American artist Paul McCarthy has created an inflatable Christmas tree for the Fiac festival. The "Tree" is erected (...) in Paris and looks like a giant green butt plug. Les French are outraged. If they had done their homework they would have found out a similar thing happened in Netherlands more than ten years earlier. At least the Tree in Paris is green and the French were quick to deflate the problem. It took just two days until someone assaulted and deflated it.
In the early naughties the Rotterdam city council commissioned a statue for the city's Sculpture International, a series of outdoor art installations. The collection includes works by Willem de Kooning, Auguste Rodin and Pablo Picasso. McCarthy designed a controversial Santa Claus supposedly holding a Christmas tree in his hand. To most people it looks like a gnome holding a butt plug and of course a heated debate ensued, hiding Butt Plug Gnome from public view for years until "Santa Claus" finally received permanent placement close to several upmarket shops, hoping to boost their sales in the finest of Dutch traditions. An ironic twist of fate given Santa Claus is the bronze king of instant satisfaction, symbol of consumer enjoyment. Hoo Hoo Hoo.
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