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Why on Earth do you call the hillside chalk artworks in Kent "infamous"? We're proud of them!

OMG they are planning to put a giant knacked old white nag on the hills of Kent, where o where is Invicta?

People are losing their jobs and someone somewhere thinks this money will be wisely spent? What a monstrosity to have to see as we walk, cycle or drive by. I tell you what lets make it skyscraper size, why not, after all, it's all about scale and ego anyway.

All for spending money on art, better than giving it to bankers... but why is the horse wearing a harness when a free horse would be so much more uplifting?

Why is it that whenever the North has anything good, the South feels the need to have a better one?

I think it's a great idea! People will be employed to construct it, it's something nice to look at, the local towns may benefit from tourists and horse- and art- lovers coming to look at it.

I for one will be going to have a look when it's done! And probably buying lunch and coffee in a nearby town...

the money being used on this is ridiculous. so many more things it could be used for. in the midst of credit crunch and they do this? financial crisis - they shouldnt spend so much really.

i am not against it, i just do not believe this is the right time. yes jobs will be there. but with the whole financial problems at moment, they should hold out.

I agree with Fideafindimp - I am all for public statues and the bigger the better, but a horse just standing there looking like a rather dull Stubbs painting is a frankly boring.

For those not born in Kent, the invicta horse, the county emblem, is up on its hind legs and has a long flowing mane - now that would have been impressive.

An opportunity missed.

gee

gee

Flabbergasted by the waste of money on this. If I want to see a horse, then I can go and see well.. a real horse. Why do I need to see a monstrously oversized model of one?

Why not spend the £2m on keeping the recently-restored Vulcan bomber in the air?

Now there's a thing with real grace and beauty...

It just looks like a large child's toy.

If it had to be a horse, why not a modern day take on one of the chalk horse designs. (The Uffington white horse is a design classic). This feels underwhelming.
I have sympathy with Kent CC who submitted the Invicta, or Kentish horse, as a counter to Wallinger's design. Invicta (a sideview of a rearing horse) at least has some vitality to it.

It's not even good Wallinger. His Ecce Homo (his figure of a standing Christ) would have been better; were the other entrants really worse than this? (And no Gormley!)

Angel of the South? Gormley's angel at least resembles one, but Gormley came up with both design and title.
The competition to find an 'Angel of the South' feels imitative and the result doesn't match the title. At least let's think of a better name for this.

Nag of the South perhaps?

I agree it should have been Invicta, that's something to be proud of.

Why "The Angel of the South"? - The angel of the north is just a pile of rusting scrap!!

Genuine artists (ie people who can paint or sculpt) continue to struggle while this absurd self-publicist garners £2m to put up a horse that no one wants and means nothing to anyone. To make matters worse people cite the Angel of the North as a glorious precedent when both are merely expensive eye-sores. Where is the skill or the beauty?

Have you people learned nothing from the Trojan War and similar happenings outside Troy?

This thing is bound to be full of hippies, just waiting for nightfall so that they can sneak out and form a drum circle.

The Angel of the North is a striking, unique, instantly recognisable piece of art.

Whereas this planned work is just a flippin' great big horse. Where's the imagination? At least try and come up with an artistic variation on a horse's form, rather than just scaling up an anatomically correct model?

There are serious concerns coming out of this. The "Angel" striking and unique?

Unfortunately a proletariat view point is all that concerns art today. Look at Bansey. damage under the guise of art?

At least the white horse has identified form and grace even if it is of pointless proportions.

I'm claiming my place in the saddle when the level of the Thames rises due to global warming!

Neigh, neigh, and thrice neigh!

2 million at the moment but who wants to bet that if it dues go ahead it will cost loads more

and i agree with others on here its a bit dull

I'm not against the idea of having an angel of the South, but have serious reservations about this particular sculpture.

It seems to say several negative things. At a very basic level, its very whiteness, though testament to Kent's hillside chalk drawings, seems to be exclusive and indicating purity. Added to this is the horse's bridle, the bit in its mouth: it is an uncomfortable image.

The sculpture is a Trojan Horse. Wallinger may say it is evocative of Kent, of our nation's heritage for breeding horses and of our foremost animal painter in Stubbs, but I rather suspect that this is an image of slavery with very unsettling connotations.

I like the idea of the horse. I always think the chalk horses look great so hopefully it will have the same dynamics. But I agree about the bridle - that will just spoil it.
I pass the Gateshead Angel going to work and I hated the idea (and the expense) at first. Then when it first went up I couldn't understand why they left it as unpainted metal. However now I love it and feel very proud to see it as the symbol of our North East

Can't wait to see how long it takes before someone dumps a replica pile of horse dung beneath it!!

Stiff...

kitsch.

The last gasp of an art establishment in decline.

Two million pounds would build an art gallery for the whole community instead of this useless pile of uninspiring visual pollution.

Lame.

I think this is fantastic. Incredibly kitsch, but also fantastic. However tasteful or tasteless art is, as long as it's public, you can bet your bottom dollar that there will be opposition.

Why does every tin pot council feel the need to waste money on some huge white elephant (or horse) art project?

Rather than invest in improving current galleries, museums and other facilities, they want to create some lasting legacy that normally ends up over budget, loathed by most of the public and will be removed in twenty years when people finally get fed up with it.

I do feel art is under funded and sport gets way too much in the way of donations, but the money seems to get frittered away on some regional vanity project.

big is better . how american.

no art to it.

it will be like in the styates. Town with the biggest ball of string. or the big burger that is a diner.

2 million would get a lot of good blackmiths a decent project to make. big is better my donkey

google "biggest roadside attraction"

and watch the rubbish that this will be in company with.

yea kitsch . donkeys again.

sad.
but then the art market is a group of self promoting back slapping time wasters.

The art of male bovine faces is the only art involved.

Is this guy going to build it himself.
of get it fabricated and covered in fibreglass.