Controversial Sculpture Elicits NAACP Response
Journey, a bronze public sculpture piece by artist Micheal Brohman, has caused a controversy in Colorado Springs. Brohman’s sculpture is installed in front of the courthouse, and depicts an African slave ship, where faceless, black figures are the bones of the boat and line the vessel like stacked cord wood.
“It struck me as more than ironic,” said [the President of the Colorado Springs NAACP, “because the disproportionate number of descendants of those African slaves have to face a criminal justice system that doesn’t provide them with justice.”
Although it has been there since last June, it seems that the NAACP has lobbied for its relocation after the exhibit ends this May.
John Viramontes:
March 14th, 2010 at 1:31 pm
Where was the NAACP when in 2005 the city of Rocky Mount, North Carolina took a hacksaw and cut down the sculpture of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.? The sculpture’s creator, Erik Blome, is to be commended for standing up to defend his work. In the wake of the incident, Blome’s and others’ aggressive artists’ rights activism triggered news media coverage in the New York Times, the Chicago Tribune and Rocky Mount’s news media outlet.