Senior art major Kelly Riker displayed her artwork at the free speech area by the Holmes Student Center Oct. 27. Without warning, Riker’s artwork was taken down.

Riker had studied the artist Barbara Kruger and decided to make a public piece on a subject that had been forgotten for her first Introduction to Sculpture assignment. Her class was going to critique her work.

Aqua Net hairspray caused a lot of controversy in the late 1980s and 1990s because people became obsessed with aerosol spray and its effect on the ozone layer. Riker was going to reintroduce the claims and poke fun at how she thought society had overreacted.

“It was supposed to be funny, yet at the same time, a resurgence of an old issue resurfacing,” Riker said.

Riker spent 12 weeks making plaster molds of Aquanet cans filled with plaster and placed them under a sign that read: “Three Cheers for Global Warming, Quit Smoking, Start Spraying and Warm Winters.” Riker figured the King Memorial Commons would be a prime location for people to view her piece and spent hours on the phone to go though the university’s red tape to make sure she could display her piece.

Riker said the Holmes Student Center staff explained MLK Commons was a free speech zone for university-sponsored club members with an approved time slot.

“Since I was not putting the sign up in part of a university sponsored organization and even though I am a citizen and am granted free speech as an undeniable right, the [MLK] Commons was off limits,” Riker said.

She also said the real free speech portion of campus is the concrete walkway to the right of the HSC by the flag poles. People in charge told her she could put her piece in the free speech forum, as long as she was not blocking the walkway or endangering people.

On the day of her critique, Riker showed her sign to Norm Jenkins, associate director of the HSC.

“He was very nice, seemingly, and showed me where I could display my global warming art,” she said.

Around 10 a.m. Oct. 27, Riker put up the sign on the side of the building. Under the sign she placed six plaster casts of a hairspray can.

Riker headed to class around 11 a.m. so she could join her class as they headed to her critique. Her class arrived at the free speech forum around 11:30 a.m. Riker noticed her work was gone. The same people who told her it was all right two hours earlier said what she did was wrong.

Riker looked for Norm Jenkins, but was told he was out to lunch. Jenkins left Riker a message a couple hours later that said he had taken the sign down because people were getting ready to spray paint the side of the building.

Jenkins said the sign seemed to be encouraging students to use spray paint.

“I have no problem allowing students to use the free speech area,” Jenkins said. “But if the sign stayed, the south side of our building would have been defaced.”

Riker waited a couple of days before picking up her artwork but wanted to make sure she was still in good standing with the university. When she went to pick up her piece, her plaster casts were rolled up in a ball and wrinkled in the corner.

“When I asked about it nobody seemed to know what happened,” Riker said.