Beacon of Endurance

This sitework -- commissioned by the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library & Museum via the State of Illinois Art-in-Architecture Program -- symbolizes and articulates Abraham Lincoln’s significance to American life and culture, with a landmark artform that will have real presence, yet exhibit humility in its setting. The obelisk-like form is slightly tilted and torqued, to suggest human and constitutional distortions, traumas, and foibles. Its materiality bridges from the industrial strength and perseverance of rusted steel rooted in the land to the impervious, laser-cut stainless steel of its upper form – reaching skyward. At nighttime, pinpoint spotlights mounted on springy platforms within the structure, project words through laser-cut steel gobos on the back -- a Victorian Age technology. The artform will transform through illumination and the quivering projection of contested societal ideals and imperatives onto the Museum walls, to become a beacon of American endurance through decades of history, still unfolding.