{"id":232858,"date":"2019-09-29T04:25:44","date_gmt":"2019-09-29T08:25:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=232858"},"modified":"2019-09-29T04:25:44","modified_gmt":"2019-09-29T08:25:44","slug":"artist-kehinde-wiley-unveils-bold-sculpture-in-times-square","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2019\/09\/29\/artist-kehinde-wiley-unveils-bold-sculpture-in-times-square\/","title":{"rendered":"Artist Kehinde Wiley unveils bold sculpture in Times Square"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Artist Kehinde Wiley unveiled his biggest work ever Friday, a massive bronze statue of a young African American man in urban streetwear sitting astride a galloping horse. (File Photo<\/a>: kehindewiley\/Instagram<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

NEW YORK \u2014 Perpetually crowded Times Square has a new statue for pedestrians to navigate \u2014 but it’s unlike any other.<\/p>\n

Artist Kehinde Wiley unveiled his biggest work ever Friday, a massive bronze statue of a young African American man in urban streetwear sitting astride a galloping horse.<\/p>\n

Called \u201cRumours of War,\u201d it flips the script on traditional statutes commemorating white generals. Wiley described his bold work as a call to arms for inclusivity.<\/p>\n

He told The Associated Press afterward that he hoped young people would see it and \u201csee a sense of radical possibility \u2014 this, too, is America.\u201d<\/p>\n

The project was born when Wiley saw Confederate Gen. J.E.B. Stuart’s monument in Richmond, Virginia. That 15-foot-tall bronze work portrays Stuart astride a horse and is part of the city’s string of Confederate memorials along Monument Avenue that includes ones for Robert E. Lee, Jefferson Davis and Stonewall Jackson.<\/p>\n

\u201cI’m a black man walking those streets. I’m looking up at those things that give me a sense of dread and fear. What does that feel like, physically, to walk a public space and to have your state, your country, your nation say, ‘This is what we stand by.’ No. We want more. We demand more,\u201d he said. \u201cToday we say ‘yes’ to something that looks like us.\u201d<\/p>\n

The horse-riding figure in \u201cRumours of War\u201d \u2014 on the Broadway Plaza between 46th and 47th streets \u2014 has turned in his saddle, his attention seemingly toward an American Eagle store. His Nikes are firmly in the stirrups and his majestic horse is in movement, focused on something across the street.<\/p>\n

\u201cRumours of War\u201d will display in Times Square until December before finding a permanent home at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts in Richmond.<\/p>\n

For now, Wiley’s work joins other sculptures in the plaza of the so-called Crossroads of the World. There are also statues of Father Francis Duffy and producer George M. Cohan, both white men.<\/p>\n

The unveiling was bookended by performances from the marching band from Malcolm X Shabazz High School in Newark, New Jersey. Other speakers at the unveiling included Richmond Mayor Levar Stoney.<\/p>\n

\u201cToday is a monumental day,\u201d Stoney said. \u201cIn Richmond we have 10 Confederate monuments to the Lost Cause. I think that is 10 too many.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

NEW YORK \u2014 Perpetually crowded Times Square has a new statue for pedestrians to navigate \u2014 but it’s unlike any …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":232859,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,2,106],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-232858","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-art-and-culture","category-entertainment","category-hollywood","mauthors-mark-kennedy","mauthors-the-associated-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/232858","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=232858"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/232858\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":232860,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/232858\/revisions\/232860"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/232859"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=232858"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=232858"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=232858"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}