Chattanooga Pulse

Written by Gary Poole
Friday, 30 January 2009 03:21

Chaya Anav, the controversial “front yard artist” in the Concord area of East Brainerd who caused such a stir a few weeks ago with her unusual artistic commentary, has had the sign ordinance violation charge against her dismissed. City Judge Sherry Paty told Anav that the charge would go away, if she “stayed out of trouble”.

What started the whole fracas was when Anaz decided to create her own “public art” by decorating the front yard and roof of her rented duplex with various mannequin body parts along with a red-painted toilet and sink. What really disturbed some of her neighbors was the mannequin head impaled on her mailbox with a corncob sticking out of it’s mouth. On neighbor went so far as to tell reporters that they felt the mailbox display was sexual in nature…which really made a lot of people wonder what the heck was going through their mind. Seriously, even Freud admitted that sometimes a cigar was just a cigar.

But when neighbors complained to City Councilman Jack Benson, he felt that action needed to be taken and sent out a variety of cit officials looking for some way to legally put a stop to this avant-garde artistic menace. And, lo and behold, Anav had also placed a sign in the yard that read “Private Club”, thus earning her a citation to appear in court for violating the city sign ordinance.

After all the brouhaha, Anav decided either that discretion was in order or felt she had made her point, so she removed the offending items from the yard and all seems to be well in Concord once again.

Though we might advise neighbors to keep an eye of their fellow resident with the corncob fixation. Who knows what they might think about a garden gnome collection.