Margaret Lee
- Artist Statement
- Curator Statement
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Artist Statement
Monuments commemorate great people and significant events’ grand public markers that function to inspire and remind us of our own potential to achieve said greatness and significance. Think About Tomorrow . . . or Don’t is based loosely on the Wright Brothers Monument, erected on the spot of their first sustained flight in 1903 near Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. It is an awe-inspiring design that conveys optimism and progress, looking both like the wings of a bird in flight and the rays of a bisected rising sun. It is a monument not only to the first sustained flight in a machine heavier than air, but also to the greatness of the American character and the perseverance of this identity. Our Nation was founded under these precepts and has risen to extraordinary power on the waves of it. We succeeded in fulfilling our Manifest Destiny by continuously looking to the future with out-standing will and ambition.
And while history has provided very succinct examples of the benefits gained from unbridled optimism, will, and ambition, these examples make it easy to overlook the paradoxical nature of optimism. Think About Tomorrow . . . or Don’t is an ambiguous monument, offering a broader message than the traditional monuments connecting two seemingly dichotomous ideas into a single thought, bringing together both sides of the bisected rising sun convincing the viewer of nothing but offering everything.
This piece illustrates the nature of my work and its emphasis on the paradoxes surrounding forward movement and apparent advantageous advancement. It is through sculptures, drawings, and installations that I attempt to move toward a deeper understanding of what propels us all to move toward anything at all.
Curator Statement
Think About Tomorrow, Or Don’t, an installation by Margaret Lee, is based on the monument erected near Kitty Hawk commemorating the “First Flight” and honoring the men who believed in the impossible, Orville and Wilbur Wright. Unlike the high granite inspiration, Lee’s monument to belief is made entirely out of wood and is a diminutive 10’. Instead of representing half a sunset as the Wright Memorial does, this monument finishes the gesture by doubling the actual form of the sculpture and sunset adorning the fascia. A painted sunset on paper flanks the double sculpture, which is set opposing the background of Downtown Denver, in which the gleam of the golden Colorado Capital is in view, and plays with the original scale of the Wright Monument and the contextual hopefulness of its message. Then there is the monument’s text: “Think About Tomorrow . . . or Don’t” Impishly playing off optimistic lingo from the Wright Monument and culling from self-help culture, including language reminiscent of self help gurus L Ron Hubbard and Dale Carnegie, the title/text asks but does not answer, questions but does not solve, focuses but does not enlighten.
