Tooth fairy gives officials an ache

A pink and silver tooth fairy hung in the trees for fewer than two hours outside the new Living and Learning Residential Complex yesterday before University of Memphis administrators ordered the removal of the art.

Provost Ralph Faudree said the piece will be reinstalled after it is altered from what appears to to be a "suspiciously noose-like" support system.

Junior journalism major and installation creator Casey Fly said the project incited more controversy than the group installing the piece originally expected.

"I know (the administrators) are just doing their job," Fly said yesterday. "We don't know where they put it but if we can find the piece, we'll try to change it and hang it up again."

Faudree said he made the decision hoping to avoid regional or even national controversy similar to that at University of California-San Diego, where a student hung a noose from a bookcase in the campus' main library, setting off angry protests and condemnations from university officials and state leaders.

Made from a bust fastened with plastic tubing and trash, co-creator and sophomore sculpture major Mae Aur said she and friends made the piece from an old wedding dress, lots of fabric, pink wings and a wig.

"It was just for the heck of it," she said. "We didn't intend it to be seen in a negative way. We just wanted to get people's reaction."

Danny Armitage, assistant vice president of student affairs and campus services, noticed the piece while walking to his car and stopped to question the students, who were still hanging oversized molars near the even larger fairy.

"We're responsible for everything that goes up on this campus from (Patterson) Street to (Zach Curlin) Street and (Southern) Avenue to (Central) Avenue," Armitage said. "I know if I hadn't just happened to see the piece just now that I would have been in a meeting somewhere first thing in the morning to discuss whether this was OK or not."

Armitage called Faudree, who discussed the matter with University President Shirley Raines. After more than a dozen calls in five minutes, Faudree said he understood the plight of the students but requested the piece be taken down immediately.

The group decided to wait until today when they could be better equipped to remove or change the piece, but employees removed it for them only minutes later.

"Some people draw conclusions that can go well beyond the intention of the piece," he said. "Something like this can bring up different images for different people. I know it's not totally tied to reality, and art is meant to incite reaction - I understand, that's part of the reason for art. I think in the right location, it could better suit its intended message."

Students, responding to Armitage's complaint, said that because students have yet to move into the new complex, the piece was not visible from a dorm facility.

"It's right in front of our housing on this major street, and if it creates a negative reaction, it could be a problem," Armitage said. "Whether or not it's going to, I don't know."

The students maintained that they hadn't intended to make the piece look like it was being hung by a noose. They said they used the rope simply because it was the only material they had available and that hanging the sculpture by its neck seemed, at the time, like the most structurally sound option available.

Aur asked Armitage and Faudree if they could alter the piece by disguising the rope with a large hat, fabric, paint or ribbon rather than removing it altogether.

"It's not really the color. It's the noose," Faudree said. "We can't have something hanging in a campus tree by a noose."

He encouraged the students to look into other options, even offering University support to help make the piece "look more like a flying instrument instead of a hung instrument."

Both Faudree and Armitage said that while they appreciate the student's efforts to "bring their art to life," allowing a noose to remain on campus in any form is dangerous and could unnecessarily create a sensitive or even racially charged atmosphere, like in 2007, when three employees were fired from the Germantown Performing Arts Center for tying excess rope above the stage into noose-like knots.

"You don't know as much about it as maybe some other people who are different ages might," Faudree said. "I realize that art is meant to be an expression, but these are images that invoke strong reactions, maybe not to someone of your age group, but to others."

Faudree encouraged the students to talk to their professor, Greely Myatt, who pre-approved the piece for campus installation. If the project could be restructured to hang in a different way, Faudree said he didn't see a problem with having the piece on campus, even at its current location.