The most lifelike - and creepy - statue you will ever see: US students campaign to have half-naked sleepwalker removed

 
Creepy: the statue in the snow on the Wellesley College campus
REUTERS/Dominick Reuter
Rachel Blundy6 February 2014

Students at an American university are campaigning to have an incredibly lifelike statue of a sleepwalking man in his underwear removed from their campus.

Women studying at the all-female Wellesley College in Massachusetts have complained that the sculpture, named 'Sleepwalker' by artist Tony Matelli, is "inappropriate and potentially harmful".

An online petition to the college's president calls for it to be moved to the nearby Davis Museum, who chose to display it outside as part of a new exhibition.

The petition, which has received more than 500 signatures since it was started yesterday, states: "The sculpture 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 from outdoor space immediately, and placed inside the Davis Museum.

Sleepwalker statue

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"While the sculpture may not trigger, disturb, or bother everyone on campus, as a community it is our responsibility to pay attention to and attempt to answer the needs of all of our community members.

"We welcome outdoor art that is provocative without being a site of unnecessary distress."

But museum director Lisa Fischman defended the sculpture as "art", saying she had seen students taking "selfies" with it.

In her response to the petition, she did not indicate plans to move the artwork following the reaction from some students.

She wrote: "Art has an extraordinary power to evoke personal response, and to elicit the unexpected.

"We placed the Sleepwalker on the roadside just beyond the Davis to connect the exhibition -- within the museum - to the campus world beyond.

"I love the idea of art escaping the museum and muddling the line between what we expect to be inside (art) and what we expect to be outside (life).

She continued: "I watched from the 5th floor windows today (intermittently, over several hours) as students stopped to interact playfully with the sculpture.

"They took selfies with him, snapping pics with their phones, and gathering to look at this new figure on the Wellesley landscape -- even as the snow fell."

The exhibition is expected to run until July 20.

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