Artwork copyright Richard Turner. Photo courtesy of Washington State Arts Commission, 2015.

Artwork copyright Richard Turner. Photo courtesy of Washington State Arts Commission, 2015.

Artwork copyright Richard Turner. Photo courtesy of Washington State Arts Commission, 2015.

Artwork copyright Richard Turner. Photo courtesy of Washington State Arts Commission, 2015.

Artwork copyright Richard Turner. Photo courtesy of Washington State Arts Commission, 2015.

Artwork copyright Richard Turner. Photo courtesy of Washington State Arts Commission, 2015.

Artwork copyright Richard Turner. Photo courtesy of Washington State Arts Commission, 2015.

Artwork copyright Richard Turner. Photo courtesy of Washington State Arts Commission, 2015.

Artwork copyright Richard Turner. Photo courtesy of Washington State Arts Commission, 2015.

Artwork copyright Richard Turner. Photo courtesy of Washington State Arts Commission, 2015.

Artwork copyright Richard Turner. Photo courtesy of Washington State Arts Commission, 2015.

Artwork copyright Richard Turner. Photo courtesy of Washington State Arts Commission, 2015.

Artwork copyright Richard Turner. Photo courtesy of Washington State Arts Commission, 2015.

Artwork copyright Richard Turner. Photo courtesy of Washington State Arts Commission, 2015.

Artwork copyright Richard Turner. Photo courtesy of Washington State Arts Commission, 2015.

Memory's Vault, 1988

Richard Turner
(American, born 1943)

Location: Fort Worden State Park, Port Townsend

ABOUT THE ARTWORK

Artist Richard Turner created Memory's Vault as "a place for contemplation – of nature, of man and his intentions." It is a memorial installation and sculpture garden. Many of the twenty-eight elements are cast concrete, referencing the military batteries and vaults preserved throughout the artwork's site of Fort Worden State Park, in Port Townsend, on the Olympic Peninsula in Northwestern Washington. Remnants of the Fort Worden barracks constructed between 1898 and 1907 are also part of the artwork.

Seven concrete pillars hold bronze plaques with poems written by Sam Hamill (1943-2018). Hamill's poetry is informed by his experience serving in the U.S. Marine Corps in the early 1960s, where he first discovered Zen Buddhist literature. He was a pacifist, and in 2003 he launched an online anthology called "Poets against the War" in protest to the Iraq war. His anthology sparked an international movement. Sam Hamill was a celebrated poet and a founder of Copper Canyon Press, a leading nonprofit poetry publisher in Port Townsend.

This artwork was acquired for the State Art Collection in partnership with Department of Corrections.

ABOUT THE ARTIST

California-based artist and professor Richard Turner creates installations for public spaces. He has worked as a public artist for over thirty years, on projects ranging from metro stations, public parks, and water treatment facilities, to a justice center, memorials, and a university chapel.

Turner is Professor Emeritus at Chapman University in Southern California, where he taught art, design, contemporary Asian art history, and studio art. He received a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from Antioch College in Ohio and a Master of Fine Arts degree from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. He lived in Saigon, Vietnam from 1959 to 1961. He studied abroad in Taipei, Taiwan, and was a Fulbright Scholar in Jaipur, Rajasthan, India.