This is a stop along the Ashvegas Urban Trail – you know, those installations of public art all over downtown that the touristas love? So why, you ask, is there no art work here?
Because it’s been vandalized.
The big ironsculpture outside Malaprop’s known as Shopping Daze has been uprooted because some dumbass decapitated the head or heads off the sculpture. Don’t know why anybody would do that, or think they could get away with it. They didn’t, of course. Somebody saw them, they’ve been charged and they’re due in court. The sculpture has been removed so that some $3,000 in repairs can be completed.
The sculpture, by UNCA art professor Tucker Cooke, with the help of local sculptors Tekla and Dan Howachyn of Black Mountain Ironworks, shows stylized women shoppers from the heyday of Haywood Street, the 1920s through 1950s. Unfortunately, it’s been the constant target of vandals. It’s also been a general hangout for Ashvegas street people, who disrespect the art by tying their dumb dogs up on it or tossing their bedrolls at its base.
The outdoor artwork around downtown Ashvegas is one of the many things that makes this town great. Respect it.