Defending Controversial Art

I want to talk about the controversy that surrounded the amazing Vietnam Memorial in Washington D.C. The beauty and simplicity of this monument is breathtaking. The problem was that when it was being built, not everybody felt the same way I do.

There was a ton of controversy surrounding this monument, mainly because this wasn't just an artist's private work of art. This was a huge public project that affected and literally represented thousands upon thousands of people. And, these weren't just ordinary people with a small interest. These were war veterans and their families that put their own lives, or the lives of their loved ones on the line. 58,000 people died in Vietnam. A lot of sweat, blood, and tears dwell within these black walls.

There was a lot of thought and careful planning that went into the complete design and construction of this memorial. Many ideas were debated and voted on. Finally, it came down to a design contest. All of the best of the best minds in the world put in their designs and only one could be chosen. To every bodys' surprise, a recent graduate of Yale University won. This caused a few problems...

Whenever you try to get this many people to all agree on something; It is next to impossible. So, naturally, those people who don't agree and lose the majority vote, usually don't go down without a fight. People didn't like the fact that the panel that chose the winner didn't consist of all veterans. They didn't like the fact that the designer wasn't a veteran. They didn't like the fact that she was so young and lacked the experience of other architects. Last, but not least...they didn't like the fact that she was Asian.

After the smoke cleared, the design remained and the monument was built...with a slight compromise (adding an American flag on the site). It is now the most visited monument in all of Washington D.C. It turned out perfect. A lot was learned from the whole controversy. We learned a lot from this didn't we?...especially concerning stereotypes. I'm going to use the cliche: "You can't judge a book by its cover." If you don't already know this from eating an assorted box of chocolates (Sorry. Bad Joke)...you certainly know it now after studying more about the Vietname Memorial. You can't judge somebody by their race, color, creed, experience, age, etc. Not everybody is the same. You can't have these molds that you try to fit people into before you've even met them. We also learned that you can't please everybody...you can only hope to please the majority and for the others...just do your best to weather the storm.

Personally, I learned a lot about the work that goes into creating art in general, but especially at this scale. I learned that artists face a lot of criticism. Maybe this is something that comes with the territory, but still. I can take some things that hopefully everybody learned and really apply them to my life. I learned not to judge so easily. I learned that I really need to get the whole story before I form my opinion. Put yourself in the other person's shoes. A closed mind is a terrible thing.

I had a lot of fun with this analysis and learning about the Vietnam Memorial. If you haven't watched the video yet...I highly recommend it. It really brought this monument to life. If you have any comments, ideas, or in-depth analysis that you would like to share with me, please leave me a comment. Thanks : )