The design of the new metallic bronze sculpture that will be erected in Boston Common in the US to honour Martin Luther King, Jr. and Coretta Scott King has been revealed.
The Embrace is a memorial sculpture honoring Martin Luther King, Jr. and Coretta Scott King. Image: Hank Willis Thomas and MASS Design Group/King Boston
Called’ The Embrace,’ the 22-foot-tall sculpture represents the couple’s hands, and it was inspired by historic images of the Kings locked in a powerful embrace and walking arm-in-arm at the frontlines of a protest or march. It will find a home next year near the Parkman Bandstand, where the American Baptist minister and activist once spoke in 1965.
The Embrace was designed by conceptual artist Hank Willis Thomas and MASS Design Group. Image: Hank Willis Thomas and MASS Design Group/King Boston
Martin Luther and Coretta met and went to graduate school in Boston, and King Boston, a non-profit organisation working with the city to honour them, invited submissions to design a memorial dedicated to the couple. It received 126 applications, and conceptual artist, Hank Willis Thomas, and MASS Design Group were selected to create the landmark.
People can take shelter under The Embrace. Image: Hank Willis Thomas and MASS Design Group/King Boston
The memorial is designed to make visitors and passersby part of the installation by enveloping them and allowing them to be simultaneously vulnerable and protected. “A monument that captures this embrace declares that love is the ultimate weapon against injustice,” a proposal for the sculpture reads. “In evoking the love shared between the Kings, their commitment to each other and their ideals, The Embrace is overwhelmingly simple and accessible: it is about what we share, not what sets us apart.”
The sculpture will be located on Boston Common in Boston. Image: Hank Willis Thomas and MASS Design Group/King Boston
King Boston is also in the early stages of creating “The King Center for Economic Justice” in Roxbury, where the Kings first met, and is also supporting a documentary film. Further information can be found here.
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