The Alexandria Commission for the Arts unanimously approved artist Alicia Eggert‘s concept for “Site See 2026: Now or Never” Tuesday evening, giving the green light to the eighth temporary public art installation in the Site See: New Views in Old Town series at Waterfront Park.
The installation, planned from March through November 2026, aims to address the current political climate through monumental signage. It features two billboards positioned face-to-face across a narrow passageway. One billboard displays “NOW” in black text on a white background, while the other shows “NEVER” in white text on a black background.
Each sign measures approximately 17.5 feet tall and 40 feet long, supported by steel structures reminiscent of roadside billboards. The signs are positioned about five feet apart, creating what Eggert describes as ‘visceral tension through both language and form.’ From one perspective, “NOW” appears on the left and “NEVER” on the right, but when viewers walk through the space between them and look back, the relationship flips.
The work mirrors today’s political climate, producing a charged space that feels confrontational and inescapable,” according to Eggert’s artist statement presented by Public Art Senior Manager Meika Daus. “Yet by inviting people to move physically between the signs, the installation underscores the possibility of finding common ground, even in polarized circumstances.
Commission members raised concerns about the narrow five-foot width between the billboards, particularly regarding accessibility for wheelchairs and strollers. Daus confirmed that Eggert is reconsidering the width and may expand it to six or eight feet while maintaining the compressed feeling.
The installation includes painted gray lines that radiate outward from the passageway, directing visitors toward the center and condensing into a medium-gray walkway that functions as both a literal path and a symbolic “middle ground.” The pattern recalls the shape of an hourglass, suggesting the passage of time.
From a distance, the billboards appear as stark black-on-white and white-on-black. However, up close, viewers will discover each word is formed through an offset CMYK dot matrix pattern inspired by lithographic printing, with tiny flecks of cyan, magenta, yellow, and black overlapping to create the illusion of solid tones.
The installation will include an intentional east-west orientation designed to create a “Stonehenge effect” during the summer solstice, when the sun aligns with the passageway between the billboards. Floodlights will illuminate the installation at night.
The Site/See Task Force voted in August to recommend approval of Eggert’s concept. Eggert was selected in April from 23 artists who responded to the city’s call for submissions. The Site/See series began in 2019.
The installation will follow Nekisha Durrett’s “Break Water,” currently on display at Waterfront Park through November. Durrett’s installation features a blackened wooden representation of a steamboat sidewheel surrounded by 500 black sandbags, exploring themes of Black history and resilience in Alexandria.
Eggert centers her work around giving physical forms to intangible concepts like language and time. Her work has been showcased at venues including the Philadelphia Museum of Art, Beijing’s CAFA Art Museum and the Smithsonian’s Renwick Gallery. She has received a TED Fellowship, Long Now Foundation Fellowship, and Harpo Foundation Direct Artist Grant, and is an associate professor at the University of North Texas.
The commission also unanimously approved deaccessioning bronze hands from the drinking fountain at King Street Gardens Park. The hands were part of the original design by artists Buster Simpson and Laura Sindell, completed in the late 1990s following a 1991 nationwide design competition.
The bronze hands served as a water bowl for dogs, capturing water from a second faucet at the fountain’s base. The original fountain corroded and broke in 2021 and was removed from the park. The hands have sentimental value to Simpson, as one represents his daughter’s hand and the other his wife’s hand, according to Daus.
City staff purchased a replacement fountain that meets current standards, but the design eliminates the second faucet that previously fed water to the bronze hands. Without the water feature, the artists requested that the hands not be reinstalled and asked that they be returned.
The commission also heard from Alexandria Poet Laureate Cristi Donoso, who shared her approach to making poetry accessible to residents through experiential workshops. Donoso, who works as a speech-language pathologist, said her first workshop in January will focus on caregivers and be open to the community. She emphasized her goal to “hone in on smaller communities within our larger community.”
The commission, chaired by Brian Kelley, includes members with expertise in visual arts, arts education, cultural development, and cityscape design, along with representatives of the general public.
