I visited some friends in Richmond this past weekend. One of them lives on Monument Avenue. Monument Avenue is aptly named because... there are quite a few monuments on it. Most of these are famous Confederates. You know us Virginians, ever so proud of our Confederate past.
Stonewall Jackson, for instance.
Jefferson Davis also.
Some oceanographer dude named Maury?
However, no monument on this street captures my interest quite like the one build for Arthur Ashe, a famous tennis player and Richmond native.
Joh had warned me about the slight creepiness of this statue. Here you see Arthur Ashe, with some books in one hand and tennis racket in the other, standing before a small group of children who are reaching out to touch him. He looks like he's either going to throw the books at the children or beat them with the tennis racket. There's something malicious about the expression on his face.
I'm sure the real Arthur Ashe wasn't really a child-beating creepster. I'm sure he was a very lovely man. He also died before the debut of this sculpture, so I won't put him at fault. I'm all for honoring hometown heroes and whatnot, but ... isn't this just a really creepy statue?
3 comments:
That is so creepy! Perhaps it's for his own good that they made this after his death, so he didn't have the chance to be offended.
I LOVE the first picture!
I'm sure the real Arthur Ashe wasn't really a child-beating creepster - An amazing, amazing line.
this has a new..nightmare on monument ave...movie in the making written ALLL over it.
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