Boston, MA
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.
It’s going to be a little while longer before Roman Anthony returns to action.
The Red Sox outfielder has suffered another setback in his recovery from a sprained right hand and will be shut down from swinging for a couple of days.
Red Sox interim manager Chad Tracy told reporters in Cleveland that Anthony tried hitting off a tee Thursday for the first time since suffering his injury on May 4, but that he found doing so to be painful.
“He hit off the tee (yesterday) and had some discomfort, so we’re going to slow play it,” Tracy said, per MLB.com’s Henry Palattella. “It’s going to be day-to-day, or even the better way is ‘action-to-action.’ (We’re going to be asking), ‘What did he do today, is that uncomfortable and do we have to wait?’ ”
Originally thought to be a minor issue that might not even require a stint on the injured list, Anthony has now missed 21 games and likely won’t be back until early-to-mid June.
The recovery process has also been halting. Anthony has continued doing most other baseball activities, including running and throwing, but it wasn’t until earlier this week that he could swing a bat free of discomfort.
Once he was able to comfortably take dry swings — or swing a bat without hitting the ball — the next step was hitting off a tee. Now he’ll be given a couple more days to heal and likely won’t try again until the Red Sox return home from Cleveland and are back at Fenway Park on Tuesday following Monday’s off day.
Tracy acknowledged that the recovery hasn’t gone as smoothly as expected, but emphasized that isn’t because of anything Anthony’s done wrong.
“That’s not Roman’s fault, it’s not anyone’s fault,” Tracy said. “It’s just he got hurt, and it’s a nagging injury on a hand when he’s trying to hit.”
Speaking to Rob Bradford on the Baseball Isn’t Boring podcast prior to Thursday’s game against the Atlanta Braves, Anthony clarified the exact nature of his injury, which was officially announced by the team as a right wrist sprain. Anthony said he has a partially torn ring finger ligament, specifically his ring finger CMC (carpometacarpal).
The sprain versus torn verbiage has generated some confusion among fans, though medically there isn’t a meaningful distinction between the two.
“I know stuff came out yesterday about tear versus sprain versus strain and all these different things, and I don’t know what to say other than any of those are a tear,” Tracy said. “You strain a hamstring and that’s a partial tear; fibers let go a little bit and they need to heal.
“I don’t think anything is portrayed differently or wrongly. If a guy strains his hamstring, I won’t come out here and say he tore his hamstring. That’s not how that works.”
Prior to suffering his injury, Anthony was batting .229 with one home run and a .675 OPS through his first 30 games this season.
Surprise: Another weekend and there’s more rain on the way. It’s bad enough we’ve had to post a First Alert.
For now, we’ll watch as clouds thicken today. We’ll squeeze out some drops later this afternoon and evening.
A weather maker is winding up in Canada, wrapping in cold air. All of that is going to dive down to New England.
We’re in the thick of it tomorrow. Rain will be coming at us in bursts with some dry time in between. Winds will likely push past 50 mph in Boston.
Those winds will eat away at temperatures; with wind chills barely above freezing. And no – not just in the morning – but the afternoon, too!
It’s so cold there’s the threat of snow as that rain bumps into colder air over the Berkshires, Worcester Hills and southern New Hampshire right up to Mount Washington.
The snow isn’t going to pile up but just know there could be some flakes flying over our highest hills.
The blue on our Futurecast map marks the spots where snow could mix with rain.
Rain spins out by Saturday evening but not before dumping about half an inch over Boston.
We’ll try to salvage the rest of the weekend with temperatures in the upper 60s by Sunday. Still, there’s the threat of bits and pieces of rain.
By the way, this isn’t any weekend, it’s the last weekend of spring. Meteorological summer starts on June 1.
The first day of summer remains drab and dreary with more rain chances and temperatures in the low 60 on Monday.
Federal immigration demands are once again centered on Massachusetts.
The House Judiciary Committee on Tuesday sent three letters to Boston Police Commissioner Michael Cox, Suffolk County Sheriff Steven Tompkins and Suffolk County District Attorney Kevin Hayden demanding, among other things, information on how many ICE detainers BPD has received and declined to honor from 2022 to 2026 and any communication between the three departments related to immigration.
House Judiciary Chairman Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, said in a statement that “releasing repeat criminals back to the streets solely because of their immigration status is crazy, and that’s exactly what Boston is doing.”
But Democrats push back on that framing.
“You’re familiar with Jim Jordan and his antics,” said Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey. “This is more circus, it’s more theater and it’s not making our community safe.”
A spokesperson for the City of Boston wrote, “the city has provided this information many times…” going on to say “…these policies are part of keeping Boston the safest major city in America.”
The letters call for the documents to be sent to the House Judiciary Committee by June 10th at 5:00 pm. District Attorney Hayden’s office told NBC 10 they are reviewing the letter, neither Commissioner Cox or Sheriff Tompkins responded to requests for comment.
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