{"id":5271,"date":"2013-10-03T16:20:36","date_gmt":"2013-10-03T23:20:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bostonartsdiary.com\/wordpress\/?p=5271"},"modified":"2013-10-03T18:33:09","modified_gmt":"2013-10-04T01:33:09","slug":"existentialism-in-davis-square","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bostonartsdiary.com\/wordpress\/2013\/10\/existentialism-in-davis-square\/","title":{"rendered":"Existentialism in Davis Square"},"content":{"rendered":"

Public Sculpture
\nDavis Square, Somerville, MA<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Davis<\/a><\/p>\n

A long-time fixture near the Davis Square T stop entrance on Holland Street which has subtly but significantly transformed its message over time.<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

When the extension of the Red Line beyond Harvard was constructed in the early 1980s, the new stations at Porter and Davis got the benefits of adornment with public sculpture. <\/p>\n

At Davis, one category of those adornments included a series of figures that inhabited the plaza between the two subway entrances. When the plaza, and Seven Hills Park, just behind the northern T entrance abutting the Minuteman Bicycle Path, were updated some years ago, the figures were redistributed. <\/p>\n

One of them remains in the plaza itself: a portrait of an elderly couple arm in arm. Repositioned to Seven Hills Park are two other groupings: a performer surrounded by two middle-aged onlookers, and, to the side, kind of comically and ironically seated on one of the park benches, a grouping of two parents with a young child.<\/p>\n

\"Davis<\/a><\/p>\n

The remaining figure, which was moved from the plaza to the entrance of the T-stop is a standing figure of a young man with some flowers by his side. His T-shirt says simply I Am Not<\/em>. It is a boldly existential statement, but one would have to know the history of the sculpture to understand that its original motivation was more sociological than philosophical. <\/p>\n

\"Davis<\/a><\/p>\n

When the sculpture was first installed thirty years ago it read I Am Not A Moonie<\/em>. At the time, it was common for members of the Unification Church, followers of the Korean Christian evangelist Sun-Myung Moon, commonly known as Moonies<\/em>, to sell flowers in public places. I am not sure what led to the erasure of the second part of the phrase, but the remainder is a lovely metaphysical conundrum nonetheless. <\/p>\n

\"Moon<\/a><\/p>\n

And all of the figures, beautifully updated with metallic faces to ensure their longevity, have a kind of quiet dignity that lends atmosphere and grace to Davis Square Plaza and Seven Hills Park.<\/p>\n

– BADMan<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Public Sculpture
\nDavis Square, Somerville, MA<\/strong>
\nA long-time fixture near the Davis Square T stop entrance on Holland Street which has subtly but significantly transformed its message over time.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[29,28],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-5271","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-public-art","7":"category-sculpture","8":"entry","9":"has-post-thumbnail"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bostonartsdiary.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5271","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bostonartsdiary.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bostonartsdiary.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bostonartsdiary.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bostonartsdiary.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5271"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/bostonartsdiary.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5271\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15633,"href":"https:\/\/bostonartsdiary.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5271\/revisions\/15633"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bostonartsdiary.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5271"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bostonartsdiary.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5271"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bostonartsdiary.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5271"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}