Sandra Mendoza chose the green panel of the forest to remind her husband, car enthusiast and restorer Juan Espinoza, who proudly bought it before his life was robbed.
Trenna Meins chose the phrase “accept the potential” to carve on the bench because her 36-year-old husband, Damian Meins, was “always a game of everything.”
Shannon Johnson, a county health inspector who died protecting a colleague, is commemorated in the alcove carrying the last words of his scorching heat. Lord, have mercy. “
If design is a window of culture, nothing is more obvious than the Curtain of Collage Memorial, which was unveiled last week in San Bernardino, California. A family who lost 14 loved ones in a 2015 mass shooting in a lithe community hug.
“We wanted a place of light, not a place of sadness,” said landscape designers and artists. Walter HoodIn his first work to commemorate the individuals and survivors lost in gun violence, he thought about the comfort of the cathedral chapel.
The opening of the curtain took place shortly after the relentless shootings of recent gunfire in Buffalo, New York, Uvalde, Texas, Orange, California, Indianapolis, and Oxford, Michigan, killing a swarm of ongoing permanent monuments. .. Hood, a Fellow of MacArthur and a professor of environmental design at the University of California, said: Berkeley. In 2021 alone, there were on average multiple active shooter attacks per week, with one or more shooters killing or attempting to kill multiple unrelated people.
The curved layer of the chain of the new monument is intended to be reminiscent of bulletproof vests. Near the employee’s entrance to the county government center, the $ 2.3 million work paid by the county is a blame for the community design process that began just a few months later. Terrorist attack On December 2, 2015, a radical couple with semi-automatic weapons rushed into a staff meeting at the San Bernardino County Environmental Sanitation Service at the Inland Regional Center, injuring 21 people.
The monument is composed of 14 alcove, both public and private, as well as representing the loss of each family and the collective strength of the community. The space was personalized to reflect the murdered spirit, starting with a glass panel inserted into every niche that casts light and shadow like stained glass. The concrete bench is engraved with the perfect quote and includes hidden souvenirs chosen by the family.
Mendoza included an image of a miniature hot rod and a picture of a family pulled out of her husband’s purse in a resin cube.
Tina Meins, daughter of Trenna and Damian Meins, remembered traveling to Angkor Wat, Cambodia and eating street food together in Vietnam. “When people go to the alcove, they will know who my dad was and why he was important,” Tina said.
The power of memory in the landscape has long been a concern for hoods. Vertical sculpture at Princeton University Woodrow Wilson represents the pros and cons of heritage to the hood landscape International African American MuseumReminds us that a enslaved African, currently under construction in Charleston, South Carolina, was stuffed into a ship’s yard, trafficked on the grounds of Gadsden Wharf, and stored in a warehouse.
Designing for families struck by gun violence was a “very heavy burden,” Hood told the Memorial Committee on December 2. “He gave each victim an idea,” he said. Josie GonzalezChairman of the Commission and retired county supervisor.
Gonzales and her colleagues didn’t take long to realize that there were many communities seeking advice. They visited Aurora, Colorado on July 20, 2012 to dedicate a sculpture of a flying crane celebrating 13 dead and 70 injured, and filmed at a cinema. (Similarly, the Aurora chair 7/20 Memorial Foundation I attended a ceremony in San Bernardino last week. )
“We know how each other feels,” said Felisa Cardona, a county spokesman. “It’s a very sad relative.”
The number of monuments nationwide is “innumerable,” said Paul M. Faber, director and co-founder. Monument Lab, Philadelphia-based non-profit public art and history studio. “All official memory locations dealing with gun violence range from T-shirts with the names of gun violence victims outside the church to young people commemorating their friends on Instagram. There is an official place, “he said.
Homemade monuments can also speak volume. Brandon and Heather O’Neill of Richardson, Texas install 19 chestnut-colored school backpacks in the front yard, similar to class photos, with two large packs representing a teacher who died at Rob Elementary School in Uvalde. Did.
After a major tragedy, the overflow of flowers, garlands and stuffed animals is joined by artists who want to contribute. “You feel helpless,” he said. Abel Ortiz-Acosta, Artist and owner of Yuvarde’s Art Lab Gallery.With non-profit organizations Mas Cultura Austin is in the process of involving artists from all over Texas to participate in the “21 Mural Project” to create portraits of 19 children and two teachers who were slaughtered at Rob Elementary School last month.
Michael Murphy, Founder Principal and Executive Director MASS Design GroupWas urged to take on the issue of gun violence during the opening of National monument for peace and justice Where he met in Montgomery, Alabama Pamela Bosley and Annette Nance-HoltThe mother of two activists from Chicago, each of whom lost their son in a random shooting and said Murphy should have a monument to their children. “I started asking,’What is it like to commemorate the epidemic in the midst of us?'” He said.
Result is Cancer Violence Memorial ProjectCurrently displayed Washington DC National Building Museum, “Justice is beauty: the work of the MASS Design Group”.First Exhibited Design in Chicago — Partnerships with Artists Hank Willistomas Two Gun Violence Prevention Organization — Consisting of four houses made of 700 grass bricks, each brick represents the average number of Americans lost in gun violence in a particular week. .. The project was inspired by the participatory nature of the AIDS quilt, with each brick having a souvenir see-through repository and hundreds of donations from families across the country.
“People want to give something of their own to connect with the lost,” Murphy said. “It’s a revelatory human act.” This project aims to evoke a dialogue about a permanent national monument in memory of the victims of gun violence.
The San Bernardino monument bears fruit, but in other traumatic communities, this work continues. Approximately 10 years after the murder of 20 first graders and 6 educators at Sandy Hook Elementary School in New Town, Connecticut on December 14, 2012, 370 including “holy soil” from thousands of flowers and letters The 10,000-dollar monument is nearing completion. , Signs and photos that were finally removed and created. It was a long, emotional process. “People were angry with everything,” he said. Sandy Hook Permanent Memorial Committee.
Set for nearby deforestation Reconstructed elementary school Surrounded by dogwood, this design is intended for a “spiral meditation” around a central body of water, with the victim’s name engraved on granite. Landscape architect Daniel Affleck of SWA group.. The monument is first opened to families and then more widely on the 10th anniversary of the slaughter.
For an amazing list, 23 people Killed at El Paso Walmart on August 3, 2019, this is Entrusted by artist Albert (Tino) Ortega and the cityWhen Rethinking Pittsburgh’s Sinagog by Architect Daniel Libeskind, New sanctuaries, monuments, museums and anti-Semitic centers are built under the skylight of the “Light Path” that zigzag throughout the length of the structure. Vegas Strong Resiliency CenterFounded after a mass shooting at the Route 91 Harvest Festival, the Trauma Assistance Network, which killed 58 people and injured at least 413, is working with county and state authorities at the venue’s monument.
“It’s rarely part of a project here on Earth when we’re not here anymore,” she said, a 22-year-old who had a serious gunshot wound and was subsequently operated on to remove the shrapnel. Caressa Royce said from her throat and spine.
The most ambitious onePULSE Foundation $ 45 million plan National Pulse Memorial Museum The worst LGBTQ attacks in US history have occurred at the site of the Gay Night Club, which killed 49 people and injured 53. design, Coldefy & AssociésThe Lille-based company in France is reminiscent of Oscar Niemeyer’s Brasília. It is essentially a district, with reflective ponds, gardens, parabolic canopies around the nightclub grounds, National monument last year. The concept also includes the block size “Survival’s Walk” and a six-story museum. The plan is Coalition against the Pulse MuseumThis, among many issues, opposes “turning mass shootings into tourist attractions,” including the “memorable merchandise” currently on sale.
These cool monuments are showing no signs of diminishing as Congress struggles to conclude bipartisan arrangements on gun safety. At Mother Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, South Carolina, white supremacists shot down nine black parishioners during a Bible study. Architect Michael Arad 9/11 Memorial As “the absence is now visible” — absorbed by the “Emanuel Nine” monument.
But before the idea of an angel-wing-shaped courtyard, garden, or fellowship bench was discussed, Israeli-American partner Arad Handel ArchitectsAsked about his understanding of forgiveness — a echo of emotions expressed by members of the church that surprised and impressed the country during a hearing for the shooter, Dylann Roof. (The roof was finally sentenced to death.)
The rethought grounds are in a place that celebrates sadness, resilience, helps others learn by the example set by the families of those killed in racist attacks, and offers the potential for change. Become. Pastor Eric SC Manning, the chief pastor of the church, said:
In San Bernardino, Robert Velasco, who lost his 27-year-old daughter Yvette, said another way. “It was a very moving time,” he said of the December day. “It’s not yet.”
