Public art, especially when it is of monumental character, provides an immediate impact which, I believe, is rooted in its unique democratic nature. In my view, no other visual art is as accessible as public art: it is available to be seen free of charge, at all times, by people from all walks of life. Installed in prominent public domain, public art has the power to broaden the collective thinking, which may bring on a societal change. The power of monuments to affect viewers depends, naturally, on the visual contents of their message. Replacing the commemoration of a past event with an image presenting a better future can unite people in an immediate visceral and intellectual way. When a monument image aims to broaden people’s values, encourage them to accept the validity of the other, it may start a meaningful dialogue that could contribute to having a stronger all-inclusive society."
9/11 Memorial — A National Monument
Library of Congress No. 2019689991
In 2003, four years after replacing painting with sculpting, Sassona Norton answered a Call for Submission to create a 9/11 Memorial issued by the Commissioners of Montgomery County in Pennsylvania. The County had lost 14 of its residents in the terrorist attack on the WTC, and the Memorial had to include an I-beam salvaged from the North Tower. It was to be installed on the County courthouse plaza overlooking the City of Norrristown.
Selected out of 37 sculptors, Norton created an 18-foot-tall Memorial in three tiers: at the bottom, a 16-feet-diameter Corten-steel disc was circled with a ring of bronze letters: “SEPTEMBER 11, 2001: THE MANY WHO WERE KILLED, THE MANY WHO FOUGHT TO SAVE OTHERS. MEMORIES NEVER DIE.” Off-center, a tilted Corten-steel formed the second tier, and its top became the base for the third: a pair of monumental hands, each nearly 8 feet tall, raising up in the air the salvaged I-beam. Scorched, jagged and badly twisted, the I-beam seemed human and frail. And the enormous hands, as rough as they were, nestled the I-beam in their palms, formed a soft open chalice around it and lifted it with the greatest tenderness.
“This tenderness”, explained Norton in a later speech she gave about her approach to monuments, “was essential to the Memorial message. I was not interested in sculpting an aspect of the tragedy, as it had happened, but as it may be remembered, years later. Through the prism of remembrance — that has not yet started — I moved the tragedy from the recent past forward into the far future: a time when a tragic event might have lost its hard edges and become a building-block of the collective story.”
In creating a 9/11 Memorial about the complex act of remembrance, Norton wished to introduce an element of hope into the darkness of the day. She looked into the possibility that unimaginable pain may lead to a resolve, that quiet sorrow may replace rage, and that a horrific experience could ultimately turn to a source of determination and strength.
The monument, which was unveiled on September 11, 2005, has turned to a living Memorial. Each year on that date, families, who had lost their loved ones in the worst terrorists’ attack on American soil, would arrive from Montgomery County and the near-by Philadelphia to lay down their wreaths of pain and memories. Before leaving, many would pause at the closing statement, circling the periphery of the Corten-steel disc. And once more found a sliver of solace in the words: “MEMORIES NEVER DIE”.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zErxE7YW-cQ
Et Purus —– Monuments in Edition
In 2011, the Swedish Ljungqvist Foundation selected Sassona Norton out of eight internationally renowned sculptors to create a monument for Clean Sports. Professor Arne Ljungqvist, an Olympic high-jumper and a former physician to His Majesty, Carl XVI Gustaf, King of Sweden, has dedicated his life to the fight for Clean Sport, and the monument was designed to honor his legacy and spread the cause.
Sassona Norton was grateful for the opportunity to create a visual icon for the message. The assignment has fit her body of large expressive hands, her belief in the power of monuments when they call for a better future and her conviction that power without a moral compass may lead to our fall. “Breaking records is in our DNA.”, said Norton in an interview, “but we must resist any temptation to accomplish our goal through dishonest means and unhealthy methods. Taking amoral path endangers our climb to the top and risks our standing as a civilized society.”
To create a direct contact with viewers of different cultures throughout the world, Norton sculpted a 7-feet arm in the universally known hand-gesture of Number One and as dynamic as a winner breaking the finish-line. Norton affixed a ring on the cushion of the rising index finger on the spot where a prior test had established the winner’s absence of drugs. The ring was encrusted in gold not only to ‘crown’ the athlete’s decency and transparency, but also to ‘stamp’ him or her with the sports new Gold Standard of purity, without which, no one is allowed to compete.
Named “Et Purus” (Latin for “and pure”), the Ljungqvist Foundation envisioned the monument as a numbered edition of twenty multiples. It was the first time monuments were planned in repeated casts, pointing out to the Foundation’s ambition to create a wave of strength stemming from the familiarity of the image.
While the large hand was kept the same, Sassona Norton envisioned a different sculpted base for each site. “As such,” she explained, “while the identical hand would increase the message strength, the unique bases would hold to the contemporary aspect of ‘one of a kind site-specificity’.”
