Now that I reflect on it more, the choices of King's facial expression does seem a bit off track to me. It was said that King was an energetic, warm person, know for his off-color humor. I don't that represented in this statue. In fact, there is no energy or warmth or immediacy in the work. Not to mention that the lack of detail at the bottom of the statue, where his legs are suppose to be, is pretty disarming.
Here is a comment from TJ, who wrote on the first post about the memorial:
"Didn't you see the Boondocks, King was pissed the way things turned out! Thats why he has the "Joe Clark, i'm the HNIC w/ a baseball bat" look going. And i guess the rocks are the mountaintop? (Apparently he doesn't like what he sees from there now)."
I totally remember that episode of the Boondocks. In fact, it is one of my favorites. I remember he was very angry at the state of modern-day Black America and had resolve to move to Canada. I also remember how pumped his was about the McRib sandwich. God, I loved that episode.
Anyway, TJ brings up an interesting point: perhaps the message is that, like the statue, King's dream of equality and the end to imperialism, is not quite finished. No one can argue (okay, some could but they argue over anything) that as a nation, we have a bunch of work still left to do. It's no wonder Kings apart from his broken mountaintop, scowling at what he sees as a deeply fractured and dysfunctional country, both by race and economic lines. I mean you can probably walk a few blocks away from the nation's capital to see first hand how the poor struggle immensely in substandard housings, inadequate schools and with unemployment and racism. And throughout the country, record numbers are receiving public assistance while the number of children living below the poverty line, has jumped to levels not experienced since the era of King. In some ways, this monument is like a back-handed compliment of who we are. We have made progress enough to elect a Black president but haven't been progressive enough to act beyond symbols of our collective growth.
Of course, that is my theory. I'm sure the artist had his own vision.
A lot has been written about the Lei Yixin, the Chinese master sculptor who produce the monument. Mainly about what some are calling the "outsourcing" out the work to China. And then there are some, who believe that an African American artist should have been picked for such an important project. I find that discussion interesting too. Admittedly, I haven't been following this story. But once I finished reading, I post more on it.
Here is a comment from TJ, who wrote on the first post about the memorial:
"Didn't you see the Boondocks, King was pissed the way things turned out! Thats why he has the "Joe Clark, i'm the HNIC w/ a baseball bat" look going. And i guess the rocks are the mountaintop? (Apparently he doesn't like what he sees from there now)."
I totally remember that episode of the Boondocks. In fact, it is one of my favorites. I remember he was very angry at the state of modern-day Black America and had resolve to move to Canada. I also remember how pumped his was about the McRib sandwich. God, I loved that episode.
Anyway, TJ brings up an interesting point: perhaps the message is that, like the statue, King's dream of equality and the end to imperialism, is not quite finished. No one can argue (okay, some could but they argue over anything) that as a nation, we have a bunch of work still left to do. It's no wonder Kings apart from his broken mountaintop, scowling at what he sees as a deeply fractured and dysfunctional country, both by race and economic lines. I mean you can probably walk a few blocks away from the nation's capital to see first hand how the poor struggle immensely in substandard housings, inadequate schools and with unemployment and racism. And throughout the country, record numbers are receiving public assistance while the number of children living below the poverty line, has jumped to levels not experienced since the era of King. In some ways, this monument is like a back-handed compliment of who we are. We have made progress enough to elect a Black president but haven't been progressive enough to act beyond symbols of our collective growth.
Of course, that is my theory. I'm sure the artist had his own vision.
A lot has been written about the Lei Yixin, the Chinese master sculptor who produce the monument. Mainly about what some are calling the "outsourcing" out the work to China. And then there are some, who believe that an African American artist should have been picked for such an important project. I find that discussion interesting too. Admittedly, I haven't been following this story. But once I finished reading, I post more on it.
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