King memorial

After reading this text I can understand one thing. People like to be connected superficially by race. They like to think still, the color of your skin dictates what experiences you can have in life. I strongly disagree with that kind of thinking. Who’s to say that the sculptor they choose has not had the same experiences in china as dr. martin Luther king has had in America. It just seems like it’s not dependent on your biological makeup as a person to determine how well you understand what hardships someone undergoes. Granted being African American will certainly give you the best perspective of what it is like to be an African American, but it’s not the only way to experience those same kinds of hardships. The only other real hard argument against the sculptor was that he does not know the form of an African American as well as an African American does. That’s just absurd. If you are a sculptor of that level you should be able to sculpt anyone regardless of your previous encounters with that person. Point being, people are too caught up still in connecting one another as a race. We are all humans... we can all share the same experiences given the right circumstances and understanding of the world.

King memorial

When viewers look at one sculpture or portrait of particular person, actually they are reading how the artist analyzes and describes the person.I agreed that "the idea of who is making the person come back to life is very important." Without the idea, I don't know how artists can make works, whatever it is statuary, portrait or any other forms. To me, the concpet is produced before the action, and the idea leads me to make the work. One may concern that picking the "right" artist to work on the sculpture or portrait of particular person is important. But how to pick a "correct" artist to make a sculpture or portrait of particular person is a complex process. The reason of the final result sometimes is very specific and it is really difficult to make everyone to approve.

We shouldn't be serious ALL the time...

We all need to poke fun at ourselves a little bit-this site has a "mad-lib" type artist statement producer. Funny, but fairly convincing...
http://www.playdamage.org/market-o-matic/

King Memorial

My first feeling on this article was that there was something inherently wrong with choosing a Chinese artist to create the MLK memorial, but it has taken me a while to formulate why. While I think that the sense of "world unity" is hopeful in this situation- it is also unrealistic. The sad fact of the matter is that minority artists are still greatly underrepresented in public art contracts. This is a widespread issue- last year alone MOMA's exhibitions were made up of 60% white males, 17.5% white females, 17.5% minority females and 5% minority males. If you only look at large solo shows the figures are worse- 80% WM, 13% WF, 7% MF and 0% MM! By not choosing an artist of African-American decent and hiding behind "reverse-discrimination" they are chipping away at the work that Martin Luther King strived to achieve. He wanted equality for everyone but lets be honest- that started with equal rights and equal access for African Americans. A memorial is more than just a statue or a piece of architecture. It is representative of that historical movement or person or place and I think that actual physical depiction is only half of what goes into a good piece- there has to be emotion there- emotion that one can only get from a shared history or experience.

King memorial

So far, most of you have taken the stance that race of the artist creating the memorial is unimportant. How do respond to the idea put forth in the article by Paul Williams when he said, "Memorials are explicitly about symbolism. A sculpture of one particular person is a very literal, realist version coming back to life, and the idea of who is making the person come back to life is very important."

King memorial

The King memorial debate is creating racism out of a piece of art that is supposed to be in commemoration of someone who spent his life trying to end racism. I feel that as long as the best possible job is done with the piece it shoudl'nt matter who the sculptor is. However, this does raise interesting points such as can someone who is not of the same race as Dr. king really decpict his impact on society? I can understand how some people may have issues with this, but i just see it as an opportunity for cultures to appriciate or contribute to one another. I tend to focus on the artwork itself, not who made it, but with a political and culture influenced work such as this i think the artist creating it is an important factor. I personally can't say one way or the other if Lei Yixin is the right or wrong sculptor for the job, but this is an issue that warrants consideration.

King Memorial

I think that the Martin Luther King National Memorial is a great idea. The committee did a search and found a sculptor that is qualified to do the work and who cares were he comes from its about the work that he does. Lei Yixin is a sculptor that does monumental sculpture and he is from china. I think that the problem is that the artiest on the committee really wanted the job, and got upset when another artist was found to do the job. So now the artiest on the committee is complaining because of where he is from, and not listing to Dr. King and accepting him and not judging him by the color of his skin.