Light of Freedom

Sidedoor

Smithsonian Institution

Museum, Air And Space, Society & Culture, National Museum, Tony Cohn, Sidedoor, Natural History, African American History And Culture, Postal Museum, History, American History, History Of The World, Exhibits, Art19, Pop Culture, Smithsonian, The Smithsonian, Science, Washington, National Zoo, Zoo, Dc, Exhibit

4.6 • 2.3K Ratings

🗓️ 17 November 2021

⏱️ 29 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

There’s a new sculpture at the Smithsonian’s Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden: a giant torch that’s strikingly familiar – and entirely unique. Artist Abigail DeVille has reimagined the Statue of Liberty’s torch to shine a light on historical contradictions of American freedom. Through her work, DeVille asks us to re-examine the stories we’ve inherited as a nation, including the story of Lady Liberty herself. As it turns out, the statue holding her torch alight in New York Harbor today has come to stand for something very different from its original intention. Born out of the Black Lives Matter protests of 2020, Light of Freedom reflects the historical origins of the Statue of Liberty and challenges us to confront the idea that liberty itself is a work in progress.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	This is Side Door, a podcast from the Smithsonian with support from PRX.
0:13.4	I'm Lizzie Peabody.
0:15.3	It's Dawn on the National Mall.
0:26.8	Washington D.C. is just waking up, the hum of traffic stirring, jogger shuffling by.
0:33.6	And the Smithsonian's Hirshhorn Museum in sculpture garden is quiet in the sleepy morning
0:39.0	light.
0:41.3	But not for long.
0:42.9	A woman dressed in bright clothing walks slowly through the sunken garden, singing.
0:56.3	She circles the entire garden, slowly, deliberately, making eye contact with each person
1:21.3	and she passes.
1:37.6	And when she comes back to where she started, the air is still for just a moment, until
1:49.1	in the southern edge of the garden we hear drums.
2:01.3	Drums join on the east, then the north, and the west.
2:13.5	On the four cardinal directions, the drumming echoes off the four halls of the sunken
2:17.8	garden.
2:18.8	I'm standing in the center with a throng of revelers and art buffs and curious commuters
2:23.6	who've gathered in the garden.
2:25.4	And as we listen, the drummers begin to move from the edges into the center.
2:32.6	Which was sort of its own crescendo in energy and sound.
2:39.7	Even Reeve, associate curator at the Smithsonian's Hirshhorn Museum in sculpture garden, was
2:44.5	there with me in the garden as the drummers closed in.
2:48.6	Being all together with a group of people on the mall as the sun is coming up, listening
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Smithsonian Institution, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Smithsonian Institution and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.