Awaken, 2024

“Awaken” is an artwork that pays tribute to Cunard’s vision of a global consciousness. The sculpture is positioned to face the rising sun right at the mouth of Halifax harbour.

“Awaken” is a sculpture that intends to give us the experience of renewal and togetherness as we humans, all around the blue ball of earth, experience the same star, our sun. We are all linked by this experience, going back to the beginning of time. The movement of people echoes in a way the movement of the stars. They are like the coming and going of ideas and the power to bring them to fruition. Samuel Cunard was exemplary of this impulse and this sculpture intends to celebrate and acknowledge his contribution.

The sculpture is made of bronze, cast from a wax formed original figure. It is based on late archaic Greek Korai, female figures of a young age that were used to memorialize events. I am using these kinds of references in my sculpture as part of a more universal language in the effort to transcend time within a recognized canon. The pose used in ancient Greece was adopted from Egypt. It goes back to the very beginning of three-dimensional sculpture and symbolizes a stepping out or going forth into space, or into the world.

In this sculpture the figure stands on the top of a rectangle-like doorway. The position of the figure is meant to be a surrogate for the individual stepping towards the rising sun. The front of the sculpture is not articulated, but represented through a silhouette made of highly polished Bronze in order to reflect the sunrise.
The back of the sculpture is highly articulated in clothing and hair. The back of the doorway has also details of crustaceans embedded in the surface, as if aged over time in a marine environment. Both, the figure and the door are hot patinated colour.

During the dawn, sunlight passes through the crack and around the sides, casting a shadow with a streak of sunlight. The lengthening of the shadow and the shortening of the shadow at noon give movement to the static sculpture.

People passing in front of the sculpture will be bathed in golden light. Circumnavigation of the sculpture will confirm your presence in a thoughtful reflection, awakening the mind to many questions.

John Greer.