When a Sculpture is More Than a Sculpture
After more than four years of planning and collaboration, Peaceful Journey, a new site-responsive sculpture by artist Eto Otitigbe, was recently unveiled at 42 Broad, a new residential building in the Fleetwood neighborhood of Mount Vernon. The sculpture serves as a waymarker and waymaker, welcoming building residents home and saluting travelers passing by.
Described simply, Peaceful Journey, which was commissioned by Alexander Development Group through a selection process managed by ArtsWestchester, is a free-standing archway. One column is composed of a single block of Vermont Fantastico Marble. The veins of the stone create the illusion of liquid in motion while the surface finishing techniques enhance the natural variations in the stone’s coloring. The other column of the archway is COR-TEN steel, which over time will gain a rust-hued patina. The arch, a series of extruded hexagons that are evocative of a bee’s honeycomb, transitions from the COR-TEN to stainless steel overhead before melding into the marble column. The hexagon is a signifier for strength and harmony. The hive-like steel structure references pointed spires that are popular across architectural traditions. Standing under the archway and looking up, the sky seems to pixelate while the form casts shadows and focuses light. Each thoughtful detail in the sculpture is a reference to transformation, and the sculpture itself changes daily, and more profoundly over time.
Peaceful Journey is also a tribute to Mount Vernon and its famous residents, Dwight Arrington Myers, better known as Heavy D, an artist who inspired a generation with his sound and lyrics. The sculpture is also named after one of the musician’s songs. To Otitigbe, the song “offers a thoughtful and complex picture of the lives of Black and Brown people [living] in places like Mount Vernon, the Bronx or Los Angeles.” He elaborates: “This sculpture offers me a chance to pay tribute to Heavy D, R&B music, and hip-hop culture, all of which had an immense influence on me as I navigated my youth.”
The unveiling event coincided with the 50th anniversary year of the birth of hip-hop, and in attendance were not only Heavy D’s family but other genre pioneers from the City of Mount Vernon. It was a celebration and memorial that bubbled over with gratitude and respect. For those in attendance, it also added further gravitas to Otitigbe’s work. What began as a project that set out to commission an iconic work of sculpture to serve as the gateway to a neighborhood ended up transforming into something bigger – an opportunity to celebrate and commemorate the contributions of a Black man and Jamaican immigrant to the American story.
There has recently been a resurgence of conversations around monuments and memorials. Important questions have been asked: who gets to be remembered, and who decides? How are these individuals represented? What do these monuments symbolize, and to whom? Who paid for these monuments and how were the creators selected? Murals, too, have been questioned for the role they play in shaping historical narratives, which are often incomplete.
Otitigbe is an artist not new to this conversation. In 2020, he was part of a team of architects and designers who created Memorial to Enslaved Laborers at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, VA, a city of monuments with controversial backstories. For his part, Otitigbe participated in extensive community engagement to inform his understanding of the representation of enslaved peoples.
As new projects are commissioned, there is an opportunity to reimagine the act of commemoration as more inclusive and community-focused. Otitigbe’s sculpture at 42 Broad joins a growing collection of monuments and artworks in Westchester that seek to expand the area’s historical narrative by remembering local stories. A collection of sculptures by Vinnie Bagwell titled Enslaved Africans’ Rain Garden, and a mural by Danielle Mastrion at Ridge Hill that depicts Ella Fitzgerald are two recent examples. Both projects were also shepherded by ArtsWestchester. For 42 Broad, Otitgbe created a work of art that is simple in form, but complex in structure and layered in meaning. It is an abstract work of public art that is also an assertion of presence and power of the enduring legacy of Heavy D. Peaceful Journey is a sculpture that has the potential to help guide the way monuments are approached and considered in the 21st century.
Kathleen Reckling is ArtsWestchester’s Deputy Director of Public Programs.
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1 Monument Lab, a nonprofit public art and history studio based in Philadelphia, defines a monument as “a statement of power and presence in public.” Over 2020-2021, the organization conducted an audit of monuments nationwide. The findings revealed important realities: “The commemorative landscape is dominated by monuments to figures who would be considered white, male, and wealthy in our common understandings today.” Monuments depicting mermaids outnumber monuments depicting female congresswomen, and only five of the top 50 historical figures represented in monuments are African American or Indigenous.
Photo Credit: Mary Alice Franklin, L2 Web Media Group
