Assignment:
World Cultures II
Discussion
Monuments and Person of the Week.
Please answer both questions using in formation in our text and online sources as needed.
1. Describe a contemporary monument in your city (New York City) or in local area. Tell us the special significance it holds for the citizens of the city where it was erected. Compare this monument to the Eiffel Tower in Paris: should it keep the original design and structure, like the Tower, or be updated?
2. Person of the Week: This week your choices are between several important artists whose works were groundbreaking and influential enough to create different types of art, literature, or cinema. For art, consider Gabriele Munter, Paul Cezanne, or Georges Seurat. For poetry, Guillaume Apollinaire. For cinema, D.W. Griffith. Who is the most important person this week, in your opinion, and why? Support your choice with facts from the text and a picture. Provide the link to the website/source used with your reply.
Part 2: Student Response
Discussion
The contemporary monument I chose was the Richmond Slavery Reconciliation statue, located in Richmond, VA. Unveiled on March 31, 2007, the bronze sculpture stands at 15 feet and weighs a half-ton and depicts two people embracing each other. The sculpture was erected not far from where I live and Richmond's former slave market in Shockoe Bottom. There are three large wood block benches that triangulate the statue and a cascading fountain with captions describing the significance of the statue. The inscription reads:
THE TRIANGLE
Liverpool, England
The Benin Region of West Africa
Richmond, Virginia
During the 18th Century, these three places reflected on of the well-known triangles in the trade of enslaved Africans.
Men, women and children were captured in West and Central Africa and transported from Benin and other countries. They were chained, herded, loaded on ships built in England and transported through the unspeakable horrors of the Middle Passage.
They were imported and exported in Richmond, Virginia and sold in other American cities. Their forced labor laid the economic foundation of this nation.
The reconciliation project emerged from apologies for slavery issued by officials in Liverpool, England, and Benin in West Africa. Matching Reconciliation sculptures have been erected in Liverpool and Benin, each of which played a prominent role in the slave trade.
This sculpture is fairly new to Richmond, compared to other sculptures that have been around for decades. As of now, it should keep its original design. Perhaps in a few more decades a revamped design may be suitable, depending on the wear and tear of the statue.
Although, I'm not now nor have I ever been a fan of the original "Birth of a Nation" (not to be confused with the 2016 film based on Nat Turner, that shares the same name) I would have to say that D. W. Griffith, despite being a controversial figure, played a crucial role in film. Griffith was responsible for many editing innovations in the film industry, such as classical cutting, close ups, continuity editing and parallel editing (1). He also developed a four-reel film, which meant the movie could play for an hour. This innovation pioneered the feature-length movie that we are familiar with today (2). Griffith almost singlehandedly invented the editing and continuity styles that are still being used in the present.
Sources
1. John P Hess. 2017. D.W. Griffith and Continuity Editing.
2. Biography.com. n.d. D.W. Griffith.