The Awakening, created by J. Seward Johnson, Jr. in 1980, is a seventy-two-foot outdoor sculpture of a giant figure seemingly buried in the ground and struggling to emerge. Made of five aluminum elements, it shows only parts of the body above the surface, with the bearded head and raised right arm creating its strongest sense of motion and drama. First installed at Hains Point in East Potomac Park in Washington, D.C., it was later sold and moved to National Harbor in Oxon Hill, Maryland, where it was reinstalled on a beach along the Potomac River. The work became a widely recognized public artwork and landmark in the Washington area.

Alexandria, Virginia · USA