A seven foot tall statue shaped like a KKK member and composed out of newspaper clippings related to racial violence and the KKK was left on the Pentacrest Friday morning.

The art was met with controversy, and received multiple complaints prompting the removal of the statue, which was created by Serhat Tanyolacar, a Turkish-born multimedia artist and UofI Grant Wood fellow.

Students engaged in peaceful protest, assembling on the Pentacrest to have a discussion with the artist, and to ask UofI officials for answers regarding the statue. Chalk art with “black lives matter,” “breathing is a human right” and “hands up don’t shoot” messages were displayed on the Pentacrest and its surrounding areas Saturday morning. The hashtag #BlackHawkeyes was used in association with the demonstration.

Tanyolacar insists that the sculpture was meant to raise awareness, not instigate disarray:

I apologize and am deeply sorry for anger and confusion I might have caused today due to a public art work solely focusing raising awareness

— serhat tanyolacar (@artserhat) December 5, 2014

 

The University published this statement regarding the statue:

“The University of Iowa is a diverse community with no tolerance for racism, and the artwork that was briefly displayed on the Pentacrest this morning was deeply offensive to members of our community. Because it was placed without permission, university officials directed the visiting artist who created it to remove it, which he did.

The Press Citizen article relating to the events http://www.press-citizen.com/story/news/education/university-of-iowa/2014/12/05/ui-asks-artist-remove-work-pentacrest/19957345/

A Tumblr created detailing events from a student standpoint http://fuckyeahiowacity.tumblr.com/

Serhat Tanyolacar’s Twitter https://twitter.com/artserhat

A student run twitter account relating to the events https://twitter.com/krw18/