Like many people around the world, statues are wearing surgical masks during the coronavirus pandemic.
In unsettling times, putting surgical masks on statues has become a national movement and brings a sort of worldwide camaraderie by way of conceptualized art.
Around the world, surgical masks have made their way onto sculptured faces of a powerful Queen Victoria in England, Freddie Mercury in Switzerland and thespian Johann Nestroy in Austria.
In the U.S., the infamous Fearless Girl statue at the New York Stock Exchange wears a mask—as do statued former Red Sox Players outside of Fenway Park. A Philadelphia-based rabbi made headlines for advocating putting a mask on the William Penn statue atop City Hall.
A few weeks ago when Mayor Quinton Lucas issued a stay-at-home order, a Reddit user posted a photo of more-than-ten-feet-tall The Scout statue in Penn Valley Park donning a medical mask. A photo of The Scout even made a story about masked statues around the world in The Guardian.
The Scout masked up on Shutdown Eve 3/23/2020 from r/kansascity
A few more Kansas City statues have been spotted wearing masks, including The Pastoral Dreamer in Leawood and the Firefighters Memorial just south of downtown.
We scoped out other areas of the city to see if this trend has caught on—so far, these are the only two statue displays that have joined the mask movement.
