'The Awakening' Heading To New Home

[Merlion]

This is truly a 'dramatic sculpture', but for children a fun sculpture. The news story below comes with a video which is worth viewing. For your convenience, I take out the video link here. (http://www.wusa9.com/video/player.aspx?aid=43417&bw=). The 2nd picture below is from another source.

'The Awakening' Heading To New Home (http://www.wusa9.com/news/news_article.aspx?storyid=57874&provider=gnews)

4/23/2007, (WUSA) -- "The Awakening," a dramatic sculpture situated at the tip of Hain's Point has been sold to the developer of National Harbor, a $2 billion project under construction at the Prince George's County end of the Woodrow Wilson Bridge.

"Charlie," as he's been dubbed by some locals, has called East Potomac Park his home for the past 27 years. He was created by artist J. Seward Johnson who wanted to donate it to the National Park Service but was forbidden from doing so by federal law.

http://www.wusa9.com/assetpool/images/07423175819_awake2.jpg

More than a year ago, the Sculpture Foundation offered it for sale. Developer Milton Peterson saw it and jumped. Peterson tells 9NEWS NOW "The Awakening" is "perfect" for National Harbor, where it will be placed in the Potomac River beach at the new development scheduled to open in early 2008.

The sculpture is expected to be dug up late this summer, restored, and then re-located between 2 piers and below 2 stainless steel eagles that will soar from 65-foot poles atop a long flight of steps leading down to the beach.

Peterson says he paid approximately $750,000 for the 5-piece cast aluminum sculpture.

http://www.readexpress.com/read_freeride/photos/2007-04-23-awakening.jpg

[evaldart]

Not usually a fan of this guys work but this one is a treat. Its not all rigid and colored-up.

[Merlion]

Here is a better photo.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/f/fe/AwakeningSculpture-RES20010712.jpg

As different parts of the body of this giant are on the ground, it is better to view if from higher grounds. I think the new site can offer this which is good.

And here (http://www.flickr.com/search/?q=Seward+Johnson+awakening) are many more photos saved into Fickr.

[StevenW]

It's cool work, but it kind of creeps me out, like quicksand or the Le Brea Tar Pits or something.

[Merlion]

Children loves 'Chalie'. The beachfront is also a good location. Not sure if it is salt water beachfront or not, and not sure if aluminum can stand salf spray well.

http://a123.g.akamai.net/f/123/12465/1d/media.canada.com/cp/entertainment/20070424/e042432a.jpg

[ahirschman]

Mi kids loved to climb that sculpture. Another neat thing about that sculpture is that it is just by the Potomac river, which occasionally floods and covers the ground around the sculpture. Then it looks like it is in the water (OK it is in the water). On one occasion, a car did not make the turn and hit the sculpture. Then I saw it being driven on the Washington Beltway, on its way to being fixed in NJ. It is a very neat sculpture, and it is in an amazing setting right now. I hope the new location is as good.

Ari.

[ironman]

Hi, I'm glad the kids enjoy climbing on Charlie.
I've never been a fan of this guys work either and this god awful piece just verified (to me, at least) my opinion.
If I lived in a development where they installed that piece, I'd put my house on the market immediately.
Have a great day,
Jeff

[frozenimage]

I remember this sculpture. It was actually sculpted by Andrew Patinski, a Johnson Atelier employee. Seward Johnson, contrary to popular belief, actually does not sculpt, has money but no/////,,,,.....sculptural skill.

I think it was around 1992 it came back to the Johnson Atelier, kids in the Haynes Point area would steal cars and race them, sometimes flying over a small hill. A car crashed into "The Awakening," we had to recast and repair several sections. The casting is aluminum. A person can go into the mouth of the sculpture, you would scarce believe how many used condoms, syringes, and beer bottles were in his head. Trying to think of the movie, the name of the movie, that had the "Awakening" in the opening scene.....where a lawyer, I think, commits suicide at Haynes point.

I personally think "The Awakening" is just frickin' MARVELLOUS, and that Andrew, should actually be credited for this fabulous work.

[Merlion]

Interesting information about J. Seward Johnson, Jr. and his company Johnson Atelier. The company is also called Sculpture Foundation.

Apparently J. Seward Johnson, Jr. calls himself the artist for many of the bronze pieces made by his company, perhaps because he created the ideas.

The news article I quoted in post #1 mentioned that he was trying to donate the Awakening but it did no work out. And this time, it was sold to the National Habor's developer for $750,000.

[frozenimage]

Yes, because he created, and much more important, FUNDED the ideas.

Seward Johnson ROCKS! :D

[Merlion]

Creating the idea is relevant. Funding the idea may be practically important, but not relevant to whether he is regarded as the artist.

[Merlion]

'The Awakening' Heading To New Home (http://www.wusa9.com/news/news_article.aspx?storyid=57874&provider=gnews)

4/23/2007, (WUSA) -- "The Awakening," a dramatic sculpture situated at the tip of Hain's Point has been sold to the developer of National Harbor, a $2 billion project under construction at the Prince George's County end of the Woodrow Wilson Bridge. ....

The sculpture is expected to be dug up late this summer, restored, and then re-located between 2 piers and below 2 stainless steel eagles that will soar from 65-foot poles atop a long flight of steps leading down to the beach. ...
This Awakening giant at Washington D C actually was not dug up and moved as exected in summer 2007. For some reason, this D C giant partially buried in quirkmire for years is finally moving away.

D.C. Giant to Be Unearthed Next Week for New Digs (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/02/13/AR2008021303340.html)

Feb 14, 2008. Washington's massive, quirky public sculpture "The Awakening," ... will be dug up Wednesday and moved from its home at Hains Point, the National Park Service announced last night.

J. Seward Johnson's creation, which has been at the site at East Potomac Park since June 1980, will be moved to Prince George's County. ...

The five-piece, cast aluminum sculpture stands 17 feet tall at its highest point and is 70 feet across. ...

http://media3.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/photo/2008/02/13/PH2008021303342.jpg

"The Awakening" had been on loan to the Park Service, which manages East Potomac Park. The owner, California-based Sculpture Foundation, sold the work last spring to the developer of the National Harbor project in Prince George's, and it is to be placed there.

[Biomorph]

I'm quite stunned by the info on Johnson. His work, though not the abstract sculpture that really interests me, is interesting, technicaly adept, amusing, carrying a good story, usually very well situated and is, generally, public sculpture to be commended. I think of the businessman with the open portfolio in the park across from the World Trade Center site, and I think of peering thru the bushes at the sculpture of the painting "Dejeuner Sur L'herbe" in the New Jersey Sculpture park.
The general feeling of the corresponding crowd at the ISC site seems to be that designing sculpture but handing out the fabrication is, these days, quite acceptible. Here, it seems as if one whose contribution is simply the idea for the piece can claim credit as the artist. [Set the funding issue aside.] It seems to me that there is a line here, maybe fuzzy, that would require some heavy degree of participation in the specifics of the design before one can claim credit.
If I were rich, could I go the the fabricator and say "I've got an idea for a very big white marble figure of a naked young guy standing, cradling a rock under his chin."--and then take credit for the David? I'd love to hear some thoughts. biomorph

[racine]

its far from new, always on the edge of controvercial mostly for those who value their own input. eduado paolotzzi established british sculptor of fame is well known away from the media for hiring out. there are stories of course that annoy many artists but heres another example 'as i have been told'; the large bronze outside the british library in london came from the image of william blakes 'newton' which was passed to the old modelmaker who made the fist action man,[gi joe] he interpreted for the maquette, eduado fiddled with it [apparently very little] and signed. it was enlarged [signed]and cast -et voila famous sculpure. - this dosnt actually bother me but what would get me if this is how i worked is that i should be terribly bored with life. so little challenge.

[Merlion]

More interesting pictures can be found in this news link below.

Rude 'Awakening': Sculpture Moved to Pr. George's (http://www.readexpress.com/read_freeride/2008/02/rude_awakening_sculpture_moved_to_pr_geo.php)

MOTORISTS ON I-395 today might have seen a large face being carted down the street, along with a jumble of other body parts. That's because it was moving day for "The Awakening," the quirky sculpture that made its home at Washington's Haines Point for nearly 30 years....

http://www.readexpress.com/read_freeride/photos/2008_02_20-awakening1.jpg
Workers remove the head of "The Awakening" statue
in preparation for its move to Maryland

http://www.readexpress.com/read_freeride/photos/2008_02_20-awakening3.jpg

The first crews arrived before 4 a.m., to begin detaching the five body parts from their steel anchors. The heaviest — the knee — weighs about 1,400 pounds, while the giant's right arm, which claws upward toward the sky, weighs slightly less. The hand and arm weigh the least — at about 600 pounds each, while the head is about 1,000 pounds, construction officials said.

For each, the removal process was the same. First, Kevlar belts were stretched around the pieces to lift then out of the ground and on top of bales of hale cushioned by inflated inner tubes. They there were hoisted by crane onto the back of a flatbed truck. ...