The new Boston sculpture honoring Martin Luther King Jr. and Coretta Scott King has sparked intense reactions on social media due to its abstract depiction of an iconic photo.
Titled “The Embrace,” the $10 million bronze sculpture unveiled in Boston Common over the weekend aims to depict the hug that Martin Luther King Jr. and Coretta Scott King shared in a 1964 photograph shortly after he won the Nobel Peace Prize.
The problem: the 3D sculpture displays only two arms with no heads, chests, or shoulders embracing in thin air, leaving much to the imagination.
Boston, MA – January 10: Embrace, the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. memorial sculpture at Boston Common. (Photo by Craig F. Walker/The Boston Globe via Getty Images)
As multiple people of various political persuasions noted on social media, the sculpture takes on some rather sexual undertones depending on the angle from which it’s viewed.
'Sexualised bronze blob': $10 million Martin Luther King Jr statue receives mixed reviews #mlksculpture #MLKDay2023 #MLKWeekend https://t.co/ompFZHZ0rx pic.twitter.com/l1rXC59xAq
— Daily Express (@Daily_Express) January 15, 2023
Some major public art dedicated to MLK Jr. is disappointing. I'll give two examples, starting with the new Boston sculpture. And one example of my favorite. (1) https://t.co/Ud5PX7EU3x
— Jim Stinson (@jimstinson) January 15, 2023
Can’t help but think that the MLK/Coretta sculpture is the city of Boston trolling black people.
Given their history of, you know, being Boston.
— Johnta Austin (@johntalsr) January 15, 2023
That's a big penis
— Gabrial (@chefgabrial1) January 14, 2023
Let’s make THIS photo go viral. Not the pathetic excuse of a sculpture that the woke, with their lack of honorable character, are pretending to honor him with. Let’s honor this photo and his wonderful words. #MLK pic.twitter.com/x5ZHXFtHSl
— Sarah Fields (@SarahisCensored) January 15, 2023
The new #mlksculpture “The Embrace”. I feel terrible to say that this is so poorly executed. #MLKDay2023 pic.twitter.com/BekYxU1GuQ
— Iris M. Crawford (@IrisMCrawford) January 15, 2023
They can’t just have this in the middle of a park.
— Alana Mastrangelo (@ARmastrangelo) January 16, 2023
Seneca Scott, Coretta’s cousin, told the New York Post on Saturday that the statue dishonors King’s legacy, blaming “woke” culture’s insistence on the abstract.
“The mainstream media … was reporting on it like it was all beautiful, ’cause they were told they had to say that,” Scott said. “But then when it came out, a little boy pointed out — ‘That’s a penis!’ and everyone was like, ‘Yo, that’s a big old dong, man.’ If you had showed that statute to anyone in the ’hood, they’d have been like, ‘No, absolutely not.'”
“The woke algorithm is just broke, I don’t know what else to tell you,” he added. “If you went through all of that and that’s what you came up with, something’s wrong.”
Scott also told Compact mag that “ten million dollars were wasted to create a masturbatory metal homage to my legendary family members — one of the all-time greatest American families.”
From left to right, Reverend Liz Walker, Reverend Jeffrey Brown and Paul English stand in front of the MLK memorial they helped to bring to Boston. Embrace, the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. memorial sculpture at Boston Common. (Lane Turner/The Boston Globe via Getty Images)
Designed by Hank Willis Thomas for the organization Embrace Boston, Martin Luther King III did approve the piece before its unveiling.
“When we recognize that all storytelling is an abstraction, all representation is an abstraction, hopefully it allows us to be open to more dynamic and complex forms of representation that don’t stick us to narrative that oversimplifies a person or their legacy, and I think this work really tries to get to the heart of that,” arist Hank William Thomas the says on his website.
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