James Totem

Richmond, VA - 1997

The totem is one of my three projects commissioned for the James Center, a multi-towered complex in the middle of Richmond. The center is on the site of the former James River Turning Basin where canal boats, also called bateau, turned in to avoid the rapids. The lines of the eighteen foot bronze totem are based on the contours of the river. Hidden at eye level in the brown layers paralleling the reflexive surface are some tiny carved river creatures: crayfish, minnows and snails.  

During the earlier construction of the James Center in the early 1980’s, workers discovered multiple buried canal boats. This was described as a major discovery by local preservationists, requiring a stop to construction so that archeologists could be brought in. 

For the  building's developer’s schedule, it was a disaster. I remember visiting him at the time. While almost a thousand of his workers stood idle, we were both looking down a hundred feet into the hole, watching a couple of archaeologists with small brushes meticulously cleaning the ribs of an old canal boat. He told me that they had refused his offer to build them a canal boat museum on another site. Then he continued with a rye smile, “Maybe I should just shoot them.”