The famous Prada Marfa sculpture sits just off Route 90, 60 kilometres away from the city of Marfa, Texas. If you're not familiar with it, it's basically a fake Prada shop, complete with fake Prada products, intended by Scandinavian artists Elmgreen and Dragset as a site-specific "sculptural intervention" that would be left to decay and finally be reclaimed by the wilderness. Early this week, a vandal calling himself the TOMS Marfa helped it on its way. (Yes, TOMS, as in the ethical shoe brand.)
According to Marfa Public Radio, the installation was hit early Sunday morning by vandals who spraypainted it blue, and in a bizarre twist, covered the sculpture in TOMS stickers along with a manifesto explaining the reasons for the attack.
The pamphlet reads: "TOMS Marfa will bring greater inspiration to comsumer Americans to give all they have to developing nations that suffer disease starvation and corruption. So long as you buy TOMS shoes, and endorse Jesus Christ as your savior, welcoming the 'white' him into your heart. So help you God, otherwise you're damned to hell".
An artist who goes by the name of 9271977 made contact with The Big Bend Sentinel yesterday to claim responsibility for the damage.
"Nothing wrong with all of it," he wrote. "Can’t wait for a proposal or call for art by the ‘art world.’ I wish that it was analyzed and investigated as an installation it was. Everything was hand selected, painted, built, researched. The quotes were powerful. The questioning of TOMS and the state of America was powerful."
This isn't the first time the Prada Marfa installation has been attacked by vandals. Three days after its completion in 2005, burglars broke into the store and made off with the counterfeit Prada shoes and purses.
"We are in no way affiliated with this incident," a TOMS spokesperson told Dazed. "We were disheartened to see the vandalism of the Prada Marfa installation and the impact it has had on the community."
