What is the topic?
The criminal justice system in the United States and in countries all around the world is often inefficient and favors the wealthy over the poor. The intention of my monument is to create awareness of the failures of the criminal justice system here in NYC and around the globe.
Why did I pick this?
In NYC, thousands of people suffer unfairly in the hands of the criminal justice system, people are held in Rikers Island without official criminal charges, the underprivileged are harassed by the police and arrested for petty crimes like hopping subway turnstiles, leading to loss of employment and child services splitting families apart.
In countries like Saudi Arabia, Iran and North Korea, people are denied their human rights and imprisoned for minor infractions and thought crimes. My monument will call attention to these issues among others.
What would make a good monument/artwork to communicate my ideas?
Rikers Island is currently overflowing with inmates to the point where the city has set up prison barges on the river to deal with the overflow of prisoners. My monument would be a scaled down recreation of a prison barge in a public area in Manhattan to show to the public the meager and inhumane living conditions of prisoners trapped in the criminal justice system in NYC.
What would it look like?
The monument would be a sculpture, the medium would be some kind of metal as it will be displayed outdoors and will need to withstand the elements.
Where would it be?
The sculpture would be placed in a public area in Manhattan, most likely in Battery Park, or another are where large amounts of people congregate. Rikers Island is far out of the view of the public and this monument is meant to call attention to the fact that the criminal justice system in NYC is in need of dire changes.
Who is it for?
This monument is for residents and visitors to NYC. Anyone that might be unaware of the dark truth about the hardships of struggling to live in this city under constant surveillance and fear of being arrested.
Art & Society Fall 2015
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Great topic- so it would look like an actual barge? This could be very impactful. it could actually be life size- and you could have the monument on the Hudson River floating in front of the million dollar condos on the west side, so they would have to look at it everyday.
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