It’s been five years since Spillover II was installed in Shorewood’s petite Atwater Park. The 8-foot sculpture, made up of a myriad of steel letters, depicts the outer shell of a person with knees pressed to his chest.
The statue was made by Spanish artist Jaume Plensa, better known for Chicago’s Crown Fountain, and was privately gifted to the Village in 2009. Besides drawing some negative attention prior to installation, Spillover II has enjoyed its quiet existence on the waterfront—until now.
On Sunday, Matt Sweetwood, who was in town visiting a relative, brought some serious claims against the sculpture in a post on his website. He argued he discovered anti-Semitic phrases hidden within the jumbled letters. The author and public speaker from New York City listed three slurs he found embedded in the text: “Cheap Jew,” “Fry Bad Jew” and “Dead Jew.”
In the same post, Sweetwood put heat on Plensa and the Village of Shorewood. He called Plensa a “coward,” the work a “piece of scrap,” and demanded that the Village take Spillover II down.
When asked to comment, Village of Shorewood Manager Chris Swartz said they are “very concerned” with the controversy surrounding Plensa’s piece and are “working closely” with the artist to solve it. He referred all further questions to the Richard Gray Gallery in Chicago. Milwaukee Magazine was unable to reach anyone at the gallery, but owners Paul Gray and Mary Sabbatino told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel on behalf of the artist that:
“Plensa uses alphabets as conceptual metaphors for cultures; the letters from each alphabet are utilized to create a skin of an anonymous figure with each letter’s placement entirely at random. Plensa is deeply saddened that his sculpture has been so egregiously misinterpreted. Plensa’s works and beliefs are the antithesis of anti-Semitism.”
This morning, Milwaukee Record’s Matt Wild stopped by the park to visit the sculpture himself. He pointed out that, in order to see what Sweetwood saw, you would have to ignore some letters and create others. Wild adds, “And you need to do some serious spacial gymnastics if you want to see ‘Dead.’”
