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Books > Arts & Architecture > Architecture > Public buildings: civic, commercial, industrial, etc > Memorials, monuments
"The Tower is also present to the entire world... a universal
symbol of Paris... from the Midwest to Australia, there is no
journey to France which isn't made, somehow, in the Tower's name."
- Roland Barthes When Gustave Eiffel completed his wrought iron
tower on Paris's Champ de Mars for the World's Fair in 1889, he
laid claim to the tallest structure in the world. Though the
Chrysler Building would, 41 years later, scrape an even higher sky,
the Eiffel Tower lost none of its lofty wonder: originally granted
just a 20-year permit, the Tower became a permanent and mesmerizing
fixture on the Parisian skyline. Commanding by day, twinkling by
night, it has mesmerized Francophiles and lovers, writers, artists,
and dreamers from all over the world, welcoming around seven
million visitors every single year. Based on an original, limited
edition folio by Gustave Eiffel himself, this fresh TASCHEN edition
explores the concept and construction of this remarkable building.
Step by step, one latticework layer after another, Eiffel's iconic
design evolves over double-page plates, meticulous drawings, and
on-site photographs, including new images and even more historical
context. The result is at once a gem of vintage architecture and a
unique insight into the idea behind an icon.
What are monuments for? and why are the inscriptions so often in
Latin? What on earth is the point of communicating in a language so
few understand? Peter Kruschwitz, a Classics scholar and specialist
in the Latin language and its history uses these questions as his
starting point in The Writing on the Wall: Decoding Reading's Latin
Inscriptions. In it he reveals a fascinating range of texts chosen
from the wealth of Reading's Latin inscriptions. Starting from the
statue of King Edward VII outside the station, the reader embarks
upon a journey of discovery through the remarkable and chequered
history of this town, uncovering some of Reading's hidden treasures
and recalling the individuals whoa have made the town what it is
today. Whom or what should we remember? And why? Knowledge, true or
false, that passes on from one generation to another, forms part of
a tradition, of a legacy. We need to understand that legacy in
order to preserve and appreciate the rich heritage we have been
left.
Monumental cares rethinks monument debates, site specificity and
art activism in light of problems that strike us as monumental or
overwhelming, such as war, migration and the climate crisis. The
book shows how artists address these issues, from Chicago and
Berlin to Oslo, Bucharest and Hong Kong, in media ranging from
marble and glass to postcards, graffiti and re-enactment. A
multidirectional theory of site does justice to specific places but
also to how far-away audiences see them. What emerges is a new
ethics of care in public art, combined with a passionate engagement
with reality harking back to the realist aesthetics of the
nineteenth century. Familiar questions can be answered anew: what
to do with monuments, particularly when they are the products of
terror and require removal, modification or recontextualisation?
And can art address the monumental concerns of our present? -- .
The first ever spomenik guidebook, with over 75 examples alongside
map references and information on why they exist and who built
them. Spomenik' the Serbo-Croat/Slovenian word for 'monument' -
refers to a series of memorials built in Tito's Republic of
Yugoslavia from the 1960s-1990s, marking the horror of the
occupation and the defeat of Axis forces during World War II.
Hundreds were built across the country, from coastal resorts to
remote mountains. Through these imaginative forms of concrete and
steel, a classless, forward-looking, socialist society, free of
ethnic tensions, was envisaged. Instead of looking to the
ideologically aligned Soviet Union for artistic inspiration, Tito
turned to the west and works of abstract expressionism and
minimalism. As a result, Yugoslavia was able to develop its own
distinct identity through these brutal monuments, which were used
as political tools to articulate Tito's personal vision of a new
tomorrow. Today, following the breakup of the country and the
subsequent Yugoslav Wars of the 1990s, some have been destroyed or
abandoned. Many have suffered the consequences of ethnic tensions -
once viewed as symbols of hope they are now the focus of resentment
and anger. This book brings together the largest collection of
spomeniks published to date. Each has been extensively photographed
and researched by the author, to make this book the most
comprehensive survey of this obscure and fascinating architectural
phenomenon. A fold-out map on the reverse of the dust jacket shows
the exact location of each spomenik using GPS coordinates.
English Church Monuments in the Middle Ages offers a comprehensive
survey of English church monuments from the pre-Conquest period to
the early sixteenth century. Ground-breaking in its treatment of
the subject in an historical context, it explores medieval
monuments both in terms of their social meaning and the role that
they played in the religious strategies of the commemorated.
Attention is given to the production of monuments, the pattern of
their geographical distribution, the evolution of monument types,
and the role of design in communicating the monument's message. A
major theme is the self-representation of the commemorated as
reflected in the main classes of effigy-those of the clergy, the
knights and esquires, and the lesser landowner or burgess class,
while the effigial monuments of women are examined from the
perspective of the construction of gender.
While seeking to use monuments as windows onto the experiences and
lives of the commemorated, it also exploits documentary sources to
show what they can tell us about the influences that helped shape
the monuments. An innovative chapter looks at the construction of
identity in inscriptions, showing how the liturgical role of the
monument limited the opportunities for expressions of self. Nigel
Saul seeks to place monuments at the very centre of medieval
studies, highlighting their importance not only for the history of
sculpture and design, but also for social and religious history
more generally.
Here lyes Buried the Body of Martha Peronneau...Departed this life
December ye 14th 1746 aged 13 Years. Such an inscription was
typical of 18th century grave markers in Charleston, South
Carolina. Many epitaphs went on to reveal much more about the
deceased: personality, religious beliefs, career accomplishments
and social position. Attention to social matters was a natural part
of life in Charleston, where descendants of the city's 17th century
British founders sought to recreate the class-conscious culture of
aristocratic England. The merging of this culture with influences
from French Huguenots, German Lutherans, Scottish Presbyterians and
Spanish Jews led to funeral practices unique in the American
colonies. Focusing on pieces created between 1695 and 1802, this
volume offers a detailed examination of the tombstones and grave
markers from 18th century Charleston. It not discusses only the
general trends and the symbolism of the period's gravestone art -
such as skulls, portraits, ascending souls, and stylized vegetation
- but also examines specific instances of these popular motifs.
Tombstones from Charleston's oldest and most significant churches,
including the Circular Congregational Church, St. Phillip's
Anglican Church, the French Huguenot Church and the First (Scots)
Presbyterian Church, are explored in detail. The work looks at how
Charleston gravestones differed from funerary art elsewhere in the
American colonies, and reveals them to be some of the earliest
examples of American sculpture. A guide to colonial gravestone
symbols and a glossary of relevant Latin terms are also included.
A history of U.S. Civil War monuments that shows how they distort
history and perpetuate white supremacy The United States began as a
slave society, holding millions of Africans and their descendants
in bondage, and remained so until a civil war took the lives of a
half million soldiers, some once slaves themselves. Standing
Soldiers, Kneeling Slaves explores how the history of slavery and
its violent end was told in public spaces-specifically in the
sculptural monuments that came to dominate streets, parks, and town
squares in nineteenth-century America. Looking at monuments built
and unbuilt, Kirk Savage shows how the greatest era of monument
building in American history took place amid struggles over race,
gender, and collective memory. Standing Soldiers, Kneeling Slaves
probes a host of fascinating questions and remains the only
sustained investigation of post-Civil War monument building as a
process of national and racial definition. Featuring a new preface
by the author that reflects on recent events surrounding the
meaning of these monuments, and new photography and illustrations
throughout, this new and expanded edition reveals how monuments
exposed the myth of a "united" people, and have only become more
controversial with the passage of time.
In medieval Edinburgh the dead were buried in the city's
churchyards, with internment in the church reserved for the
wealthy, but in the post-Reformation years both rich and poor were
buried in the grounds of the churches. By the nineteenth century
the city centre churchyards were overcrowded and new outer town
cemeteries created, which were no longer controlled by the town but
by independent cemetery companies. In this book local historian
Charlotte Golledge takes readers on a tour through the history of
Edinburgh's burial grounds. She covers the individual history of
the graveyards of St Cuthbert's, Greyfriars Kirkyard, Canongate
Kirkyard, Old Calton Burial Ground, Buccleuch Parish Chapel Yard,
St John's Churchyard, New Calton Burial Ground, the Jewish
cemeteries, East Preston Burial Ground, Warriston Cemetery, Dalry
Cemetery, Dean Cemetery, Rosebank Cemetery, The Grange and
Piershill Cemetery. The story includes the notable events, burials
and grave markers at each burial ground as well as the changes in
how the people of Edinburgh buried their dead and mourned their
loved ones over the years as the new profession of the undertakers
took over the role of the church for the new cemeteries. She also
unearths evidence of the lost burial grounds of Edinburgh that have
been moved, built over or rediscovered. This fascinating portrait
of life and death in Edinburgh over the centuries will appeal to
both residents and visitors to the Scottish capital.
This book is the first major study of the themes which were used in
the decoration of sarcophagi made for children in Rome and Ostia
from the late first to early fourth century AD. It provides a
selective catalogue of examples of each type, followed by
discussion of how these fit into the general pattern. This allows
certain themes to be identified which are virtually exclusive to
children's sarcophagi. The second part of the book discusses the
choice of subjects and how these reflect the standing of children
in Roman society: to what extent, for instance, was childhood shown
as a differentiated stage in life, or was it dominated by
aspirations of the adult world? How is the death of a child treated
in art? There are separate sections on the role of workshops and
customers in the development of child specific imagery, and on
material from the early Christian era, providing some interesting
distinctions resulting from differing attitudes towards children
and beliefs about life and death.
This book introduces the reader to the statues, busts, and memorial
plaques of scientists, explorers, medicine men and women, and
inventors found in the bustling capital of the United Kingdom,
London. The former capital of the British Empire, London remains a
world center of trade, navigation, finance and many more. It is
also a hub of science, the seat of the Royal Society, Royal
Institution, Science Museum, British Museum, Natural History
Museum, and of great institutions of higher education. The
historical figures depicted in these memorials are responsible for
creating great institutions, milestone discoveries, contributions
to the scientific and technological revolutions, fighting against
epidemics, advancing medicine, and contributing to the progress
seen during the past four hundred years. This is a guidebook for
the visitor and the Londoner alike. It presents memorials that
everybody is familiar with and others that the authors discovered
during their years of painstaking research. The 750 images and the
text, interlarded with anecdotes, is both informative and
entertaining.
Jenny Edkins explores how we remember traumatic events such as wars, famines, genocides and terrorism. She argues that remembrance does not have to be nationalistic but can instead challenge the political systems that produced the violence. Using examples from the World Wars, Vietnam, the Holocaust, Kosovo and September 11th, Edkins analyzes the practices of memory rituals through memorials, museums and remembrance ceremonies. This wide-ranging study embraces literature, history, politics and international relations, in an original contribution to the study of memory.
The role of cultural memory in American identity Terrorism in
American Memory argues that the terrorist attacks of 9/11 and all
that followed in its wake were the primary force shaping United
States politics and culture in the post-9/11 era. Marita Sturken
maintains that during the past two decades, when the country was
subjected to terrorist attacks and promulgated ongoing wars of
aggression, we have veered into increasingly polarized factions and
been extraordinarily preoccupied with memorialization and the
politics of memory. The post-9/11 era began with a hunger for
memorialization and it ended with massive protests over police
brutality that demanded the destruction of historical monuments
honoring racist historical figures. Sturken argues that memory is
both the battleground and the site for negotiations of national
identity because it is a field through which the past is
experienced in the present. The paradox of these last two decades
is that it gave rise to an era of intensely nationalistic politics
in response to global terrorism at the same time that it released
the containment of the ghosts of terrorism embedded within US
history. And within that disruption, new stories emerged, new
memories were unearthed, and the story of the nation is being
rewritten. For these reasons, this book argues that the post-9/11
era has come to an end, and we are now in a new still undefined era
with new priorities and national demands. An era preoccupied with
memory thus begins with the memorial projects of 9/11 and ends with
the radical intervention of the National Memorial for Peace and
Justice, informally known as the Lynching Memorial, in Montgomery,
Alabama, a project that, unlike the nationalistic 9/11 Memorial and
Museum in New York, dramatically rewrites the national script of
American history. Woven within analyses of memorialization,
memorials, memory museums, art projects on memory, and
architectural projects is a discussion about design and
architecture, the increased creation of memorials as experiences,
and the role of architecture as national symbolism and renewal.
Terrorism in American Memory sheds light on the struggles over who
is memorialized, who is forgotten, and what that politics of memory
reveals about the United States as an imaginary and a nation.
This innovative study of memorial architecture investigates how
design can translate memories of human loss into tangible
structures, creating spaces for remembering. Using approaches from
history, psychology, anthropology and sociology, Sabina Tanovic
explores purposes behind creating contemporary memorials in a given
location, their translation into architectural concepts, their
materialisation in the face of social and political challenges, and
their influence on the transmission of memory. Covering the period
from the First World War to the present, she looks at memorials
such as the Holocaust museums in Mechelen and Drancy, as well as
memorials for the victims of terrorist attacks, to unravel the
private and public role of memorial architecture and the
possibilities of architecture as a form of agency in remembering
and dealing with a difficult past. The result is a distinctive
contribution to the literature on history and memory, and on
architecture as a link to the past.
This is the seventeenth volume in the series the Public Sculpture
of Britain, part of the PMSA National Recording Project, which will
eventually cover the whole of the country. The introduction
considers the ways in which the rural and urban landscapes of
Sussex, from market town, rural village and country estate, to
city, major seaside resort and new town development, are reflected
in the county's public sculptures. The historical period covered
ranges from the allegedly pre-historic (the Long Man of Wilmington)
to the present day (the most recent entry is Maggi Hambling's The
Resurrection Spirit, 2013). There is a high proportion of
nineteenth- century sculptures, including significant works by John
Flaxman, Michael Rysbrack, Frances Chantrey and John Edward Carew;
the 'statuemania' that characterised the last part of this century
is well illustrated by Thomas Brock's imposing statue celebrating
Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee on Hove seafront. The achievements
of major twentieth and twenty-first century sculptors are
represented by Elisabeth Frink and William Pye among others. Many
works from this period are the result of public art initiatives by
local councils, often as part of more wide-ranging regeneration
schemes for Sussex towns. The patronage of health authorities,
influenced by new thinking about the calming and healing qualities
of art in public places has also benefitted both local sculptors
and those based elsewhere in the country. Each individual work is
catalogued, with precise details of location, condition and
history, including commissioning, opening ceremonies and re-siting.
Most are individually illustrated in black and white. Biographies
of local and less well-known sculptors, together with a selected
bibliography are included at the end of the volume.
This is a book for people who are interested in statues . . . and
for people who aren't. It explores those immortalised in marble and
bronze - and what the rest of us think about them. As Roger
Lytollis travels Britain he encounters a man at Liverpool's Beatles
statue convinced that Rod Stewart was in the Fab Four. In Edinburgh
he walks into a row over Greyfriars Bobby's nose and in Glasgow
learns why the Duke of Wellington wears a traffic cone on his head.
London brings a controversial nude statue and some hard truths
about racism. Elsewhere, Roger sees people dancing with Eric
Morecambe, finds a statue being the backdrop to a marriage proposal
and, everywhere he goes, pigeons. Always pigeons . . . On a
Pedestal is the first book to examine public statues around the
nation. It looks at their emergence into our culture wars; the
trend for portraying musicians, sports stars and comedians rather
than monarchs, politicians and generals; the amazing tales of many
of those commemorated on our streets. It also features interviews
with sculptors, including Sir Antony Gormley, telling the stories
behind some of our most popular modern statues. Part history book,
part travelogue, On a Pedestal brings statues to life. Informative
and entertaining, it's a book that - ultimately - is more about
blood than bronze.
The streets and public spaces of London are rich with statues and
monuments commemorating the city's great figures and events - from
Nelson's Column in Trafalgar Square and Sir Christopher Wren's
Great Fire Monument to the charming Peter Pan statue in Kensington
Gardens. Executed in stone, bronze and a range of other materials,
London's statues and monuments include work by some of the world's
greatest sculptors, such as Edwin Lutyens and Sir Christopher Wren.
This newly revised book takes account of the many new statues
erected between 2012 and 2017, including those of Mary Seacole at
St Thomas' Hospital and Amy Winehouse in Camden, and is a fully
illustrated guide to the works and their stories: sometimes
surprising and occasionally controversial, but always fascinating.
The book combines photography and written text to analyse the role
of memorials and commemoration sites in the construction of
antagonistic nationalism. Taking Cypriot memorializations as a case
study, the book shows how these memorials often support, but
sometimes also undermine, the discursive-material assemblage of
nationalism.
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