Jeremy Benson (MArch I)
The Ontological Looking Glass
A Counter-Memory for Stone Mountain
The Ontological Looking Glass is a monument that impels questioning and reflecting on one’s relationship to the moral, material, and existential qualities of a racist, colonialist history. The monument serves as a symbolic counterpoint to the static, immovable monadnock of Stone Mountain and the memorial for which it is famous.
An alluring, uncanny, and ineffable atmosphere is conjured as one experiences the monument: a path incised into the face of the granite monadnock leads to a large, gravity-defying boulder. Supporting the boulder, a slab roof hangs by a metal noose, as it precariously balances on a single column constructed of railroad timbers. Finally, carved stairs lead down to a platform with a pit of smoldering ash that adds warmth and smells of familiar materials: wood, tobacco, cotton. Looking up at the underside of the slab, GA Code Section 50-3-1, the very law that protects the egregious memorial, is carved to allow for certain words to erode allowing its meaning to change over time.
Contemplating the panorama of the Atlanta skyline beyond while the boulder looms above, one is simultaneously filled with wonder and dread.
The Immeasurable Enclosure Fall 2019
The Ontological Looking Glass
A Counter-Memory for Stone Mountain
The Ontological Looking Glass is a monument that impels questioning and reflecting on one’s relationship to the moral, material, and existential qualities of a racist, colonialist history. The monument serves as a symbolic counterpoint to the static, immovable monadnock of Stone Mountain and the memorial for which it is famous.
An alluring, uncanny, and ineffable atmosphere is conjured as one experiences the monument: a path incised into the face of the granite monadnock leads to a large, gravity-defying boulder. Supporting the boulder, a slab roof hangs by a metal noose, as it precariously balances on a single column constructed of railroad timbers. Finally, carved stairs lead down to a platform with a pit of smoldering ash that adds warmth and smells of familiar materials: wood, tobacco, cotton. Looking up at the underside of the slab, GA Code Section 50-3-1, the very law that protects the egregious memorial, is carved to allow for certain words to erode allowing its meaning to change over time.
Contemplating the panorama of the Atlanta skyline beyond while the boulder looms above, one is simultaneously filled with wonder and dread.
The Immeasurable Enclosure Fall 2019
