Fairfax County marked the installation of its newest public artwork, conceived several years ago as a way to honor local residents lost to COVID-19, with a ceremony attended by a small crowd of people yesterday (Sept. 23).
“Circles of Memory,” located near the county’s Herrity Building and Public Safety Headquarters in Fairfax, was envisioned as a way to memorialize local people lost in the pandemic; in 2024, according to county zoning records, its purpose was expanded to also provide an area of “respite, reflection and remembrance in support of the mental health well-being” of the public and first responders.
Designed by artists Miriam Gusevich and Salvatore Pirrone, the memorial integrates seating areas and stormwater management features within the artistic concept. Unanimously chosen by ArtsFairfax—the county’s nonprofit arts agency—and the Fairfax County Arts Committee to carry out the project, Gusevich and Pirrone created a work that evokes the image of a ribbon, a universal symbol of remembrance.
“Circles of Memory creates a place of reverence for the lives lost and for all who carry their memory,” Pirrone said.
The artwork’s seating alcoves are created by concrete benches that support the adjacent blue panels, he explained.
“The panels are rolled aluminum, waterjet cut, and powder coated blue to connect one’s gaze to the sky,” he said. “Their patterns evoke groves of flowering dogwood — Virginia’s official tree and flower — casting shadows across the space, which is a marker of the passage of time and the changing seasons.”
In the spring, white flowers will be planted near the artwork, allowing visitors to see it in a different way.
“We believe in the redemptive power of art and memory, their power to transform sorrow into soulfulness and to affirm life and love,” Gusevich said. “Art cannot cure, but it can help us heal. In geometry, a circle is neutral. The circle of family and friends presents closing our sanction and safety, and that is our inspiration.”
