Kevin Curry’s Obelisk Installation Published on Compassionate Saint Augustine

Kevin Curry  |  The Cathedral Basilica of St. Augustine

Sponsor: Petros Estate and Retirement Planning

Kevin Curry’s work as an artist explores memories, language and experiences. Currently an assistant professor at Florida State University is an award winning sculptor and public artist whose work is in numerous private collections, and in solo and group exhibitions.

Kevin’s installation is part of the St. Augustine Public Art Initiative to pay tribute to the 450th anniversary of the nation’s oldest city and to promote a legacy of compassion.

Artist Statement

“Manus”
I invite the viewer to reconsider the form and intent of the original obelisk through the scale, physicality and location of this piece. The cradling hand is simultaneously reflective of an offering, a gift of security, safety and ultimately, control.

That which we hold in the palm of our hand can have monumental consequences.

The Cathedral Basilica of St. Augustine

he magnificent and newly renovated Cathedral has great historic significance as home of the nation’s first parish. Although this structure was completed in 1797, the parish’s roots go back to 1565 when Pedro Menendez de Aviles came ashore and proclaimed the land for Spain and the Church. When the fleet chaplain presided over a solemn Mass, this signaled the beginning of Catholicism in the New World. It became the Cathedral in 1870 when St. Augustine was elevated to a diocese and Bishop Augustin Verot was named its first bishop. In 1887, yet another fire tore through the church’s interior but the exterior coquina structure stood strong. Bishop John Moore went to other cities, mostly in the Northeast, requesting funds for rebuilding. The compassionate response by donors enabled the parish to not only restore the interior, but to also enlarge the building with new east and west wings and extend the sanctuary to the north.