In Bearing Witness (sculpture), how is the Design, installation, and maintenance discussed?
Constructed in 1997 for the Reagan Building following the GSA’s standard of spending 1% of a buildings construction budget commissioning an artwork, the sculpture stands forty feet tall and weighs an estimated 20,000 pounds. It cost one million dollars when commissioned, and remains the most expensive GSA commissioned artwork in D.C. It is constructed out of separate bronze sheets formed into a large vertical structure with one flat side and the other with a large bulb curve. The bronze sheets are held together by rivets into an interior, stainless steel armature. This structure is the result of a partnership between Puryear and a Rhode island based shipbuilding company which he worked with to construct the sculpture. At over twenty years old, the sculpture has required some light maintenance in order to conserve it. In a maintenance process conducted by the McKay Lodge Conservation team, a resin coating is applied to the several feet at the bottom of the sculpture, and a wax coating over the entire surface.