Momento revisited 2018

Title:

"The Veteran"

Materials:

Wood, Ink, and Wood Glue

Dimensions:

4 inches long, by 2 inches wide, by 2 inches tall.

Veterans park is a playground and surrounding public facilities, located along Atlantic Avenue where the inter-coastal water way cuts through the city of Delray Beach. The playground, during my childhood was made entirely out of wood besides some plastic swings and slides, but even the ground was mulch and wood chips. This environment was hands down dangerous. Between the rusty nails cracked and splintered wood, homeless people, crack heads, gang bangers and worst of all cops. It was here in this environment surrounded by misfortune and chaos that I blossomed into the man I am today. It was on these hollowed grounds that I drank my first beer, smoked my first cigarette, got into my first fight, saw injustice for the first time, ran from the cops for the first time, the first time i smoked weed and many other pivotal moments in my life. This park taught me to be humble, appreciate what I have, and understand that there is always more going on behind the scenes. The same could be seen in my momento sculpture. The wooden figure resembles the wood chips that filled the floor of the wooden playground,however the wooden playground has hence been destroyed and replaced with a much safer plastic playground. And like the wooden playground my memory of that time will also fade away, this idea of fading memories is included into my sculpture in the areas that have received the most water damage and have begun to rot. So like the memory of Veterans Park, my momento of it will also fade away given enough time.


Research:
1)Ted Talk "How your working memory makes sense of the world"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UWKvpFZJwcE
2) "Persistence of Memory"

3)Wood Sculpture by Dana Hapac