City of Oklahoma City Artscapes (Public Art), 28 Aug 2017

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From YouTube: ArtScapes - Vietnam War Memorial

Description

A bronze sculpture installed at Military Park serves as a poignant reminder of the sacrifice and service shared by American and South Vietnamese soldiers in the Vietnam War.

The sculpture is called “Brothers in Arms” and depicts an American soldier and a South Vietnamese soldier standing back to back, ready to face danger together as they did daily during the war.

The sculpture, commissioned jointly by the City of Oklahoma City and the Vietnamese American Community of Greater Oklahoma City and Metropolitan Areas, was created by artist Thomas Jay Warren. It was funded by a $210,000 donation from the Vietnamese American group, which raised an additional $40,000 for other elements of a memorial plaza with the sculpture as its centerpiece.

A

Wanted to evoke a feeling of brotherhood between the two figures: that's the main thing, camaraderie and Brotherhood that they were standing together. You know, back-to-back with each other, to support each other, the role of Vietnamese community was they actually organized this whole project, the restoration of the park and wanted to have the sculpture as a centerpiece of the park, the sculpture to honor the South Vietnamese soldiers, cooperation with the American soldiers brothers in arms. So that really drew me to it.

A

These two pieces are life-sized like American soldiers, six foot, six and a Vietnamese soldier, six foot two and they probably weigh about 600 pounds apiece. You know people think a lot of people assume that bronze is solid when they see a bronze statue, but it's actually only about a quarter of an inch thick overall. There would be no way to cast a solid bronze piece that big it'd just be a technical nightmare or weigh a tremendous amount, and it's they're they're very strong I mean that the piece will last forever.

A

Really if it's taken care of bronze is ageless patina. Is that actually the color and finish on the bronze so traditionally and he'll heat the bronze with a big torch and apply a chemical to change? The color of the bronze Lee etches into the surface of the bronze is now like a surface paint, so it actually changes the physical color of the metal itself. Easy for.

A

You see it's self-rated potash, as I said before, for black rub it back, and then you use ferric nitrate heat it to make it brown gold to brown, to dark brown, our cupric nitrate to get greens looking at all kinds of college we're different, but I tend to try to stick to traditional callers because they they hold up better outdoors.

A

For one thing, it sky don't like to get things too busy with the color I like to keep the form of the piece, the main thing well, this is the thing that I've concentrated my whole career on is to to honor veterans under famous people, didn't create things for the country and it just kind of worked that way from Medgar Evers, Island, I, just kind of fell into one after another, and that's just how my career developed, that's just the way I wanted it to happen. That's exactly the thing.

A

I was most interested and just do public figures and to do portrait figures. For me, memorials are the epitome of public art, really things that to inspire children, to teach people history and beautifully can beautify the landscape all in the same package. I think that's the ultimate and that's what you get with a bit more.