Sarah Palin statue finds a home in Chicago

An unflattering statue of Sarah Palin that doubles as a functioning stove -- yes, the cooking kind -- has found a home in Chicago. The work of public art, created by a Chicago artist named J. Taylor Wallace, will take up residence at the Bridgeport Art Center.

“We’re havin’ a Tea Pear-ody” is a large-scale metallic rendering of Palin’s head, with signature glasses, tight bun and mouth wide open as if shouting. Smoke from the stove emerges from the top of the head, according to reports.

The sculpture has previously been shown at the National Ornamental Metal Museum in Memphis, Tenn., in 2011.

Wallace’s website says that he is a 3D mixed media artist living in Chicago and has degrees from the University of Tennessee and the Sam Fox School of Design and Visual Arts at Washington University.

NBC Chicago reports that the Palin statue “will cook a suckling pig” at the opening ceremony of the Bridgeport Sculpture Garden later this month.

The artist told the television station that the statue “was kind of in response to the political climate at that time, when the healthcare debate was going on. I thought she was a distraction from what was important, and it was cathartic to spend three months doing it.... It helped me out a lot.”

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