Artist behind Brooklyn’s new public sculpture baffled by ISIS comparisons
Brooklyn sculptor Hank Willis Thomas is scratching his head over recent claims that his striking new artwork, installed last week at Tillary and Adams streets in Downtown Brooklyn, has anything to do with Islamist symbolism or ISIS.
The 22 1/2-foot-high bronze arm, topped by a single pointing finger pointing to the sky, is called “Unity.” It has been capturing the imagination of motorists and pedestrians, some of whom stop to take selfies near the sculpture with their own hands extended.
The work’s location, “between the United States Post Office and the United States District Court,” is behind the name, Thomas told the Brooklyn Eagle.
“I tried, in ‘Unity,’ to give the feeling that you can be aspirational and be united, the values our country was founded on,” he said.