An Australian teenager is facing a property damage charge after allegedly giving a controversial public sculpture a new “look” — literally.
Police say 19-year-old Amelia Vanderhorst superglued a pair of googly eyes onto Cast in Blue, a $136,000 artwork installed in Mount Gambier, South Australia, back in July. The incident went down on September 13, and it’s now sparked a heated (and surprisingly hilarious) debate about art, vandalism, and what counts as “improvement.”
Cast in Blue was meant to be a bold statement — a mythical creature inspired by ancient fossils and Mount Gambier’s famous Blue Lake. But locals didn’t exactly vibe with it. The sculpture’s blob-like design earned it the unofficial nickname “The Blue Blob”, and plenty of residents were already salty about the city spending six figures on it right after raising council rates by 10% in 2024 and another 8% in 2025.
Photo- ABC South East SA/Josh Brine
Enter Vanderhorst. According to police, she acted with “reckless indifference” when she used superglue to stick the googly eyes on the sculpture. CCTV cameras caught the whole thing, and when the city tried to peel the eyes off, the adhesive damaged the paint job.
Repairing the finish is expected to cost between $1,600 and $2,500. Mount Gambier Mayor Lynette Martin said the city plans to get reimbursed.
“People don’t have to like it,” she told reporters, “but they don’t have to be creating willful damage in this way.”
Still, plenty of locals — and the internet — saw the humor in it. On Reddit and Facebook, users argued that the googly eyes actually made the sculpture “less terrifying” and “way more relatable.” Others questioned why the city didn’t use a more durable coating on a piece that was always going to be outdoors (and clearly, a magnet for pranks)
Vanderhorst made her first appearance at Mount Gambier Magistrates Court on November 5, calling in by phone and telling the magistrate she was “very sick” and “really high on pain meds.” She didn’t enter a plea. Magistrate Koula Kossiavelos told her to get a lawyer before her next hearing, scheduled for December.
The whole situation has turned into a case study in how public art divides communities. Some people see the googly eyes as harmless satire; others see it as vandalism that crosses a line. Either way, Cast in Blue — or “The Blue Blob,” as locals still call it — has now achieved what every piece of public art dreams of: attention.
For now, it’s back in restoration, minus the eyes — but definitely not out of the spotlight.
