The sculptor was Chinese as were his imported workmen, whose wages for their labors are not known. Black artists and unionized and well-paid U.S. granite workers could have been used but were not. The rock, itself, was imported from China, whose government contributed $25 million to the memorial project.
----------- I took one look at it from a news photo and thought it was Chinese---because of the state art style. I just clicked it off, tried to forget it and never looked up the details. I was looking at something obscene that I really didn't want to see. So it's amazing to me it is Chinese, in fact. It should be disappeared by imaginary laser beam in a cloud of toxic fumes. I had a similar reaction to the new WWII monument which looks like the outdoor lobby for NATO. The Russians have their giant woman with a sword overlooking Stalingrad (Volgograd), which would be better if photographed in winter. WWII is a tough one to put into concept, maybe best left in an unfinished column. This has been the wrong climate for official art for a very long time. The Vietnam memorial was a profound accident that came out right as ``a nihilistic slab of stone'' This was a quote by Jim Webb, former Senator from Virginia and Vietnam veteran who embodied the central lie of Vietnam: defeat by enemies at home. That is evidently being erased with a new memorial at Arlington... Another candidate for future laser surgery. So I certainly agree that at some future time, when and if history has turned to something better we'll have a lot to do. CG _______________________________________________ pen-l mailing list [email protected] https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l
