Krzysztof Wodiczko
Abraham Lincoln: War Veteran Projection
November 8–December 9, 2012
Installation is available for viewing in the evenings, 6–10pm
Opening reception: Thursday November 8th, 6:30–8:30pm
Veteran Participants
Joan Aiken • Lyndsey Anderson• Joseph Avellanet • Roman Baca • Walter Baldaccini • Carl Cannon • Luis Crossman • Marie Delus • Trent Love • Nelson Lowhim • Blake Ruehrwein • Sarmiento • Carlos Tarraza • Carlos Zambrano
Beginning November 8th, voices of recent veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars will animate a bronze commemorative statue of Abraham Lincoln that has stood silently in Union Square Park since 1870.
For thirty-two days, the memories and feelings of ordinary Americans will speak through Lincoln as part of an outdoor public art installation by Krzysztof Wodiczko, an artist renowned for his large-scale light projections on architectural facades and monuments. Abraham Lincoln: War Veteran Projection marks a return of sorts to Manhattan for the artist, whose last monumental work here was the influential and still often cited Homeless Project (1988).
“As our troops withdraw from Afghanistan, this commemorative statue, commissioned just a few years after the Civil War, again becomes a place for dialogue about war,” says Micaela Martegani, founding director of More Art. More Art, an eight-year-old organization devoted to bringing new and innovative works of art into public spaces in New York City, is the organizer of Abraham Lincoln: War Veteran Projection.
In collaboration with many New York City veterans organizations, Wodiczko has engaged with dozens of veterans and their family members over the course of several months. He filmed fourteen of the veterans and their family members for the installation of Abraham Lincoln: War Veteran Projection, recording conversations about their war experiences and the toll of duty on their family lives. It will be these points of views, presented in each person’s own words, voice, and gestures, that will be projected via sound and light onto the figure of Lincoln.
For more information contact adam [at] moreart.org.
