Client: Lowell Justice Centre - Boston, Massachusetts
Location: Boston, MA, United States
Completion date: 2020
Artwork budget: $300,000
Project Team
Artist
Martin Donlin
Martin Donlin Limited
Architects
Finegold Alexander
Finegold Alexander Architects
Overview
400 square metres Digitally printed glass on two surfaces sealed into a double glazed unit.
The artwork contains a number of references to Location, Community and Purpose of the building as a Centre for Justice. The design contains a number of images dedicated to historical Industrialisation, modern technological developments in the area and an image of Justice personified as a female figure with scales an a book of law.
Goals
Historical references were drawn from the “Lowell Offering” a monthly periodical of works of fiction and poetry by female textile workers of the Lowell Textile Mills, the publication was organised as a means to develop literacy among women mill workers in the early American Industrial Revolution.
Both surfaces of the glass contain text, in a number of languages, English, Spanish, Portuguese and Khmer. The front surface includes “Justice, Honour, Duty, Mercy, Hope and Dignity” The inside surface has quotes from Martin Luther King Jr. Eleanor Roosevelt and Alexander Hamilton.
Additional Information
The Lowell Justice Centre has taken 3 years to complete with a number of challenges. The glass had to be translucent for security reasons and represent a diverse local community. The text is in multiple languages including English, Khmer, Spanish and Portuguese.