Goldberger Response

Memorials and monuments are not what I normally would think of when I think about art. Even if someone uses the word "installation," I'm more likely to think about a sculpture or light show a la Jenny Holzer before I think about memorials.

I didn't need to read any article to understand that a lot of planning and debate goes into creating a new monument. How to memorialize something is always going to create tension amongst people. An example of this in the Oklahoma monument is the use of the word "left, killed, or murdered." Some people are going to think that using the word "left," is the most appropriate, because the word itself does not focus on the gruesome way in which the people died, rather the emphasis is that their presence is missed. On the opposite end of the spectrum, one might use the word "murdered." This focuses on the way that the people died, and puts the emphasis on the murderer. In between to two extremes, is the word "killed," which was what was eventually chosen.

Something that is interesting about monuments is that, unlike the other art that we have studied, it is heavily influenced by many different individuals. The influence of these individuals can be emotional, professional, or artistic. For example, a family member of a person who died in the even which is being memorialized would have a heavy emotional tie to the piece. The trauma that this person endured may lead to a very different idea of what the memorial ought to look like. A politician, on the other hand, may ask him or herself questions such as, “What will this cost?” “Do we need this space for commercial purposes?” The artist may see things different and use the memorial as an outlet for creative expression. He or she may be more interested in more sophistacated work, and not want to include the doves or “hands of God” that the emotional family member may push for. In the other art that we viewed, it was mostly only influenced by the artist.

The picture I included is of a memorial at the site of the 9/11 attacks. I found it to be interesting, not necessarily because of its content, but because of how much thought and planning and debate must’ve gone into it, due to the fact that it is such a big event in American history.