The Awakening

This striking aluminum sculpture depicts a giant bearded man struggling to free himself from the earth, with a bent knee, an outstretched arm and an anguished face erupting from the ground as five separate cast pieces. Created by J. Seward Johnson II in 1980, it originally stood on the Potomac before moving to a sandy riverside at National Harbor near Washington. Children clamber over the buried limbs and pose within the grasping hand, giving the work a playful edge despite its dramatic theme. It is an emblem of the waterfront district.