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The Awakening is a 70-foot-long, five-part cast-aluminum sculpture by J. Seward Johnson beside Chesterfield Central Park in Chesterfield, Missouri. A giant bearded man appears to be struggling up out of the lawn, and visitors may climb on him.
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The Awakening (70-ft buried giant, Seward Johnson)
This pin marks the Big Thing itself. If stopping, choose a safe and legal place nearby.
Site-level location · 38.6555° N, 90.5610° W
FIELD GUIDE
The story
A bearded giant strains up out of a park lawn in suburban Missouri, and visitors are welcome to climb on him. The Awakening is made of five separate cast-aluminum pieces, a head and oversized extremities, arranged so that the figure appears to be fighting its way out of the ground. Chesterfield Arts gives its size as 70 feet long and 17 feet high at its tallest point, with a weight of 4,700 pounds.
J. Seward Johnson first cast the design in 1980 for a sculpture exhibition in Washington, D.C. The St. Louis public-art directory describes the Chesterfield casting as a second casting. According to Wikipedia, the 1980 original stood at Hains Point in Washington until February 2008, when it was removed for a move to National Harbor in Maryland.
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PRACTICAL
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WHAT TO EXPECT
Chesterfield Arts says visitors can climb on the sculpture.
ACCESS
Outdoor public sculpture beside Chesterfield Central Park, Chesterfield, Missouri. Chesterfield Arts places it just off Chesterfield Parkway and Park Circle Drive; the St. Louis public-art directory gives Chesterfield Pkwy W at Lydia Hill Drive. A 2024 local blog places it east of the playground, across Veterans Place Drive.
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