Knight of Tomorrow 574

The next public art we're having a look at is Knight of Tomorrow 574, by NYC artist Linda Stein, on the Portland State campus next to the university's "Walk of Heroines". Here's her description of it, via a university art page:

Knight of Tomorrow 574, made of bronze, represents the heroism of all women by signifying an “everywoman” who has met the challenges of history and contemporary life. My participation in Portland State University’s Walk of the Heroines is a natural progression in my own goals as a feminist artist honoring the heroism of women in all societies and all eras. It is partly a response to running from my Ground Zero studio during 9/11. This experience­–combined with childhood fears, my feminist abhorrence for gender inequality, and our contemporary culture of Perpetual War–led me to contemplate themes of Protection, Parity and Peace. My feelings of vulnerability, insecurity and powerlessness coalesced into a desire to create an iconic form that symbolized the strong, protective, heroic female image providing the sense of safety I sought, and a symbol of our humanity.

As you might have guessed from the 574 in the name, this is part of a long-running "Knights of Protection" series, including (apparently) at least one other copy of Knight of Tomorrow 574 in a scenic waterfront location in Boca Raton, FL, which came up briefly in a wider 2015 interview.

In a weird pop culture side note, Stein had a cameo role in the original Borat movie, in a segment where Borat tries to interview Western feminists about something or other. Stein wasn't in on the joke at the time, and later told the BBC "He may do better with homophobia and racism, but he just didn't do very well with sexism", and indeed she was flooded with angry emails from men who had enjoyed the segment unironically. This was a somewhat early example of the toxic obsessive dudes who seem to plague every corner of the internet these days.

To me this episode sort of crystalizes what's wrong with the Borat character and the whole subtype of satire where you satirize a thing by just doing more and more of it and hoping the audience figures out it's a joke at some point. If the people you're satirizing enjoy it unironically and aren't even a little bit offended by it, maybe it isn't landing the way you intended.