For a hundred years, the stone obelisk became western civilization's preferred memorial for important individuals and death in wars. Recently, the blue tower of light has emerged as the new memorial including the new "Spectra" by Ryoji Ikeda in London for WW1 dead from the UK. A few differences: - Momentary vs Permanent - Night vs Day - Photographs Blue vs White - Random Location vs … [Read more...]
Improve “Memory Wound” for the Norwegian massacre
Norwegians select "Memory Wound" by artist Jonas Dahlberg. The 43-year-old artist has sliced a three-and-a-half-metre-wide slit into the Sørbråten peninsula, which faces the island of Utøya where Anders Behring Breivik killed 69 people in 2011. It marks a "symbolic wound" in the landscape. I like the memorial as a sculptural reminder. Simple metaphor of damage landscaped and damaged nation. … [Read more...]
Dallas Memorials: Kennedy and Police
Never been to Dallas, Texas. Two memorials to learn from: JFK Memorial , 1970, by Philip Johnson and the Dallas Police Memorial by Ed Baum. Both are under-successful works of architects caught in transition. Johnson has several quirks such as tiny, tiny experiments with decoration showing a crack in his modernist faith. He raises the walls to show the feet and calves of visitors inside the … [Read more...]