Has anyone else been following the controversy surrounding the design for The Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial in D.C.? It’s interesting, and I’m not sure I have the latest update, but here it is in a nutshell. The designers selected a Chinese artist, Lei Yixin, to sculpt Dr. King. This artist is well known for a sculpture he did of Mao Zedong. A group calling themselves King Is Ours opposes the choice of artist and materials, and  has stated “The People’s Republic of China has the worst human and civil rights records in the world”, and “the granite used for the statue probably will be mined by workers laboring in unsafe and unfair conditions.”

King is Ours member Clive button Button said “the fact that $10 million in federal monies has been authorized for the King project should mean that it must put it out for open bid” regarding making the sculpture. They are advocating for the selection of an African-American sculptor. Also they do not like the fact that the granite is coming from China.

How do you feel about this? I have a few thoughts. On the first point, that an African-American artist must be hired for the job, I mean, come on people, did we learn NOTHING from the racism and criticism that 19-year-old Yale student Maya Lin went through when she won the competition for the Vietnam Memorial? Not one person complained that a (insert horribly racist word for Asian that the complainers used during the design process here) designed the memorial AFTER they experienced the power of it in person. I’m sure everyone realized that the unnecessary ornamental additions that came out of the controversial approval process before construction compromised the power of Lin’s black gash of names cutting through the ground. By the way, Lin is also the designer of the best MLK memorial that exists today, in Birmingham Alabama.

As for lumping Yixin in with the entire history of Chinese human rights (or lack thereof), can we really know this person’s politics? Perhaps the artist is inspired by Dr. King, and the opportunity to contribute to this sculpture has deep meaning to someone who has grown up in a country that wasn’t lucky enough to have Dr. King to help lead the people to a better way.

One of the most important factors in any project, especially a memorial in D.C., is site.  The site for this project sounds perfect – it is on the tidal basin, it’s next to the Roosevelt memorial, and it is in line with the Lincoln memorial.  The site sounds good.

As for the materials, this is another story. One of the VERY first things you learn in design school is the importance and significance of the materials you use. A perfect example is the Lincoln Memorial (where, by the way, Dr. King delivered his “I Have a Dream” speech), constructed when the nation was still healing. The memorial is deliberately carved from limestone and marble from north and south of the Mason-Dixon line.   The statue of Lincoln is carved of marble from Georgia.  Perhaps they should use the same Georgian marble for MLK, to forge a stronger relationship between these two key memorials and the history of King’s life, from the speech to the fact that he was from Georgia.  What do you think about all of this? Do you think the sculptor should be African-American?  Do you think that it’s alright to use a Chinese sculptor?  How about Chinese granite?  Do you think this project should have gone out to bid?  I wonder what Dr. King would have thought of all of this.