"War," it's been said "is good for sculptors."
It's true that a lot of monuments and memorials go up to remember every conflict (though they usually start apeparing almost a generation after the end of a war), and that someone has to design and make them. But a lot of war memorials are replicas and one of the most ubiquitous of them is a modest little piece called, "The Hiker".
It's just the figure of a Spanish-American War soldier loosely carrying his gun. It was made to honor those fighters of a pointless egregious war and could be placed anywhere at any time at a modest cost. The first one I ran across stands among the trees of Armory park in downtown Tucson. It was the first piece I'd ever see that was made by a woman. (Which is a whole other story.)
The interesting thing about this piece is how the piece changes based on its surroundings. I ran across the drawings Kitson herself made of a variety of ways to display the statue and was amazed at the difference in its feeling each way. Above is the New Bedford statue. Below is the same statue in DC.  and in Providence, Rhode Island. Though all of these have standard bases, their surroundings give each of them a different dimension. Which is most effective in remembering this useless war in which canned food killed so many more soldiers than bullets?
10:28:11 AM 
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