I am firmly opposed to creating both Farrah Fawcett statues in South Texas.
My objection is not to honoring Farrah with public art. I support memorializing her, particularly in Texas, where her life and identity began. My objection is to the way these projects have chosen to represent her. Both statues return to Charlie’s Angels imagery, both are connected to the same sculptor, and both risk reducing a long, complicated career to the same familiar television image Farrah spent decades trying to move beyond.
I also have serious concerns about the likenesses shown publicly so far. A permanent memorial to a real person should be judged in part by whether it actually resembles that person. Farrah left behind an enormous photographic and filmed record, and in some cases the source images for these sculptures are already well known. That gives the public something concrete to compare against the finished work. If the completed statues continue to resemble the versions shown during development, I intend to document those comparisons directly.
I have tried to raise these concerns through the available channels. I have submitted objections, asked questions, and requested additional information about the projects. There are limits to what has been provided to me, and I will not pretend to know what happened in discussions or decisions that remain private. Where information is unavailable, I will say so. But the lack of access to those decisions does not prevent me from examining the results.
This section of Farrah Fawcett Fandom will serve as an independent and continuing record of both statues. It will collect essays about the imagery chosen, the likenesses, private funding and public memorialization, the statements made about the projects, the finished sculptures,, and how the public ultimately receives them. When the statues are unveiled, I intend to preserve both criticism and praise, because public reaction should be documented rather than predicted or selectively presented.
My position, however, will not be hidden behind the word “documentation.” I do not support either of these monuments as conceived. I believe they repeat an unnecessarily narrow representation of Farrah, and I believe that choice deserves sustained scrutiny.
Charlie’s Angels made Farrah famous. That fact is not in dispute. But Farrah Fawcett was not only Jill Munroe, and fame should not automatically become the standard by which an entire life is permanently represented. She spent decades pursuing dramatic acting, producing, art, and work that challenged the image that first made her famous. Any serious discussion of her legacy has to account for that larger history.
I cannot stop these statues from being built. What I can do is refuse to let them stand without a record of the objections, comparisons, questions, and public response that surround them. A statue may be permanent. That does not make its interpretation of Farrah definitive.
My objection is not to honoring Farrah with public art. I support memorializing her, particularly in Texas, where her life and identity began. My objection is to the way these projects have chosen to represent her. Both statues return to Charlie’s Angels imagery, both are connected to the same sculptor, and both risk reducing a long, complicated career to the same familiar television image Farrah spent decades trying to move beyond.
I also have serious concerns about the likenesses shown publicly so far. A permanent memorial to a real person should be judged in part by whether it actually resembles that person. Farrah left behind an enormous photographic and filmed record, and in some cases the source images for these sculptures are already well known. That gives the public something concrete to compare against the finished work. If the completed statues continue to resemble the versions shown during development, I intend to document those comparisons directly.
I have tried to raise these concerns through the available channels. I have submitted objections, asked questions, and requested additional information about the projects. There are limits to what has been provided to me, and I will not pretend to know what happened in discussions or decisions that remain private. Where information is unavailable, I will say so. But the lack of access to those decisions does not prevent me from examining the results.
This section of Farrah Fawcett Fandom will serve as an independent and continuing record of both statues. It will collect essays about the imagery chosen, the likenesses, private funding and public memorialization, the statements made about the projects, the finished sculptures,, and how the public ultimately receives them. When the statues are unveiled, I intend to preserve both criticism and praise, because public reaction should be documented rather than predicted or selectively presented.
My position, however, will not be hidden behind the word “documentation.” I do not support either of these monuments as conceived. I believe they repeat an unnecessarily narrow representation of Farrah, and I believe that choice deserves sustained scrutiny.
Charlie’s Angels made Farrah famous. That fact is not in dispute. But Farrah Fawcett was not only Jill Munroe, and fame should not automatically become the standard by which an entire life is permanently represented. She spent decades pursuing dramatic acting, producing, art, and work that challenged the image that first made her famous. Any serious discussion of her legacy has to account for that larger history.
I cannot stop these statues from being built. What I can do is refuse to let them stand without a record of the objections, comparisons, questions, and public response that surround them. A statue may be permanent. That does not make its interpretation of Farrah definitive.
