Put Some Clothes On, Creepy Sleepwalker Statue

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A statue of a man sleepwalking in his underpants is surrounded by snow on the campus of Wellesley College, in Wellesley, Mass., Wednesday, Feb. 5, 2014.

Image: AP Photo/Steven Senne/Associated Press

By Laura Vitto2014-02-05 22:03:27 UTC

This may be the last thing you'd want to bump into on a walk home from the campus library.

A sculpture of an underwear-clad sleepwalking man was recently installed at Wellesley College in Massachusetts, and has left students seriously creeped out with its lifelike appearance. Sculptor Tony Matelli created the nearly-nude statue, titled "Sleepwalker," as part of an ongoing exhibition at the school's Davis Museum, according to The Boston Globe .

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Image: AP Photo/Steven Senne/Associated Press

Not long after the sculpture's installation on Feb. 3, hundreds of students on the all-women's campus signed a petition to remove the art piece.

Zoe Magid, the student who created the Change.org petition, writes that the sculpture does not add value to the campus community, as art is often intended to do.

On contrary, this highly lifelike sculpture has, within just a few hours of its outdoor installation, become a source of apprehension, fear and triggering thoughts regarding sexual assault for many members of our campus community. While it may appear humorous or thought-provoking to some, it has already become a source of undue stress for many Wellesley College students, the majority of whom live, study and work in this space.

Members of the campus community have also taken to social media to tweet photos of the controversial statue.

In response, Davis Museum director Lisa Fischman explained that the the piece was meant to trigger conversation.

"As the best art does, Tony Matelli’s work provokes dialogue, and discourse is at the core of education," Fischman wrote on the college's website.

She added that community members could express their concerns at an open written forum taking place Wednesday. There is no word on whether the museum will remove the statue.

The exhibit, Tony Matelli: New Gravity will run from Feb. 6 through July 20 and is open to the public.

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Topics: art, Conversations, Pics, U.S., Watercooler, weird, WTF