The Soldiers and Sailors Memorial, 1984-1985

This project was a collaboration between the artist and the park surrounding the Soldiers and Sailors Civil War Memorial Arch in Brooklyn, New York. The organizer of the local Art in the Park program, Mariella Bisson invited Wodiczko to project an image on the arch. The original purpose was to add another element to their local program through the projection. The piece consisted of an image of Soviet and United States Missiles chained together. It was projected for one hour, 11:30 to 12:30 pm. The official report said 1400 people viewed it but the artist believes many more did because it was on a busy street.


According to Wodiczko, his purpose in the project was to adorn the almost entirely blank north side of the arch. In an interview, he said “There are no sculptures or reliefs on the north side…this is a monument to the northern army so the south side of the arch is very busy with representations of the army marching south to liberate the south….it has nothing to say on the north because if it did, they would have to self-reflect.”

The work was generally well received by the public and critics. The public was somewhat disappointed with the projection at first because they expected a series of pictures just not one. The critics particularly noted the contrast between the projection and the arch it was projected on. According to one critic, “(Wodiczko) projected a padlock, a symbol of a sign of constraint and limitation, on the keystone as a dissonant equivalent of the figure of liberation, the winged victory. “

This piece by the artist demonstrates a commentary on the cold war. The missiles are labeled clearly as United States and U.S.S.R. through the use of colors; red, white, blue for the U.S. and Red, yellow for the U.S.S.R. They’re attachment by the padlock signifies the inseverable connection between the superpowers during the cold war. If one country decided to fire on the other, both sides would be decimated. The fates of the two countries were coupled together and the piece reflects this.

Resources:
http://www.imagearts.ryerson.ca/imagesandideas/pages/artistpicture.cfm?page=174
http://books.google.com/books?id=kBa8HOLHrdMC&pg=RA1-PA17&lpg=RA1-PA17&dq=Krzysztof+Wodiczko,+Sztuka+publiczna&source=bl&ots=sQCWYUHdIt&sig=y0zqwhleas37XDfkM_1aGCo_8cc&hl=en&ei=gaIJS6TrBM2dlAeF1-SEBA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=8&ved=0CCgQ6AEwBw#v=snippet&q=brooklyn&f=false