Civitas Statues (four 20-22 ft bronze figures)

Four bronze women tower over the Gateway intersection in Rock Hill, South Carolina, where Dave Lyle Boulevard meets Gateway Boulevard, and each one was designed to say something about the city. They are called Civitas, which the City of Rock Hill translates from Latin as “civic pride,” and they are the work of the American artist Audrey Flack.

The Rock Hill Economic Development Corporation commissioned Flack in 1988. Her figures were designed as a female version of Michelangelo’s “David,” an idea the city links to similarities between Rock Hill and Florence, Italy. When “David” was commissioned, the city says, Florence had 45,000 people and a textile industry that was slowly fading; it says Rock Hill's size and textile history paralleled that of Rome, the much larger neighbour affecting Florence's growth. According to the city, the clothing and hair suggest billowing ribbons of material that turn into wings.