Oregon residents tickled by googly eyes pasted on sculptures; City officials not amused

Art installations in the central Oregon city of Bend have been sprouting large bulbous eyeballs, delighting some residents but sparking concern from city officials who say that the googly eyes damage the artwork.

While the perpetrator has not been seen so far, the comical eyeballs have appeared on eight different sculptures, reported The Associated Press on Dec 14.

These include sculptures of two deer, a large sphere, as well as a bright red phoenix. The prankster or vandal has been deemed Bend’s Googly Eye Bandit by local media, and was even mentioned in popular late-night show host Stephen Colbert’s segments.

Some local businesses have also chimed in online, including the Pine Tavern Restaurant, which posted a picture on Facebook of its premises, with googly eyes edited onto its signage.

It was accompanied by the caption: “This googly eye trend has got to STOP! #Jk #WeLoveIT #InBend.”

So far, the city has spent US$1,500 (S$2,020) to remove the googly eyes from seven of the sculptures, said its communications director Rene Mitchell.

The residue left behind after removing the eyes means that the sculptures also need to undergo treatment, with the phoenix sculpture possibly requiring a fresh coat of paint, she added.

In a Facebook post on Dec 5, the city said that while it does not condone placing wreaths and other adornments on the sculptures, it strongly discouraged anything that could damage the sculptures, including using materials with adhesives, such as the ones found on the googly eyes.

Most of the 375 comments responding to it were critical, with many asking the city to show greater concern for more important matters, while a small minority said the eyes had given them something to laugh about.

“There was no intent to be heavy-handed, and we certainly understand maybe how that was taken,” said Ms Mitchell in response.

“We own this large collection of public art and really want to bring awareness to the community that applying adhesives does harm the art. So as stewards of the collection, we wanted to share that on social media.”

In his segment on Dec 12, Colbert also criticised those who made light of the situation.

He quoted a person in an article saying that the googly eyes “give me hope to move forward each day”.

To that, Colbert said: “You OK? Because I don’t love the idea of someone leaving their house each morning saying, ‘I swear to God that if I don’t see some light-hearted vandalism today, I am gonna lose it’.”