Women’s College Petition: Remove Art that Causes Bad Thoughts (VIDEO)

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Unusual statue is “triggering,” college must “notify us before displaying public art.”

WELLESLEY, Mass. – All-female Wellesley College has ignited a fit of controversy with the outdoor installation of a lifelike bronze statue. Tony Matelli’s Sleepwalker depicts a vulnerable-looking man sleepwalking in his underwear. Matelli has said “the sculpture is of a man who is hopelessly lost and out of place.”

Tony Matelli’s Sleepwalker
Tony Matelli’s Sleepwalker. David L Ryan/Boston Globe.

A petition on Change.org to move the statue has been signed by hundreds of outraged students. The wording of the petition borders on oblivious self-parody. Its author says that the apparently horrifying sculpture causes “apprehension, fear, and triggering thoughts” and is a source of “source of undue stress for a number of Wellesley College students.” The petition even says that, in the future, the museum should “notify us before displaying public art.”

Critics of the statue have repeatedly appealed to its alleged “triggering” nature to argue for its removal. In an interview with the New York Times, a senior who signed the petition said “I know people who have had triggering responses to the statue… The statue was put in a public place without students’ consent.”

The online petition, which can be signed by anyone, bears around 700 signatures even after having been covered in the New York Times. It therefore cannot have been signed by a majority of the more than 2,000 students at Wellesley. Its author acknowledges that the sculpture may only disturb some students, but says the college has a responsibility to “answer the needs of all of our community members.”

Yet Wellesley’s administration seems to be less authoritarian than its students. In an encouraging twist, Davis Museum Director Lisa Fischman defended the sculpture, saying that “Art provokes dialogue, and discourse is the core of education.” She’s said she hopes to use the controversy as “a teachable moment” on “creative freedom and what it means to honor that on campus.”

The senior whom the Times interviewed does not share Fishman’s convictions. She objected to the fact that “students’ emotions to the statue are being pushed aside in favor of having a discussion about art.”

A video about the petition reveals that its author seems to have toned down its language. Its title has been changed from “Remove the uncomfortable and potentially triggering statue put up without student consent” to “Move the ‘Sleepwalker’ Inside the Davis Museum.”



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