I seems bizarre to me when someone is sitting there and sees an article like this one via the forum whilst surfing the P C or perhaps laptop and then to start going, into one, (the well known phrase, 'going into one'), before checking the facts on the P C or laptop the surfer already has in operation right there in front of them self.
And your point is exactly?
Lots of the posts are mislead by the misleading name/title given to the sculpture, are rather ill informed and are also radiating a rather misguided puritanical tone that seems to me way over the top.
The title of the sculpture is what it is - in this case 'Unconditional surrender' - that along with the sculpture itself will provoke a reaction amongst people who see it. I understand that people who know the context and background will recognise it to be a recreation of a photo and that 'Unconditional surrender' is probably meant to refer to the surrender of Japan on VJ day, although the title is much more oblique than the title of the photo 'VJ day in Times square'.
However as I've pointed out many, if not most, people wont know the context and there is nothing in the sculpture and its name which overtly links it to VJ day. Those people are likely to come to a different interpretation of its meaning based on the sculpture and its name alone.
In neither case is referring to the viewer as 'ill informed' appropriate. A piece of art shouldn't require the viewer to have delved into its background to understand and have a response to it. If it is likely to be misinterpreted without that background then it is the role of the artist and those responsible for its installation to provide background at the sculpture site to counter that misinterpretation.
Maybe the sculptor gave it that title/name in order to bring his works to notice, strange because probably like your good self Proff, I've never heard of anyone ever doing this kind of thing before either.
Perhaps that is what the artist intended - a modern take on something that might once have been seen to be acceptable but now isn't. A rye and political message for our times. However looking at his other pieces I doubt this to be the case as this and his other pieces tend to err on the side of kitsch rather than political.
