When I was in Korea a couple summers ago, I saw an odd structure on top of a building on the Seoul skyline. It looked like a golden blob that strangely resembled poop and definitely looked a little out of place among all the other skyscrapers. Upon seeing Paul McCarthy’s Complex Pile structure in the Tiny Monuments project introduction, I was immediately reminded of the golden structure because of their apparent similarity in subject matter.
The structure in Korea is actually a recreation of the original in Japan, which sits on top of the beer company Asahi’s HQ building. It is actually supposed to represent the “burning heart of Asahi beer” by representing the frothy head on a pint. This is definitely an instance where the intention of the artist did not match the audience interpretation (it is referred to as “poop building” by locals), and it is interesting to see how this interaction plays out with such a public monument.
