Antony Gormley’s controversial “naked man” statues have caused civilian alarm yet again. Last week, it was reported that the rooftop installations had resulted in four alarm calls being made to the police from people mistaking the figures for suicidal Hongkongers.
Now Hong Kong netizens have been engaged in a debate about whether or not a recent installation was in fact a genuine Gormley sculpture or a “living statue”, a.k.a. a street performer painted to look like a statue. Photos of the fibreglass figure on the large swathe of pavement outside HSBC on Queen’s Road Central have attracted speculation due to a cash donation box being placed in front of the figure yesterday.
Some astutely suggested that the statue was a Gormley soon after the photos were posted, but given that the sculptures’ most prominent positions have typically been on rooftops, people wondered if this was the work of a street performer capitalising on the media frenzy. However, other commenters swiftly put that theory to bed when they said they had seen workers installing the sculpture into the pavement in the hours prior.
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