MONUMENTS

Co-organized and co-presented by The Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) and The Brick, MONUMENTS marks the recent wave of monument removals as a historic moment. The exhibition reflects on the histories and legacies of post-Civil War America as they continue to resonate today, bringing together a selection of decommissioned monuments, many of which are Confederate, with contemporary artworks borrowed and newly created for the occasion. Removed from their original outdoor public context, the monuments in the exhibition will be shown in their varying states of transformation, from unmarred to heavily vandalized. 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.