“I want Tom Lee to be remembered as a human who saw other human lives as equally valuable, if not more valuable, than his own,” Gates said about A Monument to Listening.
In the “anti-monument,” as Gates sometimes refers to it, Tom Lee’s profound sense of shared humanity is expressed abstractly through 32 sculptures, each honed from basalt and each with a unique surface treatment. Many of the sculptures are positioned in a circular configuration to create “a point of reflection.” A 33rd sculpture stands taller than the rest and is polished to have a reflective surface, a nod to Lee’s standout bravery.
