Tony Matelli got lucky. It snowed on his sculpture “Sleepwalker” on the same days that Wellesley College students protested the installation outdoors. The snow dramatically increased the television media attention during the very cold winter. In spring, I don’t know if the media would have joined the dialogue.
Below is the petition signed by at least 750 people and the response of the director. My question is the choice of the a-sexual male figure. Matelli has a female sleepwalker and another male with obvious genitals in the underwear.
Sleepwalker by Tony Matelli
Sleepwalker by Tony Matelli
Move the “Sleepwalker” Inside the Davis Museum
Petition by
A Wellesley Student
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. There, students may see the installation of their own volition.
Within just a few hours of its outdoor installation, the highly lifelike sculpture by Tony Matelli, entitled “Sleepwalker,” has become a source of apprehension, fear, and triggering thoughts regarding sexual assault for some members of our campus community. While it may appear humorous, or thought provoking to some, the “Sleepwalker” has already become a source of undue stress for a number of Wellesley College students, the majority of whom live, study, and work on campus.
As the sculpture was placed in a highly trafficked location, it is difficult for students wishing not to see the “Sleepwalker” to travel to the campus center and the residential and academic quads.
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. For those among us who find the sculpture triggering, daily activities that require moving about the campus may be seriously impeded by the nature, location, and context of the sculpture.
In signing, we assert that the undue stress that the “Sleepwalker” causes some of us is enough reason to move it inside the Davis Museum. We also stand firm that art, particularly outdoor art installations, are valuable parts of our community. We welcome outdoor art that is provocative without being a site of unnecessary distress for members of the Wellesley College community. Further, we ask that in the future, the Davis Museum and the College notify us before displaying public art, especially if it is of a particularly shocking or sensitive nature.
Updated Feb. 5, 2014
Dear all from Lisa Fischman,
Thank you for your engagement and for your thoughtful response to Tony Matelli’s Sleepwalker, which was installed this afternoon on the Wellesley campus.
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). 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.
Matelli’s Sleepwalker — considered up close — is a man in deep sleep. Arms outstretched, eyes closed, he appears vulnerable and unaware against the snowy backdrop of the space around him. He is not naked. He is profoundly passive. He is inert, as sculpture. But he does inspire narrative. He appears to have drifted away from wherever he belongs and one wonder why; one wonders also how he has gotten so lost, so off course. He is a figure of pathos, and one that warrants measured consideration. Perhaps he carries metaphorical weight.
Art provokes dialogue, and discourse is the core of education. In that spirit, I am enormously glad to have your response.
Respectfully yours,
Lisa Fischman
Ruth Gordon Shapiro ’37 Director
Davis Museum at Wellesley College