Public Art Commission in Washington DC

2023 has started up at a rapid pace. I am working on a large scale public art sculpture commission for a hotel lobby wall in Washington D.C. My parents grew up in the area- so I am especially excited about this project. Upon researching and exploring ideas relating to the theme of "forces of change", my main design concept is based on a lace collar worn by Ruth Bader Ginsberg. She was known to wear her collars as battle armor, meant symbolically to protect her, and by extension, the marginalized groups — women, minorities, immigrants, the queer, and disabled — whose rights she championed for over six decades. Recently at the Bard Graduate Center was an exhibition titled “Threads of Power” that explored European lace. In Roberta Smith's New York Times review she writes:" When women are shut out of art, they invent other genres. Take lace!" 

Thanks to my laser cutter I am able to make small models of the final piece- pictured below, which exist on their own as unique paperworks. I like the idea of using bronze or brass sheet metal for this piece because of its warm gold tones. In addition to being warm, the color also has symbolic references. Originally it was the only color used by all the US suffrage organizations, although white has now became widely adopted since parades have started. The purple, white, and gold combination was used only by the National Woman’s Party in the United States. The organization described the meaning of these colors in a newsletter published December 6, 1913: “Purple is the color of loyalty, constancy to purpose, unswerving steadfastness to a cause. White, the emblem of purity, symbolizes the quality of our purpose; and gold, the color of light and life, is as the torch that guides our purpose, pure and unswerving".