The Power of the Vietnam Memorial
Sometimes, the power of art stems from the notion that representations are as much about what they do not represent as what they do represent. This is what I'm hoping to depict with the Story of Invisibility.
The Vietnam War Memorial became a powerful symbol because of all the conventions and stereotypes it broke. The statue of the 3 soldiers was an attempt to represent the heroism and power of the American soldier but it really just represents the cluelessness of the people that sent these soldiers to fight as the sculptor made a fatal mistake of facing the bullets the wrong way on one of the soldiers.
Another interesting representation is the Japanese American Memorial that portrays cranes in barbed wires as a memorial to the Japanese Americans held in concentration camps. This becomes another powerful symbol when we question what would have happened if we had used eagles in barbed wires instead of cranes? After all, the soldiers were American.
These aspects of memorials that are absent or invisible are speaking powerful stories to those who can (rather, can’t) see them. This is how the Story of Invisibility becomes a powerful tool in trying to represent memorials and memories.
