Opinion • 04 MAY 2003

Anal architecture

Saviour Balzan fails to understand why we continue to make use of Richard England’s so called creativity

Marc England is Richard England’s son. I do not know him and I do not believe that he should be responsible for his father’s achievements or folly designs.

He is not a public person and therefore one expects that he should not be bothered. Yet, when he hijacks the publicised public image of a sculpture to promote his own thing, he is asking for it.

It is like Benetton and that Italian forgotten photographer using AIDs patients at their deathbed as a promotion for the true colours of Benetton.

The first thing that the England offspring refused to appreciate is how ugly some of his father’s architecture is.

Visit the Qawra church and ask for consolation if you dump the conservative bastion of Catholicism and turn to worshipping cement.

Work in one of the cubicle offices at University and consider yourself lucky that you survive fits of claustrophobia.

England’s architecture is cumbersome, user-unfriendly and passé. It is everywhere in the form of round holes, useless windows and ‘grope my partner’ size of a room.

England’s crowning folly is to be found in the LOVE sculpture, erected in the shortest time possible and given the green light by a planning authority and ministerial discretion that could not have carried out any preliminary study on the impact this monstrosity has on the seascape of the locality.

Spinola Bay has not been ruined by this sculpture, the rows of flats and the jungle of concrete dropping by the sides has converted this bay into a battered bay with limited charm. The sculpture simply confirmed the worst, that our surroundings are a reflection of our culture or shall I say cultural void.

With today’s modern interpretation understanding of the word LOVE restricted to a sexual act I would have found it more apt if England had utilised the word ANAL instead. It could have perhaps reflected more beautifully in the waters of Spinola which are not alien to floating turds.

That way, octogenarians who remember Spinola Bay in its former splendour would have understood what England the creator was trying to express.

Now the good news is that sibling Marc has published adverts, which apart from insulting our intelligence by recognising that the sculpture is something we might not appreciate, treats us like morons and suggests that his new music album may turn out to be far better than the inverted LOVE sculpture.

He also uses the LOVE inverted symbol on his CD.

Cheeky would be an understatement.

So first we have an England creation rammed down our throats and now a crafty attempt by his son Marc to market a product thanks to the widespread awareness of an inverted LOVE paid for by our taxes.

What makes me squirm is that somehow, the man’s architecture will resurface, and once again we will have expensive boxes, holes, cubicles and prison like quarters and other useless designs.

Hurrah for bad taste!