Searching for a Destination Unknown: National Harbour, Maryland

Wednesday, November 23, 2011

National Harbour, Maryland

The Awakening Sculpture

I recently wrote about the Peep Store at National Harbor! This is actually the second time I had been to the National Harbor, the first time was for a work conference at the Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center. That place is freaking H-U-G-E! I'd go to the NH more often if there was an easier way to get there! Well, actually there apparently is a bus that leaves from Branch Avenue...but really who goes that far on the green line?!?!?! I think there's a water taxi from Alexandria, but no idea about that. So by car is really the only other option. There are a few awesome places out there that I'd like to go to, but its just a hassle. For example, Bobby Key's, a dueling piano bar...that would be awesome, jsut wish it was closer! They've got events there all year round, like the Holiday Market, summer movie series, culinary festivals, outdoor concerts, and they even hosted Cirque du Soleil in 2008.

There's also this really odd looking sculpture called the Awakening that looks like a statue coming out of the sand. I looked it up on wikipedia, and here's what its all about:

The Awakening (1980) is a 70-foot statue of a giant embedded in the earth, struggling to free himself, located at National Harbor in Prince George's County, Maryland, USA, just outside the District of Columbia. It was created by J. Seward Johnson, Jr. and originally installed at Hains Point, Washington, D.C.

The statue consists of five separate aluminum pieces buried in the ground, giving the impression of a distressed giant attempting to free himself from the ground. The left hand and right foot barely protrude, while the bent left leg and knee jut into the air. The 17-foot (5.2 m) high right arm and hand reach farther out of the ground. The bearded face, with the mouth in mid-scream, struggles to emerge from the earth.

History:

The Awakening was created for Washington, D.C.’s 1980 International Sculpture Conference Exhibition. Although its National Park Service "temporary permit" had long expired, the statue remained for 27 years at the southern end of Hains Point, across the Potomac River from Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport.

In 2007, the National Park Service announced that the sculpture would be moved to the National Harbor, after the artist sold the statue for $750,000. The sculpture was excavated and removed from Hains Point on February 20, 2008, and then was installed at National Harbor in a configuration to correct scale issues that existed in the original sculpture.