Last year, two of my classes remixed prominent public messages in Arlington to critique them. Their model was Zaq Landsberg’s sculpture Reclining Liberty, a remix of the Statue of Liberty that has found her new site-specific home among Arlington’s permanent monuments celebrating freedom and public life.
News shows in D.C. and New York City discussed why her pose resembles the reclining Buddha and why people can climb on this version of Lady Liberty. But my Arlington Tech students and I had other reasons for interviewing Landsberg.
Landsberg graciously gave us two interviews (one for each class) over the course of an hour. He spoke with us about his approach to art, remixes, history, public reactions, and public spaces. This 17-minute podcast episode contains a lot of content from these exclusive interviews as well as remarks from Ms. Blair Murphy, the curator at Museum of Contemporary Art Arlington who worked with Landsberg to bring Reclining Liberty to the museum’s front lawn.
Above: some of my students climb on Reclining Liberty during our field trip
Packing up in the exurbs a year ago this month, I took Reclining Liberty's move to Arlington the same month as a sign. Victoria and I would be examining public life in our new town, and Reclining Liberty would be here, too, as a conversation starter about the nature and future of freedom in America.
It was great honor to develop curriculum around this statue last year.
Above: sculptor Zaq Landsberg at an artists’ talk in Arlington this past April.
Above: my daughter Bethany and I visit Reclining Liberty
My thanks to Zaq Landsberg for permission to use his interview for this podcast episode. My thanks also to Light Patterns for the licensed use of “Art of Play” from Uppbeat.
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