The Media Trust
Ledbury Calendar

Rare Coins and Tokens
Greenpeace

 

A Load of Pollocks? PDF Print E-mail
Culture
Written by John Eager   
Wednesday, 13 June 2007 18:18

Ledbury townspeople rose on Monday morning (11th June) to a rude awakening. There, right in the belly of Ledbury, was the yellow outline of a giant phallus stretching from the top of Bye Street, extending out across The Homend and pointing straight at the Tourist Information Centre. Immediately Ledbury tongues were wagging, the immature giggled, while the more serious-minded remained tight-lipped.

Yellow Phallus   The Ledbury Phallus

It appears whoever did this dripped or poured the paint rather than brushing it and like the American artist Jackson Pollock prefered the solid ground to work on. There the similarity between painters ends. The road itself has become the canvas and the yellow lines form a discernable and unmistakeable figure against the tarmac background. It appears to have been painted hurriedly, and there is the suggestion that perhaps the painter was disturbed and vacated the scene prematurely.

 

 

 

Cerne Abbas Giant Cerne Abbas Giant

(Photo source: Wikipedia) 

This giant hill figure carved into the chalk downland in Dorset is owned by the National Trust. At first it was thought to be an ancient pagan fertility symbol, but more recently it is believed to date from around the mid C17th and to be a lampoon of a local politician.

Is it possible to draw any similarities between these two likenesses, other than what they obviously represent? It is said that couples visit the Cerne Abbey Giant and women roll themselves along the length of the phallus in a bid to magically aid their fertility and so conceive. It goes without saying that any such endeavour in Ledbury would not only be deemed mad and in poor taste, but also a road hazard with serious health and safety implications.

But who on Earth would have defaced Ledbury so gratuitously? Was it a drunken prank? Grafitti artist gone mad? A silly joke? A pagan fertility rite? An offensive message? An action painting? Perhaps we will never know unless the culprit is rightfully exposed, charged and bang to rights.

Last Updated on Monday, 24 September 2007 19:32