The ‘Sleepwalker’ sculpture that has caused controversy at Wellesley College.
Credit: Davis Museum at Wellesley College/Facebook
A sculpture of a sleepwalking man wearing only underwear is the subject of controversy at Wellesley College.
The sculpture by Tony Matelli titled “Sleepwalker,” was recently installed outdoors on the women’s college campus. It is part of his upcoming exhibit New Gravity at the Davis Museum at Wellesley College.
In a write-up about the exhibit on the school’s website, Matelli’s work is described as focusing on “discursive use of time, ambivalence, banality, and wonder.
“Staged dramatically among galleries on two floors of the Davis, the exhibition will also extend beyond the museum walls to sculptures sited outdoors on campus.”
But not all students are finding the artistic value in the tighty-whities clad man.
A Change.org petition titled “Remove the uncomfortable and potentially triggering statue put up without student consent,” was started by Zoe Magid of Worcester. It had more than 350 signatures as of Wednesday evening.
“The statue of the nearly naked man on the Wellesley College campus is an inappropriate and potentially harmful addition to our community that we, as members of the student body, would like removed immediately,” Magid wrote in the online petition.
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