Order from us for quality, customized work in due time of your choice.
A deep symbolic image for some and a questionable faceless wall for others the Vietnam Veterans Memorial has become controversial since the layout was accepted. Partially, this happened because the subject of the Vietnam War itself was sensitive and painful for the public. In addition, the modernist and symbolic execution of the war memorial was unusual for that time; as a result, many people were shocked or confused by the idea. However, the monument fulfills its purpose and draws attention to the discussion and understanding of the Vietnam War and the battlefield in general. Despite being controversial, the Vietnam Veterans Memorial is one of the most moving and visited monuments dedicated to war.
The memorial is a wall of mirror-polished black marble rising from the ground that points at the Lincoln memorial with one end and the Washington Monument with the other. Typical war memorials most often depict soldiers in a relatively straightforward manner. This way, it is easy for people to understand the monuments meaning and associate themselves with the warriors. The military was especially critical of the monument, pointing out that it does not contain any military and state symbols. Furthermore, the very appearance of the memorial seemed to them gloomy, defeatist, and ambiguously interpreted from a political point of view.
When the search for ideas for a future war monument began, the Vietnam war Memorial committee set clear criteria for selecting ideas. From the very beginning, they were looking for something reflective and thought-provoking but did not contain any political statements (H.R. 96-297, 1980). Moreover, the memorial had to include the names of the soldiers who died or went missing during the Vietnam war (H.R. 96-297, 1980). Maya Lins design was selected from over 1400 entries and judged only based on beauty and ideological content. Lin proposed a project that was simple to implement but filled with a number of different meanings.
Lin managed to maintain the apolitical nature of her artistic statement, as was required in the contest entry. First, she took advantage of the terrain to create a gap rising from the ground, which symbolizes the unhealed wound caused by the war. Second, polished black marble allows people to see their reflection in the names of the dead and feel gratitude. Third, Lin refused to replace the marble color with white because the color black creates a feeling of a parallel world, an afterlife kingdom, from which a thin line separates living people. The combination of these artistic techniques makes the memorial truly multifaceted and filled with various meanings, but at the same time, very intimate, not political. Each person can find a method to connect with the memorials inner content without being pushed to think a certain way.
Maya Lin described how she came up with the idea for the shape of the monument. In her creative search, she did not start from political beliefs or state plans; she thought about what death is for a person, family, society, and nation. The idea to cut out part of the earth came to her by analogy with a scar. Later she explained her thought process, a sharp pain that lessens with time, but can never quite heal over. A scar. (On the Verge of Tears 197). Thus, according to the Memorial committees and Lins idea, the memorial was not supposed to satisfy the military agenda and take the armys side.
Even before the memorial was erected, veterans and army representatives urged Congress to cancel or amend the draft. They called Lins project a monument to defeat, black gash of shame, nihilistic, etc. (Sturken 122). At the congressional hearing, conservative politicians and veterans united to cancel the project. Maya Lin had a chance to defend and explain her ideas and her humanistic approach to war. The definition of a modern approach to war is the acknowledgment of individual lives lost, that was her position then (On the Verge of Tears 199). The hearing chairman was impressed with the profound thought built into the project and approved it without changes.
Although the controversy was not fully resolved, the memorial was erected. On the grand opening day, 10,000 veterans marched to the wall in commemoration. Although the military did not have positive expectations, when the soldiers approached the wall and saw their faces reflected the fallen soldiers names, many experienced an emotional catharsis (On the Verge of Tears 196). Eventually, Lins project accomplished its mission and enabled people to feel personal emotional experiences of loss, grief, and gratitude.
After all, our perception of such important topics may differ depending on experience, worldviews, and values. Many people could not share Maya Lins ideas, and additional bronze sculptures were erected next to the wall, more clearly and realistically depicting Vietnam War veterans. However, many come to the wall as a gravestone to remember the dead and grieve. The struggle to build this minimalistic and sophisticated memorial has changed the way we look at the architecture of monuments and taught people to look deeper and appreciate the symbolic meaning of things. We must admit that the Vietnam Veterans Memorial has a powerful effect on people despite the controversy and maybe because of it.
Works Cited
On the Verge of Tears: Why the Movies, Television, Music, Art, Popular Culture, Literature, and the Real World Make Us Cry. Cambridge Scholars, 2010.
Sturken, Marita. The aesthetics of absence: Rebuilding ground zero. American Ethnologist, vol. 31, no. 3, 2004, pp. 311-325.
The Vietnam Veterans Memorial Design Competition of 1980, H.R. 96-297, 96th Cong. §2(a) (1980).
Order from us for quality, customized work in due time of your choice.