A massive inflatable green sculpture on a famous Paris square has not only grabbed attention and sparked quite a storm over its resemblance to a sex toy, but it has also led to an attack on the American artist Paul McCarthy, BBC News reported.
Entitled "Tree," the 24 meter-high sculpture was unveiled on Thursday on the Vendome Square alongside the Ritz Hotel and luxury jewelry stores, and has apparently been inspired by a combination of a sex toy and a Christmas tree, McCarthy told French newspaper Le Monde.
However, the artwork has become the butt of social media jokes, with some even expressing outrage.
"Hey Paris. Your Christmas tree is a little... off," said one Twitter user, over the sculpture's jarring resemblance to a sex-toy called a butt-plug.
"J'adore your giant butt-plug Christmas tree Paris," wrote another.
The 69-year-old artist, whose previous controversial and ambiguous installations have shocked viewers in the Netherlands and Switzerland, said that even though his latest artwork was an "abstract work" rooted in a joke about a sex toy, he was definitely not prepared to be slapped for it, he told Le Monde in an interview (in French).
While visiting Place Vendome on Thursday, a stranger walked up to McCarthy and slapped him three times before yelling that the artist had "no business being on the square" since he was not French, New York Daily News reported.
"Does this kind of thing happen often in France?" the bemused artist questioned after the assault.
Some bloggers on social media condemned the attack, even as "Vendome" continued to trend on French Twitter on Friday.
"You have to be really dumb to attack the artist Paul McCarthy for his work on Place Vendome, whether you like it or not," wrote one.
However, McCarthy confessed that the ambiguity of his work is not entirely accidental, according to NYDN.
"It all started as a joke: at first I found the anal plug had a similar form to Brancusi's sculptures," he told the newspaper, referring to Romanian Constantin Brancusi, considered a pioneer of modern sculpture.
"Then I realized it resembled a Christmas tree, but it is an abstract work."
