Some reflections on the Memorials

Douglas Holmes September 11, 1995 Alameda, California

The Memorials, eight free-standing metal and wood relief sculptures, comprise a body of work concerned with society's reactions to war and violent political unrest. The source material and inspiration has been Ireland, both it's historical upheavals and the current "troubles" revolving around Northern Ireland. The metaphors in the sculpture are architectural, in particular openings, doors and windows, and constructed memorials.

Although the works are inspired by particular politics, my intent is for them to address a much wider audience than just those people concerned with Ireland.

This group of eight sculptures has evolved over a three year period from 1985 to 1988. They are large, on the order of 8-1/2' x 4' x 2-1/2' , free standing reliefs. The materials are primarily corrugated steel panels and oriented strand board (a type of composite wood sheeting similar to plywood). Each sculpture is finished with a semi-opaque stain applied over reflective silver paint.

Their eight titles

-Northern Window

-Cenotaph for the forgotten.

-Marker

-Between North and South

-Belfast Pieta

-the citizens

-Heaney's doorstep

-Memorial to the long term memory April 24, 1916 – November 8, 1987

offer oblique clues to specific events and situations that have inspired them. Although a clue, the titles do not delineate the content of the sculptures. The forms, the juxtaposition of materials, and the relationship and reference to architecture are intended to evoke both a response from the viewer and elicit an empathy that will cause the viewer to question the whys of the sculptures.

The basic and unifying reason for these sculptures is my concern with the war that goes on in Ireland. It is my intention that these sculptures address the human condition in any situation where people are warring on one another. By using corrugated steel (a material found in nearly every culture, serving the common purpose of providing shelter and protection) as a human element, combining this element with an architectural reference, I hope to get a real sense of the purpose of "a memorial". This purpose is grounded on the condition of war and asks the viewer to reflect upon his or her responsibility toward that condition. It is this aspect of "a memorial" that I address in the following thoughts:

•A memorial is a mnemonic device. In addressing the memory it reminds us to keep alive that which we may want to wish away.

•A memorial is a device that keeps the past as part of the present.

•A memorial can be a monument, but is not necessarily one. A monument marks as event, an idea, a place and then with time tends to supplant that event, idea or place. How many of us know what L'Arch de Triomphe or the Washington Monument represents? Yet, a simple headstone at a grave serves as memorial to a life. Even if we cannot read the words on it, it marks a person's life by placing a punctuation at the end.

•Memorials are addressed to something. Specific events that effect unspecified people.

•An event lives in time, is transitory in space so must be marked in place to survive as a reality. Events are only real as they happen, then they pass into memory. The effects of the event are lasting in a physical way. The windows covered after a bomb explodes, the dead and injured, the fear that begins to in inform all decisions. The memorial makes us remember the event that caused these and question the ideas behind that event.

•The memorial can serve as a persistent collective consciousness.