Erin McDonald and Shari Boyer, Ed Inside LA co-chairs, arranged a fabulous two-part MONUMENTS exhibit visit. On January 29th, members were invited to view the Cara Walker sculpture at The Brick, followed by a curator tour of the multi-artist exhibit at MOCA Geffen on February 12th. Both exhibits feature contemporary artist responses to decommissioned Civil War public tributes.

Co-curated by Hamza Walker, Director of The Brick; Bennett Simpson, Senior Curator at MOCA; and Kara Walker, artist; with Hannah Burstein, Curatorial Associate at The Brick; and Paula Kroll, Assistant Curator at MOCA, MONUMENTS considers the ways public monuments have shaped national identity, historical memory, and current events.

Following the racially motivated mass shooting at Mother Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, SC (2015) and the deadly ‘Unite the Right’ rally organized by white nationalists in Charlottesville, VA (2017), alongside Bree Newsome’s powerful removal of the Confederate flag at the South Carolina Statehouse (2015), the United States witnessed the decommissioning of nearly 200 monuments. These removals prompted a national debate that remains ongoing. MONUMENTS aims to historicize these discussions in our current moment and provide a space for crucial discourse and active engagements about challenging topics.

The exhibition presents decommissioned monuments borrowed from the City of Baltimore, Maryland; the City of Montgomery, Alabama; Jefferson School African American Heritage Center, Charlottesville, Virginia; the Black History Museum & Cultural Center of Virginia, Richmond; the Valentine, Richmond, Virginia; and The Daniels Family Charitable Foundation, Raleigh, North Carolina. By juxtaposing these objects with contemporary works, the exhibition expands the context in which they are understood and highlights the gaps and omissions in popular narratives of American history.

MONUMENTS features newly commissioned artworks by contemporary artists Bethany Collins, Karon Davis, Abigail DeVille, Stan Douglas, Kevin Jerome Everson, Kahlil Robert Irving, Monument Lab, Walter Price, Cauleen Smith, Davóne Tines and Julie Dash, and Kara Walker. Additional artworks by Leonardo Drew, Torkwase Dyson, Nona Faustine, Jon Henry, Hugh Mangum, Martin Puryear, Andres Serrano, and Hank Willis Thomas, are borrowed from private collectors and institutions.

[Courtesy: The Geffen Contemporary at MOCA]