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An act of vandalism adorns Sarah Woodward’s Hurricane Katrina art installation outside of Green Library. Various inappropriate comments were found on the project, which has displayed for a week, this weekend.

When Sarah Woodward ‘09 invited students to write on her Hurricane Katrina art installation near Green Library, she did not expect participants to sabotage her exhibit by using profanity and slamming Stanford Housing.

The art piece, which has been on display for about a week, was vandalized Saturday night sometime after 11 p.m.

“Stanford Housing is crap,” “kill the tree” and “fuck Stanfurd” [sic] were some of the vandals’ comments. Using the black Sharpie pen provided by Woodward for viewers who wanted to write thoughts or reflections about Katrina, the vandalizers also drew inappropriate pictures of genitalia on the artwork itself, rather than on the backs of the art panels, where Woodward had requested that participants write.

“When I decided to put my artwork outside I knew that because more people would have access there were greater risks involved — including vandalism,” Woodward said. “Considering this was supposed to be a dedication to raising awareness of a hard social issue, for someone to write all over it and disrespect it is really appalling.”

“It’s also a really wimpy ‘fuck the man’ message,” she added. “If you’re really interested in opposing Stanford Housing, writing on a piece of artwork dedicated to Katrina and natural disasters is a really stupid way of fighting the system.”

Woodward said she was particularly offended that a poem that had been posted before the vandalism occurred was scrawled over in black marker.

“I think that this represents the only public attempt by Stanford to acknowledge in art the dimension of the Katrina tragedy,” said Program in Writing and Rhetoric (PWR) Lecturer Scott Herndon, Woodward’s advisor for the project. “For it to be vandalized like this is just — I guess the best word for this is sad.”

“In a wider sense,” Herndon added, “the way that the artwork is being treated as a symbol for Stanford really represents a failure in our culture to recognize what artwork like this is trying to accomplish.”

Students from the New Orleans area also expressed their frustration about the vandalism.

“If [only] the people who did it even knew how much pain that represents” said Slidell, La. resident Kate Lowry ‘10, who was originally excited to see the University endorsing a project that would draw attention to the disaster. “I think [the vandalism is] horribly disrespectful. It’s not even related to Katrina at all.”

“It’s just immature,” said New Orleans resident Manus McCaffery ‘10. “To me it was another one of those signs — people forgetting that it’s something that affects [Gulf Coast] residents every single day. It’s almost been two years but I know that my family [is] still living in a trailer in front of our house.”

While the vandals have yet to be identified, students speculate that the perpetrators may not be affiliated with the University.

Woodward said she will salvage what she can of the exhibit, but added that some of the newspaper clippings and pictures cannot be fixed. She said she hopes viewers will continue to share their stories and write meaningful reflections that are appropriate and connected to the purpose of her artwork.