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Anaheim Veterans
War Memorial, Anaheim, CA
ommissioned in 1999 by the
City of Anaheim Redevelopment Agency, the Anaheim
Veterans Memorial consists of
bronze, water, concrete, and landscaping
melded together as an artistic tribute to
Anaheim’s and America’s veterans. A concrete column with a bronze relief stands
in the center of a circular plaza bordered
by seating and water elements. The two
water elements are comprised of blocks
of relief text over which sheets of water
flow. The text is the dates (spelled out
rather than in numbers) of the wars in
the 20th century in which America was
involved.The water flowing over the
dates symbolically washes/purifies the
memory of those events.
The dates on the flanking benches
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are a sequence of the years of the 20th
century with the dates of America’s wars
in a boldface type and the years of
peace in regular type.The maze design
in the concrete circle surrounding the
central column refers to the maze of
one’s memories of past events (e.g.
wars). The geological strata of the layered concrete of the column are, again, a
reference to the layered quality of one’s
memories. The intuitive arrangement of
the figures in the bronze relief is also a
reference to the nature of memory and
the intertwining and overlapping of past
experiences. The freedom from chronology that dreams and memories enjoy,
and the way in which national memory
is continually being refashioned by current events and the media.
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