COLD WAR VETERANS MEMORIAL
2021
COLD WAR VETERANS MEMORIAL is a historical marker and a machine, honoring the brave men and women who fought against the USSR. The monument honors the crucial struggle that prevented the nuclear holocaust and preserved liberty by halting the spread of totalitarian communism.
Precise symbolism is expressed through geometry, materials, numbers, and a single movement in every calendar year.
The site is Somers, Wisconsin. Above this field sits a concrete circular plinth. On top of this oval plate are copper cubic forms of varying scales and stages of patina in the representation of nation-states.
Volumes of the two largest copper cubes are engaged in a titanic struggle: the open western U.S. and the closed eastern USSR. These two cubic forms are 45 feet in width, length, and height.
+ The 45-foot dimension of the closed-off eastern enclosure is symbolic of the year 1945, the start of the Cold War.
+ The 91 feet from the eastern edge of the western enclosure to the eastern gateway is symbolic of the year 1991, the end of the Cold War.
+ 30 feet stair leading to the memorial is symbolic of the 30 years since the end of the Cold War to the present.
The Cold War ended on December 25, 1991, at 7:32 pm when the Soviet flag was finally lowered over the Kremlin. In Wisconsin, that time was 11:32 am. The solar angle in Somers, Wisconsin, at this moment —altitude 24.63°, azimuth 175.25°— is used to trace the shadow of the conceptual outline of the memorial. This trace becomes a reflection pool.
The aggregation of squares and boxes represents these Veterans. These individual parts of varying sizes are indispensable to the whole. Originating from the western gateway, these patterns move eastward to transform the closed cube.
The memorial’s primary material is copper. The 25-year patina of the copper parallels the aging of the Cold War Veterans, as the memorial will grow old with them. After the memorial has transformed into its final color, it will be a permanent marker of the Cold War Veterans.
The experience of the ritualized procession through history would channel the spirit of liberty and justice of the brave Veterans who fought for our freedom.
