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Follow the light: countermonuments in the medium of searchlights
Clairmont, Lola Marie
Clairmont, Lola Marie
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[Fort Worth, Tex.] : Texas Christian University,
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2016
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At the Nuremberg Rally in 1933, Albrecht Speer organized 130 anti-aircraft searchlights to form the Lichtdom or Cathedral of Light as a display of Nazi power and militaristic dominance. Since 1933, few artists have employed searchlights in their work, and even fewer in a monumental capacity. However, several contemporary artists have recently utilized the medium in their public works: Rafael Lozano-Hemmer?s Voz Alta from 2008, Ryoji Ikeda?s Spectra from 2014, Mothership?s Brandgrens (The Bombardment Periphery) from 2007 and 2008, the Municipal Art Society?s Tribute in Light, initiated in 2002, Jenny Holzer?s Erlauf Peace Monument from 1995, and Yoko Ono?s Imagine Peace Tower, unveiled in 2007. Located on politically-charged sites of violence, these works serve as memorials as well as countermonuments. As interpreted by the scholarship of James Young, countermonuments oppose the traditional ideological and aesthetic approaches of monuments. These searchlight works not only meet the qualifications of countermonuments, but also incorporate elements of temporality and ephemerality. Despite the laden associations of searchlights with militarism, surveillance, and consumerism, the contemporary searchlight countermonuments defy these associations both aesthetically and ideologically and place the power of the medium in the hands of the participants in commemoration of victims of political violence. The transformation of the singular, authoritarian voice of the monument and the authoritarian use of searchlights to an experiential, postmodern countermonument can be traced in the viewer?s interaction with the work and the work?s formal elements, such as directionality. Ultimately, these works reclaim an authoritarian tool in the form of populist countermonuments that provide viewers with the opportunity to publicly mourn the victims of political violence and imagine a peaceful future.
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Art