February 2023 | Eyesore

Commentary on architectural blunders in monthly serial.

Surprise Surprise! Everybody and his/her/zhe’s uncle sent this in nomination, and seeing as February is Black History Month…

Behold: the new monument to Martin Luther King and his wife, Coretta Scott King. The sculpture, called “Embrace,” was installed weeks ago on the Boston Common at the spot where Dr. King gave a speech in 1965. It depicts the hug that husband and wife enjoyed at the announcement he had won the Nobel Peace Prize — minus heads and bodies. The artist is Hank Willis Thomas, who said: “This work is a reminder that each of us has in us the capacity to be either of those two people or actually something inspired by and more influential.” Uh-huh, well, okay….

Alas, the unveiling provoked a furor, largely over the illegibility of the thing. What’s going there? Kinda looks like Mrs. King is wrasseling with a giant moray eel. I’m unaware that deep-sea diving was one of Dr. King’s enthusiasms. Personally, I like it for the abiding mystery it will induce in passers-by. Thousands every year will mutter to themselves, WTF?

A Bostonian complained:  “I know the design came from a photo of MLK and Coretta hugging each other. But why not have a sculpture of their faces instead? We see Paul Revere’s face in 2 locations. Yet for MLK, we get arms? I live here, and I’m honestly disappointed, Boston.”

Another said: “I’m sorry but this new MLK sculpture in Boston is the ugliest thing I’ve ever seen.”

Coretta Scott King’s cousin, Seneca Scott, 43, of Oakland, CA, averred that the statue seemed to depict an heroically large male generative organ. “If you had showed that statute to anyone in the ‘hood, they’d have been like, ‘No, absolutely not’,” Mr. Scott said.