To accompany this auspicious event, yet another sculpture has been erected - Yes, try to hold your excitement, incredible isn't it?! I quite like this one, but am concerned it will look rather jaded and naff in 10 or 20 years time. John Lewis is on the site of a former pottery, and there has been some disquiet locally that the sculpture doesn't reflect that once important industry, rather than Poole's maritime connections (the 'flowers' are the props of a boat engine, you see).
There has also been concern that it is just a bit, well, Teletubbies.
Art is meant to provoke discussion, stir emotions, connect us with the sublime. Public art, like sculpture, usually has a hard job winning universal approval. It would be impossible now to imagine Trafalgar Square without Nelson and the lions, but if someone proposed building a similar structure in Poole today I'm sure it would be howled down in protest.
But strangely, no-one objects to the opening of a new John Lewis - instead the response ranges from enthusiasm to indifference, and seems to miss out vitriol. And that is one reason why I think art has greater significance than shopping.
This also makes me think about what happens when we start a new church. There should be some artistry about it, something that leads to strong reactions - that's what happened in the book of Acts. More often though, a new church provokes rather less response than even the opening of a new shop.
So perhaps we need more artists planting churches, even if sometimes that means we get flowers sprouting boat propellers.
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