Have you checked out the new public art display at Cleveland Public Library’s Eastman Reading Garden? Take a minute and contemplate Cleveland’s future as you gaze upon Watership Down. Are our houses sinking or swimming? Are we coming up from the flood or are we getting further into troubled waters?
What are we talking about? Read on.
Watership Down relates to the 1972 novel by Richard Adams, which tells the story of a family of rabbits that are searching for a new place to call home after their warren has been destroyed. At a tumultuous time in Cleveland’s history in which many people have lost their homes, the parable illustrated in Watership Down seems particularly apt.
These fragments of homes, built in styles and colors found throughout Cleveland’s historic working class neighborhoods, appear to be either rising or sinking depending upon the perspective of the viewer. The idea of home is something that can no longer be taken for granted. However, like the rabbits in the novel, Clevelanders continue to show strength and resiliency as they seek to shape their lives in the aftermath of a crisis.
http://ClevelandPublicArt.org/projects/completed/watership-down