Massive clown heads in downtown Boston freak out tourists: ‘Very creepy’
No clowning around: this is some “creepy” art.
A public art installation of two massive clown heads in downtown Bostonhas has gotten tourists and Bostonians talking — but not everyone’s laughing.
The clowns are part of the Downtown Boston Business Improvement District’s “Winteractive” walkable art experience launched this month in the hopes of giving those exploring downtown “a delightful experience around every corner.”
The clowns are one of 16 exhibits but they’ve been singled out by some passersby for being “creepy.”
Photos and videos of the installation shared by the BID received mixed reactions, with one Instagram user receiving over 900 likes on their commentary noting the piece “looks like something out of the original Batman movie.”
The unique piece, titled “Endgame (Nagg & Nell)” features two inflatable clown heads with shocked expressions wedged between two buildings in the Harlem Place Alley.
Artist Max Streicher told Axios he was trying to make the inflatable clowns look “sort of alarmed and just stunned and shocked by the condition they’re in.”
Another Internet commentator called the red-nosed clowns “very creepy” and several Instagram users compared them to the work of Junji Ito, a Japanese horror manga artist.
Others were quick to dunk on the city, with one critic calling the piece a “perfect metaphor” for the city, while another wrote, “There’s plenty of clowns in Boston the whole city filled.”
One Bostonian took to X to ponder, “Okay, whose idea was it to add creepy clowns to the already kinda threatening overall vibe…”
Another person joked, “Everyone that has ever wronged me is now a creepy clown head in downtown Boston.”
While there are always detractors, many were quick to sing “Send In The Clowns.”
“Didn’t know about this. Thanks for sharing,” one Instagram user commented along with a heart-eyes emoji. “Exciting things on the way in Downtown,” another person added.
“We saw them on Saturday, followed by a stroll into Brattle Book Shop. It was great to see everyone having such a great time with this. Boston provides so many great things to do,” another added.
Winteractive features eight artists and design teams from Canada, England and the US, many of whom are being presented in America for the first time, Downtown Boston BID said in a press release.
“This exhibition will animate and illuminate our streets this winter, bringing internationally acclaimed artists to Boston, and punctuating visits downtown that could include shopping, dining, live performances, or office work,” the organization’s president Michael Nichols said.
The 16 installations, which were set up on Jan. 17, will remain in the city through April 14, which is the Sunday before the Boston Marathon.
Winteractive has already received an abundance of attention. The Boston Fire Department had to remove a life-like sculpture of a fisherman perched atop a Chipotle restaurant after they received several concerned calls that it looked like a real person was sitting on the roof, The Boston Globe reported.
The piece has since been moved to a one-story Macy’s building, not far from other parts of the installation.
The Post has reached out to Streicher for comment.
