Have you ever really considered what goes in to the creation and construction of monuments and memorials?
I recently started reading a book called
Critical Issues in Public Art which is a collection of essays related to monuments and other public art works. The first reading was about the Washington Monument and it got me thinking about what public works of art really mean to me. To me, the Washington monument really only relates to George Washington through it's title. This realization forces me to question whether or not other monuments really educate us on the concepts they are meant to represent.
Last week I was asked to build a Luminary Float for 9/11, which will be set adrift on a small pond at Gettysburg College. My first thought was to build a silhouette of the twin towers. This clearly ignores the victims from flight 93 and the Pentagon. But it does reflect the modern mythology behind that day. Too often do we forget about all those who where affected by the attacks. We forget about the Emergency Personnel whole sacrificed so much to insure the safety of others. This also raises the question of whether or not memorial services should bring to question whether or not the lives lost to the wars carried out in the name of justice for the victims of that day are really worth the gain. Everyone has their own story and therefore every memorial cannot share each side of that story. All artists can try to do is give an equal representation.
My thoughts and prayers go out to every person who has been impacted by terror attacks here in the US and elsewhere around the world.
(Luminary Float being light and sent out on to Quarry lake by two students (one being in ROTC) on September 11th, 2011)
