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SHOW US WHERE YOU LIVE!
by Charlie FiftyWatts Thu Apr 09, 2020 2:15 pm
SHOW US WHERE YOU LIVE. SHOW US
SOMETHING YOUR AREA IS INFAMOUS FOR!
Charlie FiftyWatts- Admin
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Re: SHOW US WHERE YOU LIVE!
by Charlie FiftyWatts Thu Apr 09, 2020 2:15 pm
In Worcester, Massachusetts, USA:
TURTLE BOY!
No matter which angle you look at this thing from,
it still looks like a boy screwing a turtle.
So what the hell were they thinking, and how could this statue still be up!?
Meet the famous "turtle boy"! (It's famous around Worcester, Massachusetts).
I've lived here a long time, and always accepted that perhaps my mind goes to the gutter
when I look at this thing. But it looks as it looks. So what's the story? I did some checking.
— From The WORCESTER TELEGRAM —
“Phantom Critics Drive Him to Suicide” blared the headline in The New York Times a century ago.
Another follows: “…Kills Himself in Bronx Park on Day ‘the Voices' Set.”
And later, in smaller type, “Leaves Unfinished Statue.”
The Jan. 29, 1912, newspaper obituary describes the life and death of New York-based artist Charles Harvey, age 43.
The unfinished statue he left behind was none other than the Burnside Fountain, known in Worcester as the “Turtle Boy.”
Turtle Boy has been gracing (or is it cursing?) downtown Worcester for over a century.
It turns out the statue was the product of a delusional mind.
On the morning of Jan. 28, 1912, in Bronx Park, students stumbled upon the body of a man lying face up in the grass.
It was Mr. Harvey. His throat was cut. On the ground nearby lay two razors. “Harvey was bitterly despondent about his work and so
sensitive to the slightest criticism that any expression of adverse opinion caused him genuine suffering,” the artist's obituary read.
“His friends and fellow craftsmen, however, were most favorably impressed with the unfinished work that stands in his studio.
It is the life-size figure of a crouching boy, holding a tortoise.” The obituary continued: “But the work of his hands dissatisfied him and,
as he tried to make headway, he was haunted by the voices of unseen persona, who bade him take his life. The command was explicit.
The voices, from which he could not escape, directed relentlessly that he lay aside his tools and kill himself.”
The half-ton bronze sculpture, depicting a nude boy holding a hawksbill sea turtle just below his knees,
would later be completed by sculptor Sherry Edmundson Fry.
“I heard from him about a week ago, and there was nothing in his letter to indicate that he was despondent
or was contemplating suicide,” his brother, John J. Harvey, was quoted by The New York Times after Charles Harvey's death.
“I had known for some time that he was engaged in what he hoped would be a masterpiece, which I understood was
for some building in Worcester. As far as I knew it was progressing satisfactorily.”
“Turtle Boy” was bequeathed to the city by Harriet Burnside in honor of her father, Samuel Burnside, a prominent Worcester lawyer.
Originally placed in Central Square, it was moved to the Common facing Salem Square in 1969. It was stolen in May 1970, returned
later that year, placed back on its pedestal in 1972, toppled over in 2004, and placed back on its pedestal later in the year.
Kristina Wilson, associate professor at Clark University, said no matter what one might read into the statue, she thinks “Turtle Boy”
is supposed to be about innocence, joy and rebirth. Noting that Mr. Harvey was trained at the American Academy in Rome, she said,
“He is coming out of a tradition of sculpture and painting where the human figure is the apex of beauty, and how well you can capture
that is the demonstration of your artistic talents.”
Out of curiosity, Ms. Wilson asked around campus about “Turtle Boy,” and one of her colleagues chimed in, “Oh, that's
Worcester's monument to bestiality.” “It's unfortunate because it really does look like something untoward is going on,”
Ms. Wilson said. “The thing I always end up saying to my students is, ultimately, the category of whether or not it's art, that's
really not something you can argue with. Whether it's good art or bad art is something else. I would say that this is not the best.”
Still, as a monument, as a work of public art and as a piece of Worcester's quirky history, Ms. Wilson said,
“Turtle Boy” deserves to be protected. Councilor Kathleen Toomey said she would love to see “Turtle Boy”
restored and made a working fountain again, but it's going to require $60,000 that the city simply doesn't have.
Stuart Esty, owner of Dr. Gonzo's Uncommon Condiments, 122 Main St., is on a personal mission to turn the Burnside Fountain
into a national icon. “I figure if Brussels can have the Manneken Pis, why isn't Worcester wrapping its head around and taking
ownership of the ‘Turtle Boy'?” Mr. Esty asked, referring to the famous statue in Belgium of a naked little boy urinating into a fountain.
“Why don't we have a ‘Turtle Boy' small bronze statue? Why not turn the old Paris Cinema into a ‘Turtle Boy' memorabilia place?
Why am I the only person selling ‘Turtle Boy' postcards on the planet?”
Mr. Esty acknowledges that ‘Turtle Boy' is slightly disturbing. Then again, he said, a lot of things in life are slightly disturbing.
“Turtle Boy” is one of the things that makes Worcester unique. “What I love about it is seeing people who may be seeing it for the first time,” Mr. Esty said. “It's always fun to see their different takes on it, folks taking photographs, people trying to mount it themselves.”
Cathy Walsh, owner of Sprout at 118A June St., said “Turtle Boy” invites people to interact with it. “There's something about
‘Turtle Boy' that he has a personality and approachability. To me that's the great thing about the ‘Turtle Boy.' ”
Worcester Arts Councilman Helen Beaumont said the city should do something special to celebrate the undeniably quirky and distinctive fountain. Like the little statue in Brussels, which is often dressed up, “Turtle Boy” “gets adorned with things from time to time, Mardi Gras beads. He sometimes has a scarf. Sometimes he has a snow hat on. There are people in the community who dress him up. We don't know who it is,” Ms. Beaumont said.
Claudia Snell, creator of the website worcesterturtleboy.com and a series of “Turtle Boy” postcards, said she would love to see a
“Turtle Boy” parade. “It's definitely a piece of art, and it's a Worcester icon,” Ms. Snell said. “There are lots of cities that have statues
that are humorous or cause discussion and they embrace them. And we embrace ours.”
EDITOR'S NOTE: These peoples' suggestions would make us known as
"the city that promotes bestiality". And they want a parade even! Okay.
Perhaps we can get a country singer to ride on the head float
and sing an original song called, "When A Boy Loves A Turtle"
"Greetings, from Worcester, Mass!"
Oh, and they want to make a visitor's center of the Paris Cinema??
The Paris Cinema is closed now, but it was one of those places where
men would pay a quarter to watch a movie and masturbate. Yea. that'd
be a good place to sell post cards for the turtle fucker monument.
Give it to him, Turtle Boy! 
You know what would really make this statue come to life? Sound effects.
That turtle should go "rheeeeeeh!" every time you throw a quarter
in the pool.
(If you throw five bucks, it says, "call me.")
Aaw, he looks upset. Well, you would be too, if your boy never called you.
______________________
ALSO KNOWN AS 'BURNSIDE FOUNTAIN'
Turtle Boy is actually a water fountain, if you step back and look at the whole thing.
Burnside Fountain is a drinking fountain at the southeast corner of Worcester Common in Worcester, Massachusetts.
Intended to provide fresh water for people, horses and dogs, its pink granite watering trough and pedestal
were designed by architect Henry Bacon, who later designed the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, DC.
Atop its pedestal sits Boy with a Turtle, a bronze statue of a youth riding a hawksbill sea turtle,
created by sculptor Charles Y. Harvey. The statue is affectionately nicknamed "Turtle Boy."
Harriett Burnside gave $5,000 to the city of Worcester in 1904 to create the drinking fountain. Originally, water poured
from the turtle's mouth into the main trough, divided into four drinking basins for horses. On the opposite side, a lower trough
provided water for dogs. Dedicated in memory of Burnside's father, the fountain began functioning in 1912.
In the late-nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century, there was growing concern over the difficult lives of horses
that provided transportation in cities. Philanthropists wishing to ease the burden of these animals provided public
watering troughs. Some were simple, but others were works of art, of which the Burnside Fountain is an example.
"Turtle Boy" has become famous in popular culture because of bawdy insinuations about what it portrays.
The half-ton statue was stolen in 1970, but eventually returned. Multiple attempts to purloin it have been foiled.
In the tradition of the Manneken Pis in Brussels, "Turtle Boy" is now a mascot for Worcester:
a local music contest is named the Turtle Boy Music Award; a local brewer produces Turtle Boy Blueberry Ale,
and the Turtle Boy Urban Gardeners, a group of volunteers, maintain the garden surrounding the fountain.
In 2010 the Burnside Fountain was named one of WAAF's " 25 Greatest Places in Massachusetts."
That same year, it was also nominated for "Worst Public Art in New England" by a regional Art blog.
A movement is underway to restore the piece as a functioning fountain.
Charlie FiftyWatts- Admin
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Re: SHOW US WHERE YOU LIVE!
by Charlie FiftyWatts Mon Mar 04, 2024 1:59 pm
Turtleboy gets a bath! - Worcester Magazine - March 2024
The freshly refurbished Burnside Fountain, more commonly referred to as "Turtleboy."
The freshly refurbished Burnside Fountain, more commonly referred to as "Turtleboy."
By the time Thursday afternoon rolled around, things were looking up for Turtleboy. The statue on the Worcester Common – officially called The Burnside Fountain, but really, no one ever calls it that – had become the center of a social media maelstrom when it was discovered that it had been cleaned … and even more shockingly, was no longer green, but was instead a sort of muddy brown.
By Thursday, Turtle Boy was a shiny, more defined blackish-bronze, which sources familiar with the process say is pretty close to its original color. The work is being done by conservators from Aegis Restauro – the same company which has preserved numerous other monuments and statues on Worcester Common and elsewhere in the city – and is, apparently, not just cosmetic.
The refurbishment ensures that the beloved statue would last longer, and excepting some routine cleaning, would probably be good for another 20 to 30 years before needing another serious refurbishment. In the past, this would have been needed even less frequently, but the pollution of modern city life puts extra wear on bronze statues.
Many commenters on social media decried that the refurbishers were removing the statue's patina, when it turns out, the opposite was true: The original patina was being restored when possible and repaired where necessary. Some people complained that they preferred the statue green, but in a lot of ways, that's like telling someone, “You looked so much better before you got healthy.”
Indeed, judging from social media, nearly everyone in the city was suddenly an expert on monument restoration, but one can't help but think there was something more to the outsized emotional reaction: After all, as we've pointed out, statues are refurbished in the city all the time. And while it's fun to just automatically assume that the city must be just flat-out doing it wrong, that doesn't feel quite right, either.
No, perhaps there's something else at work: After all, Turtleboy isn't just a statue. He's very much an avatar for the city itself. That the city identifies itself with a statue of a boy having an unhealthy relationship with a turtle is a separate question, entirely, but what happened is, one day, we looked all up and realized that it had changed. Mind, lots of things have changed, even right there on the Common. It appears construction is about to start where the Notre Dame des Canadiens Church used to stand. Where once was a pornographic theater, now there's a beer garden. There are trendy restaurants where there used to be empty shop fronts, and WCRN radio has long left the corner of Franklin and Salem streets. Even the Worcester Public Library is getting a makeover.
Whether any of these are positive or negative changes is an exercise for the reader. Sometimes, change is just change … and Worcester has been undergoing a LOT of change, lately. Turtleboy, however, was supposed to be eternal and unchanging, a touchstone at a time when the city fears losing its identity to luxury apartments and gentrification. Any change to that symbol was going to be a bit jarring.
But the funny thing is, this change wasn't about taking anything away from the statue, it was about making sure it would endure. So it's not green anymore. So what? It's still a Boy and his Turtle, and that's all we ever wanted it to be: Only now, it's shinier and more visibly disturbing than ever. We should take that as a win.
Charlie FiftyWatts- Admin
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the lizard :: General Board :: Fun!
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