A Wax Museum? Surely you jest! And as a possible attraction to draw traffic to Pelican Village.
But there it was in the Press “ . . . planned million-dollar wax figurine project earmarked for Pelican Village, The City”.
And it continued: “A contract has (reportedly) already been signed by the Barbados Investment & Development Corporation (BIDC) with artist Arthur Edwards to produce a number of wax figurines of prominent personalities to be located at the Princess Alice Highway complex.
“Many were hopping mad at the idea which had a BDS$1 million price tag on it, and uttered words like ‘things tough now, and Government want to curtail excessive spending and now we investing in wax’.”
Many saw tours as the way to go to liven up traffic through Pelican Village.
I kept thinking, we don’t even have half of a National Art Gallery, and now it seems we’re waxing foolish with our spending.
So, wanting to get further information from the artist involved, I called “3D Photography,” his company which he shares with partner, artist Frances Ross. He wasn’t available at that time, so I left a message as to why I wished to reach him and was told: “Oh, it’s about the Wax museum”.
The day after, I called again and got the good artist on the line.
“Art,” as he prefers to be called, was almost frothing at the mouth as he waxed objections and how he never gave permission for his name to be used in the Press.
In 2009, Edwards and Ross with the blessings of the BIDC, made a double bust of Barack and Michelle Obama out of plastic resin and made a special presentation of it to the American Embassy’s Charge D’Affaires, Dr Brendt Hart.
Pick wax out of that!
