1 | Kay McLoughlin

June 21st, 2011 at 4:01 pm

A mermaid is not a mermaid without a tail……..and I don’t care what films/stories etc people care to quote, you will not and cannot con children into believing it’s a mermaid when their first question will be ‘Where’s her tail?”……

2 | Lazylaurablue

June 22nd, 2011 at 2:32 am

The Folkestone Mermaid. Some might call it a misnomer, misleading; some might refer it to advertising standards; some might say it’s a total disappointment. Others may call it art.

3 | rob thompson

June 23rd, 2011 at 3:59 pm

Well, how can you comment to that, except that it represents Folkestone exactly.

An overblown and tired body with a severe and resigned expression as if it is a struggle to stay on that rock. It shows that, rather than illustrate the beauty of the town, that it now has another ugly and morose edifice with which to gaze at and become even more depressed at the sad and sorry state of the place.

I hope that this was funded privately as I would hate to think that I had contributed to the installation in any financial manner. What an opportunity thrown away by the need for modern artists to represent human form in a way that does little to inspire a feeling of beauty and form.

4 | Dawn Richards

June 24th, 2011 at 4:00 pm

The above comments are infantile and sexist. I wonder what Rob Thompson means by ‘overblown and tired’? Presumably he means that she does not look like the airbrushed beings constantly purveyed by the celebrity magazines and almost every TV ad? Or perhaps he has seen a mermaid himself? But I do hope that Mr Thompson is even now sitting for a model of his naked body so that everyone can comment on the finished sculpture when it appears on the opposite side of the beach.

This is actually a lovely piece of work.

5 | johnny martin

June 29th, 2011 at 7:40 pm

How ugly ,depressing , and disappointing. How could such an ugly statue be accepted for display,it just shows how bereft of taste and creativity the local council is. Which is worse the horse or the ‘mermaid’ ? It was probably designed by the same person that designed the new food waste bins that the council wants to decorate our streets with. Tasteful !

6 | Nikoleta

September 7th, 2011 at 9:08 pm

mermaid….she is part of the natural world with hints here and there but also enough identifiable information so that we can relate to it…we can realise that it is we who invented mermaids and therefore are part of that world…
I think she is beautiful, she is allowing the wind to stroke her face, she is remembering, she is nostalgic, the muscles might represent some masculinity which exists in everyone, looks like a mother, a woman that has things to do…
she seems to silently listen to the air and receive valuable information from the sea! a moment to herself…