“It’s a very, very important place,” she explains of the inspiration for the work. The artist, originally from Louisville, Kentucky, was transformed by the complex creative energy and unity she discovered upon moving to Atlanta. Swavoni utilizes industrial foam and polyurethane, with armature and a steel base, creating a structure that’s minimal in waste, while still being highly durable. Solid and sovereign in its commanding presence - its head and torso alone stand 8-feet-tall - the sculpture emerges from its concentric base as if provoked by a utopia kin to Plato’s design. The artist’s first public art piece, Swavoni’s Atlantis leans on the narrative of revolution, by embracing its imagined potential, taking fantastical thoughts beyond our current position to forge whimsical manifestations of new futures.Įllex Swavoni’s Atlantis Rising featured in a two-month public art exhibition organized by arts nonprofit Dashboard. Located in the center of Downtown Atlanta in Woodruff Park - renamed unofficially by the Occupy movement as “Troy Davis Park” - Atlantis Rising’s presence is a totem for what could have been already, in the epicenter of a city out-championed by commercial forces. It’s this spirit that imbues artist Ellex Swavoni’s public sculpture Atlantis Rising. The one swelling the hearts of certain souls that migrate here, many already with deep historical ties to the South. The same spirit which consumes the walls of their equivalents at Spelman and throughout the Atlanta University Center. If the Black heroine were to choose Atlanta, a home shared by MLK, Lil Baby, and the infamous Koch brothers, would they feel the deep urge to protect that space? An urge similar to that felt by the nurturers and keepers of the land from the city’s historically Black West End to the Southside.
If Black heroines, on a mission to save the world, wanted to recharge in the comfort and safety of their own lush Afrotopia - where would it be? The bayous surrounding the Big Easy, with their rich Afro-diasporic traditions? Maybe the great Motor City that birthed Motown? Or, would they emerge in the former Black Mecca still known as Atlanta? Ellex Swavoni’s monumental sculpture Atlantis Rising went on view in Atlanta’s Troy Davis Park (known officially as Woodruff Park) in December 2020.
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