Here's why a 45-foot tall naked woman could be coming to D.C.

The throngs of tourists who travel to the National Mall every year might soon have a new destination to check off on their travel maps — a 45-foot-tall sculpture of a naked woman.

The sculpture would be temporarily erected next to the Washington Monument and would face the White House directly.

The project is the brainchild of artist Marco Cochrane and another group called Catharsis on the Mall. The sculpture, called “R-Evolution,” is meant to make people “see past the sexual charge that has developed around the female body,” Cochrane said .

“For more than 25 years I have been sculpting women,” wrote Cochrane on the project’s website. “At first glance, they appear to be classical figurative nudes, but they are not. They are radically modern... revolutionary. These women are safe, present. Look at them. They have chosen their own expression, so you will see the actual woman, the person, her energy, and spirit.”

Catharsis on the Mall has partnered with Cochrane and plans to bring the sculpture to D.C. for four months. During those months, the group will hold 24-hour-long vigils in support of the Equal Rights Amendment, a proposed constitutional amendment that would outlaw discrimination based on sex. Introduced in 1972, it has yet to be ratified.

But bringing the steel-skeleton statue to Washington will be expensive. The group needs to raise at least $90,000 for all the project’s expenses.

“In bringing R-Evolution, Catharsis intends to inspire dialogue among women, and people, of all bodies, ages, races, religions, genders, abilities, and sexual orientations about the role of art and community in nurturing the heart and healing, and in turn making social change,” the group said on its fundraising page.

This story was originally published September 28, 2017 at 4:41 PM with the headline "Here's why a 45-foot tall naked woman could be coming to D.C.."