Mystery ‘Googly Eye Bandit’ is putting cartoon eyes on public art
A city in Oregon has been pleading with its residents to stop putting googly eyes on public art.
The prank went viral after someone glued the massive plastic eyes on various artworks in Bend, Oregon, but the city has paid over £1,000 to remove the unwelcome additions to the sculptures.
The unnamed person behind the eyes has been nicknamed the ‘Googly Eye Bandit’ by local news.
The Bend bandit strikes on the city’s art route, which features 27 sculptures made by various artists.
A six-foot orb was given two large googly eyes, a family of deer, a phoenix and other art installations.
The city took to social media recently to ask residents to stop, writing: ‘While the googly eyes placed on the various art pieces around town might give you a chuckle, it costs money to remove them with care to not damage the art.’
Even as the city was forced to fork out more than £1,000 to repair the sculptures, residents aren’t pleased with the crackdown on the Googly Eye Bandit.
One commented: ‘Maybe with all those new rich folk moving in who keep raising the housing market, you can find someone qualified to remove scotch tape from these precious artefacts.’
Others agreed, citing issues they felt Bend should prioritise, rather than removing what many felt was a harmless prank.
The city’s communications director René Mitchell said: ‘Adhesives can pull off the paint, wax or other protective coatings on the metals. If paint on steel is chipped, scratched or removed with adhesives, the steel will rust.
‘We, too, think the googly eyes are funny and appreciate the admiration and interest our community has taken with them and our public art collection. We just want to make sure the art lasts and is not damaged.’
The prank has even been highlighted on national television, with Stephen Colbert mentioning it on his show. He said: ‘You’re going to get mad about that? It’s fun!’
Other artists have used googly eyes as an art form on its own. Vanyu Krstev, a Bulgarian artist, began putting the eyes on broken objects to bring them to life.
Vanyu called his project ‘eyebombing’, and described it as ‘a street art in which small plastic eyes stick to an inanimate object’.
He said the idea was to give faulty objects the appearance of a living being.
On his website, Vanyu wrote: ‘The goal is to humiliate the streets and the environment to give sunny and warm emotions to the passing people.’
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