A new headless statue dedicated to Martin Luther King Jr and Coretta Scott King sparks criticism

Thomas was quoted by New York Times saying that he crafted a sculpture that spreads a message of love and reiterates the message of nonviolence and solidarity. “In that photograph of them in 1964, his arms are wrapped around her but also his weight is on her. To see her so gracefully and lovingly carrying that weight, it was a metaphor for what she was able to do throughout a huge portion of my life,” he said.

While the statue was sculpted to impart the message of love, the idea of featuring only the arms without the heads didn’t go down well with people, who described it as disrespectful and hideous.

 

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“This is why people are having this strong visceral and negative reaction to this statue and why it’s objectively ‘bad’ art: when we see body parts, in this case, arms and hands, and especially in such detail, our minds are tuned to expect the other parts to follow – a shoulder, a torso, a head. Without them, there’s an unease, like a human cloning experiment gone wrong, or a gruesome murder where a body was dismembered. This looks like something Salvador Dali might do for a totally unrelated commission,” a user wrote on Instagram.

Another added, “This monument (statue) is horrendous and an embarrassment. It’s just shitty art.”

For a netizen, this statue is “insanely insulting” and “poorly chosen”.

Defending the statue, Martin Luther King III, son of Martin Luther King Jr and Coretta Scott King, said he was grateful to see a statue representing his parents’ love story and partnership.

“I think that’s a huge representation of bringing people together,” King said. “I think the artist did a great job. I’m satisfied. Yeah, it didn’t have my mom and dad’s images, but it represents something that brings people together. And in this time, day and age, when there’s so much division, we need symbols that talk about bringing us together,” he told CNN.

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