I’m fine with abstract, but this feels disembodying of specific people - one of whom was assassinated for his activism.
I don’t know if I’m a fan of this, but I might like it better if I saw it in person. Not a fan just from the various perspectives I’ve seen online, though.
A tourism campaign! “See our much maligned statue in person and gain a new understanding of it.”
It’s not meant to focus solely on the Kings, the artists’ statement paints it (and the plaza it sits in) as a monument to collective action (the names of other activists that joined King here in 1965 are inlaid in the plaza below). So I think it’s meant to be more than a literal representation, but of course one could argue that it fails at making this obvious, so I certainly won’t argue with your interpretation too much.
obligatory monty python reference
Do people still have misgivings about A sculpture for Mary Wollstonecraft?
I kind of get Mind Flayer or The Thing vibes. I respect the hell out of MLK, and thought provoking art really brings a space to life, but geez I’m a little creeped out at first glance …
https://strangerthings.fandom.com/wiki/Hospital_Monster?file=MindFlayerseason3.JPG
Hank Willis Thomas’s work is pretty great, and his sculptural stuff often uses monumental and fragmented Black bodies to reflect both the power and precarity of Black bodies ina world plagued by anti-Blackness (among other things - I’m being a bit reductive). I enjoy the visual and conceptual slipperiness of this piece - it’s clearly in conversation with his other work, but feels like it’s really doing its own thing.
I’ll be going to see it this Friday after I see that M3gan movie which is playing at the AMC Boston Common 19 across the street from the Boston Common. The AMC Boston Common 19 is the only dedicated movie theater in Downtown Boston.
Methinks it would have turned out better as a bas relief, as opposed to a fully three-dimensional work.
*shrugs
Art is subjective.
I think I like it. The reduction of the hug to some key elements lets you imagine and explore the intimacy and warmth of a brief moment. A more complete figurative representation might not give that same elasticity for the audience.
The audience is largely going to be 2D viewers informed by the choices of the photographer rather than the sculptor, visitors to the park will be experiencing the dimensionality of the work, but that is always going to happen with pieces of art.
Leslie Jones had an interesting take
To me it’s a reminder that J Edgar Hoover was a clueless asshole when he tried to break up their marriage.
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