A controversial sculpture toppled by vandals should be back on display in the next few weeks, its creator says.
“It’s gonna go back up,” artist and activist Ed Massey told The Sun.
Massey constructed the seven foot likeness of a bearded transient man in ragged clothes to raise awareness about the struggles facing millions of unhoused Americans.
“There is a humanitarian crisis on our footsteps,” he said. “This (sculpture) depicts something that needs to be tackled immediately.”
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The work titled “In The Image” stood proudly on the corner of Wilshire Boulevard and 26th Street until early Wednesday morning.
“I think it was [damaged by] someone who is so angered and hates the fact that there are men and women on the street that they took it out on the sculpture,” Massey said.
“The assault on the homeless statue is in the same family as violent book burning.”
“Thank Heaven they took out their aggression on an inanimate concrete and plaster object and not a human on the street!”
Massey created the piece more than two decades ago. It was installed in front of the New Balance shoe store in November 2019 and immediately left some residents clutching their pearls.
“Who the hell would make a sculpture of a bum?” one neighbor vented to Spectrum1 News.
But for the most part, Massey said, “People have been extremely respectful for two years. We monitor it regularly. Occasionally there is some debris or dust from city streets but other than that, not a scratch on the figure.”
Until this week.
Massey says he immediately contacted police after learning of the vandalism. Surveillance video from the city and surrounding businesses will be reviewed in the coming days.
So far, no arrests have been made.
“We did find what looked like a handmade crowbar,” Massey said.
“The sculpture weighs hundreds of pounds so my guess is that they may have worked in tandem.”
The damaged sculpture was transported yesterday to Massey’s private studio where it will be repaired over the next few weeks.
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