Community Meditate

Market Street Park in Charlottesville, Virginia was home to one of the most controversial monuments in the United States.  There have been many unsuccessful attempts to have it taken down.  The Robert E. Lee monument memorialized an infamous confederate civil war officer that supported slavery.  After the confederates lost the war, he did accept the abolishment of slavery enforced by the thirteenth amendment, but he strongly opposed racial equality for African Americans.  In a vast multicultural country like the United States, memorializing an openly racist figure that fought on the wrong side of history is a slap in the face to any American.   

If we have the need to memorialize public figures, who should we memorialize?  I believe that no matter what public figure you place on a pedestal, there will be some group in our society that will oppose.  How do we memorialize human beings without marginalizing someone?

The Robert E. Lee monument was finally removed July 10, 2021, six months after this project (Community Meditate) was created.  This speculative concept is to create a culturally positive alternative to memorializing a singular figure in history.  This public sculpture/landscape design is meant for multi-persons’ meditation and contemplation, and in the process, the multicultural citizens of Charlottesville Virginia became the monument.  The current citizens of today will be celebrated and memorialized.