“The Awakening” Sculpture

I am not typically a big art person. This is mainly due to the fact that I love to be outside, especially when on vacation, so I don’t find myself frequenting museums often. While researching Washington, D.C.-area attractions prior to my trip to the East Coast last September, though, I came across some information about a work of art that enthralled me. Images of the piece, a massive sculpture called The Awakening, were striking and I quickly decided that I was not returning home without seeing it in person.

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The unique installation, which depicts a giant fighting to emerge from the sand that engulfs him, was created by J. Seward Johnson, Jr., the same artist who gave us Forever Marilyn and Unconditional Surrender, both of which I blogged about in May 2012. (I was thrilled to come across reports while researching for this post that Forever Marilyn might be returning to Palm Springs in the very near future!)

The sculpture is made up of five half-buried cast-aluminum parts representing the hand, arm, head, knee and foot of a distressed giant struggling to break through the earth’s surface.

Rising over 15 feet tall and spanning a length of 70 feet, The Awakening is absolutely breathtaking to see in person.

And rather dramatic.

Seward, who is the grandson of Johnson & Johnson co-founder Robert Wood Johnson, created the piece in 1980 for the International Sculpture Conference Exhibition in Washington, D.C. It was originally installed on an open expanse of grassy land overlooking the water at Hains Point in East Potomac Park, just a few miles from the National Mall. Owned by the Sculpture Foundation, The Awakening’s placement was always considered temporary, thanks largely to a law enacted in 1986 that banned non-commemorative art from being permanently displayed in any District-area national park. As such, the Foundation quietly put it on the market, where it remained for several years until Milton V. Peterson, chairman of the Peterson Companies, snapped it up in 2007. The purchase price? A cool $740,000. Of the score, Peterson said, “As soon as I found it was for sale, I bought it that week. I think it is one of the most demonstrative pieces that we have.”

Peterson purchased the 4,100-pound statue in order to install it at National Harbor, his 300-acre mixed-use development consisting of shops, eateries, condominium buildings, hotels, offices, and a convention center, all situated adjacent to the Potomac River in Oxon Hill, Maryland. A beach was constructed in the center of the complex for The Awakening to be displayed.

While being assembled at its new home, the giant was altered. As explained in this December 2007 The New York Times article, “At Hains Point, the pieces were placed slightly off-kilter, making the figure anatomically incorrect. So when the sculpture’s wire base is reburied, one of the legs will be moved slightly.”

National Harbor opened to the public in 2008.

As you can see below, the site where The Awakening now sits boasts some incredible views.

I have to say that I prefer the sculpture’s original setting, though. The Awakening is now situated in a relatively tiny area that is below street level, making it virtually hidden from passersby. Even I had a bit of a hard time spotting it as we arrived on the scene, and I was actively looking for it. While undeniably huge, the piece gets swallowed up by its surroundings. In my never-to-be-humble opinion, I think it looked much better – and much more striking – when it was out in the open as it was at Hains Point. You can see images of The Awakening at its original location here and here. My other beef with the piece’s new home is that it has seemingly turned into a playground, with kids crawling all over it (as pretty much all of my pictures attest to), and now more closely resembles a jungle gym than a stunning work of art. A second The Awakening was created by Seward in 2009 and put on display in Chesterfield, Missouri. That piece is laid out in a much better way than its National Harbor counterpart. You can check out some photos of it here and here.

I was floored to learn while doing research for this post that The Awakening is also a filming location! Back in 1995, when it was still located at Hains Point, the statue was featured in the opening scene of The Net as the spot where Secretary of Defense Senator Bergstrom (Ken Howard) killed himself.