is inappropriate and disrespectful,” Mayor Lynette Martin remarked in September. “It is not innocent amusement, it is pricey - it is also frustrating to those members of our community who have embraced the Blue Blob.”
She said the local government would seek the “significant” repair costs from those accountable for the damage.
At the time the artwork was first proposed, it drew varied responses from the area residents due to its price tag and design.
Costing A$136,000 ($89,000; sixty-eight thousand pounds), the artwork depicts a mythical megafauna, with the sculpture’s designers influenced by an prehistoric anteater-like marsupial found in nearby caverns that was “huge, slow-moving, and intriguing”.
