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How to Mark Loss?
The dead leave a void behind them, so creators of memorials face a perennial challenge: finding the physical expression of emptiness. Some designers meet this challenge with symbols of everlasting life -- for instance, the eternal flame at President Kennedy's gravesite. Memorial markers also employ symbols of renewal such as poppies, which in the First World War sprouted in the mud of no man's land between the trenches.
The 9/11 Memorial includes acre-size pools where each of the trade towers stood. Although they are fed by waterfalls -- generally symbols of replenishment -- the pools never fill. They represent "absence made visible," says the architect, Michael Arad.
Spontaneous memorials that spring up after tragedies are created for the crestfallen by those preoccupied with grief. Then time passes, memories fade. The message of more permanent monuments like the Holodomor Memorial is "lest we forget." |