THE ASCENTS : Sculpture Installation
Human figure, one-cent coins and epoxy, 2013
Juan Arata's The Ascents is a sculpture installation that addresses the idea of the post-industrial worker and his state after an economic peak of wealth. It was constructed using pennies, collected from different citizens around Williamsport, PA, as a coat of chain mail. It is about the transfer fee that this city had to pay after the industrial upper echelon left their mansions on Millionaires Row, and the impoverished unemployed had to survive with one cent coins which, by the way, cost more to produce than their face-value.
If industry is the kick-starter for a new town to be, its workers are the blood and the heart. If trade is the idea, inhabitants are the soul and the personality. While the opportunity of new business moves in search of new hot spots, people tend to settle down and appropriate the land in order to make history.
The Ascents pays tribute to the people who stayed even knowing they where left behind. It honors the roots of the ones that are still searching for their future. The Ascents stand with pride, they stand steady protected by their copper amour and the conviction that money isn’t everything in life.
Photo: David Becker
Juan Arata Website.
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