Justitia

Raine Bedsole described the bronze sculpture that she created for the new federal courthouse in Mobile:

"Water is a primary force in coastal Alabama.  The nautical imagery that informs my work stems from my childhood in Mobile.  Boats are an integral part of the city’s history.  The archetypal significance of the boat form hearkens back to early mythologies.  Symbolic boats anchor us to the past and deliver us into the future.  I named this vessel Justitia, after the Roman goddess of justice, who is the personification of order, fairness and law.

"The five bundles of reeds that hold the vessel together symbolize the five rivers that meet to form the Mobile-Tensaw River Delta.  They also echo the reed patterns that adorn the courthouse’s decorative window spandrels.  The sculpture is fabricated in self-sealing weathering steel, which interacts with the elements to form a protective surface.  The material is active, and responds to the environment.  The grasses planted beneath the sculpture serve in place of water, and add a sense of motion."