Spider-Man has always been an icon of freedom, independence and autonomy. However, Korean artist Eunsuk Yoo has arguably spun this notion of liberation into an entire new web. Lotte Shopping Centre in Busan, South Korea has been the nest to a life-size Spider-Man sculpture that shows a little more than expected. To put it straightforward, Spider-Man has a boner.

The sculpture, which was raised above the children’s playground and rest area, has recently received an overwhelming number of complains since an image of the sculpture has gone viral. As a result, the artist was given the option to er, ‘modify’ the statue, or take the statue down entirely. Yoo decided to have the erected sculpture ejected from the mall.

The artist had this to say, translated from their Facebook page:

I am the artist who made this piece. My reason for it was that I wanted apply the natural physical phenomenon to a superhero depict whats’s natural in the morning without lies and superficial-ness in a comical way.

There have been some comments on various community sites and Facebook pages that this is lewd and a disgrace to the source material. Lotte Shopping Center has received many complaint calls this morning from a certain organization, and after their meeting, it was decided that I have to either modify or take the statue down. Instead of modifying my work, I’ve decided to take it down.

It was ok for about a year and now it has to be taken down due a sudden interest in the piece, which is sad. But I understand that a piece that could be potentially interpreted as lewd can be offensive at a place like shopping mall. It’s disappointing, but I’ll reach out to the public with a better work next time.

[Via.]

More Spider-Man

Collab: Mark Mcnairy x Marvel Comics
Medicom x Marvel: Happy Lottery
Pharell Williams & Hans Zimmer – Spiderman 2