VIETNAM MEMORIAL - 1975
On the Cal State Long Beach campus, two metal objects face each other across a rectangular concrete base. Both are made of 1-in. thick metal slab. One, a square sheet, stands upright to create a vertical plane. The other – smaller, curving, buckled, and scored – is mounted horizontal to the base on short metal rods. The vertical sheet is pierced by jagged holes and foliage grows over most of its surface. A finely crafted, life-sized sculpture of a dove perches on one of its jagged internal edges.
The metal objects for this work came from the China Lake Naval Missile Range, where they had been repeatedly struck by ordnance.
“Tom Van Sant once said that Vietnam 1975 ‘…is a symbol of war’s aftermath, twisted metal overgrown by jungle; birds nest among the ruins unaware of previous violence. Life goes on.” [1]
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California State University Long Beach
1250 Bellflower Blvd, Long Beach, CA 90840
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1974
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N/A
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Iron, bronze, concrete, and foliage (creeping fig)
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Sculpture: 7.3 ft. x 8.3 ft. x 12.3 ft.
Concrete
base: 1 ft. x 12 ft. x 18 ft
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Unknown
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Louise Carlson Cultural Fund
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Extant, in situ, in good condition.
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All images of the Long Beach Vietnam Memorial are from TVS digital records.
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Van Sant was familiar with war. He had served in the US Marine Corps during the Korean war and volunteered as a combat artist in Vietnam.
“In 1966, the Marine Corps organized an extensive program for artists to record their impressions of Vietnam.” [2] “The officer who ran the Marine Corps combat art program read...that I had been a Marine. So he called me, in 1967 or something, and asked me if I would like to go to Vietnam and do that, and go with the First Marine Division. And I said, "No, of course not. I'm not a great enthusiast of your war. And I'm kind of sorry we're there."
And a year later, things happened in my life that it was a difficult time for me. And I all of a sudden found that I would like to spend a few months of my life not deciding about whether things were good or bad or whether this project—like, what makes a drawing or a painting better, or a sculpture better or worse or whatever, and spend it in a survival-oriented environment where none of that makes any difference.” [3]
“The Long Beach [Sculpture] Symposium has been called ‘a wedding of industry and art’ because of the cooperation of industries who gave more than $350,000 in materials, facilities, and consulting engineers...The result has been called a ‘museum without the walls’...
In 1974 two other major works were given to the campus...Tom Van Sant’s ‘War Monument’ was installed on the lawn south of Science Building 1. It is two steel plates shaped from metal obtained from the China Lake Naval Missile Range that had been pierced by exploding shells. A brass dove is mounted on the larger piece.” [4]
[1] ArtsLB Public Art Map,” Arts Council for Long Beach, https://artslb.org. Last accessed December 23, 2023
[2] European Stars And Stripes, December 30, 1968, Darmstadt, DE, Pg. 12.
[3] Jo Lauria, Oral history interview with Tom Van Sant, Smithsonian Archives of American Art,2008.
[4] Mary Barber, “A 320-Acre Sculpture Garden,” Los Angeles Times, April 29, 1979, pg. SE A2.
