Embodiment of Us, Albert Parson, Materials: foam, silver wire, clear resin

Though this city has gone through many tragedies in history, the one thing that seems to remain intact is our human spirit, our inner strength, our will to look to the future without allowing the past effect our own lives. This memorial is to commemorate those whose lives were lost due to those who seek to harm the innocent. At the same time this memorial is made to those who have the strength to move on not allow these tragedies chain them to the past, a way of showing we as people are vulnerable from the exterior but inside we hold on to that will and the element of what makes us strong individuals.

The memorial is shown grasping to the sky, reaching to the clouds but as it reaches further it begins to break away leading down to its gridded exterior made of steel, allowing the viewer to see through the subject as a way of showing the vulnerable frames that seem to be impenetrable, but represents a false barrier that we all share. In the center and the temple of the subject will be a solid, metallic sphere, an almost dark red wine surface, representing the strength that can never be diminished and is shown proudly to others, both spheres being metaphors for the heart and mind.

One of the focal points of my memorial is the human mind where a partial part of our strength comes from and helps us make decisions for the future, the metropolitan museum consists of the documentations of human history along with the demonstration of us as people moving forward. These aspects assist in the representation of my memorial, which will be displayed in the David H. Koch Plaza fountain on the left-hand side of the museum. It has the illusion of emergence out of the dark grim surface of the fountain. I expect visitors to gain the feeling of hope and enlightenment, longing for a better the future that can start today, seeing the beauty mankind can be responsible for, while at the same time portraying hope and strength as an unbreakable force.

My first initial focus was to focus on the racial inequality in our nation, but I later thought about how to represent it in a way that doesn’t directly demonstrate that information without making it blunt to the viewer and forcing it to be extremely conceptual will just confuse the audience. Later I began playing with the idea of portraying the human spirit and the characteristics that make us who we are, then came the recent events of the terrorist attack near the World Trade that took place on Halloween of this year. This sparked the ideas of my process to carve innocents out from the average person.

I’m most proud of the outcome of the sculpture and the full-on background behind the piece. If I were to create another iteration of this memorial it would solely focus on our decision making and what we consider to be right and wrong.