Re: “Locking up love locations,” July 8.
I would suggest that “love locks” be in a designated area where it’s not so easy to get to, just so that the concept “labour of love” can be infused into this weighty superficiality. And I hope a bin is also a part of the sculpture where keys can be thrown away environmentally, and where metal thieves can have another lucrative location to get their material.
Please don’t even consider putting love locks in some beach or park or ANY spot that is already a tourist attraction for another reason.
Excuse me for expressing, what might seem to many, such a negative reaction, but honestly, I think love locks are ugly. It’s the connotation, too. Something that is locked away (and with the key thrown away, to boot) is imprisoned, oppressed, deprived… and I just don’t see true love that way.
I bet that if we could track down all the couples who have participated in love locks (let’s say since the year 2000), we’d find that a very good percentage of them are not even together anymore.
Tradition? Especially in this day-and-age, I see it as a trendy, gimmicky piece of frivolous behaviour. Which is fine. We all can have our funny, silly side and it has a right to display itself, too.
Yes, absolutely, I think that making a fanciful love lock piece of art and installing it somewhere is a great idea. “The Ontario capital now has a designated place to lock down love in the Distillery District.” I think that that is a perfect spot.
Frances Dietz, Vancouver
