July Reading; “Unearthing the Next Generation of Monuments”
Added 2023-07-11 18:00:05 +0000 UTCFirst off, I want to take a moment to thank everyone who reached out with messages of support after my post last month. Starting in 2020, as we moved through many phases of pandemic, I was struck by how much empathy and humanity was extended to employees in the companies I worked for—mostly because there was suddenly an abundance of a kind of Grace I’d never rarely given before. As we moved from one phase to the next, I realized how important that Grace was to me, and I became dedicated to ensuring I could extend it to others—and to leaving workplaces that slowly rescinded it. This past month has been a reminder to me of how challenging it can be to give that Grace to myself; receiving support and affirmation from Patrons really did help to make that challenge easier.
Thank you
Time, meanwhile, moves on, and even as I try to hold space, the next project looms. Specifically, I’ve stepped in as part of the Monument Lab team launching Pulling Together, an Exhibition of the Beyond Granite Initiative on the National Mall, in Washington D.C..
I’ve been working with Monument Lab in various capacities since 2017. As we approach the exhibition launch in August, I thought I’d take this month to highlight some of my work with this Public Art and History Studio, and how it overlaps with and informs my practice. Also, all of these resources are free to download or access online, so ... get grabbing!
In 2020, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation launched the “Monuments Project,” a $250 million investment designed to “transform the way our country’s histories are told in public spaces and ensure that future generations inherit a commemorative landscape that venerates and reflects the vast, rich complexity of the American story.” As part of that effort, the Mellon Foundation commissioned Monument Lab to review almost half million records of historic properties created and maintained by federal, state, local, tribal, institutional, and publicly assembled sources to build and study a database of almost 50,000 conventional monuments representing data collected from every US state and territory. The goal was to see how this data might reveal the trends that have shaped our monument landscape, pose questions about common knowledge about monuments, and to debunk falsehoods and misperceptions within public memory.
In plain terms—Monument Lab set out to see what stories emerge if you attempt to make a database of as many public monuments as possible. In many ways, the results affirm what you would expect; our country disproportionately celebrates War and White Men. But in the specifics of the numbers, I think the report opens those and more concerns wider, and helps build a framework for changing the conversations we have about monuments in America.
RELATED READING
City Arts & Lectures
After finishing my time as a Lab Manager on their 2017 exhibition (more on that in the Archive Highlight this month), one of my early jobs with Monument Lab was a producer on the first two seasons of the Monument Lab podcast. While I've got a lot of love for that season (you can even catch one of the Pulling Together artists in conversation), the episodes I'm currently most excited about are those produced by the Plot of Land Team. Plot of Land is a podcast mini-series from Monument Lab that explores how land ownership and housing in the United States have been shaped by the entrenched interplay of power, public memory, and privatization.
In particular, I was really impressed by two 2-episode arcs the series explored:
Episodes 4 and 5 followed the G-Line ranch of the Bradford family, carefully tracing the many complicated stories of Black farmers and ranchers in what was once the largest and wealthiest Black town in Oklahoma. By looking at both the broad historical context and the specifics of this one family’s experience, these episodes really demonstrate both the depth of discrimination throughout agricultural systems and the tangled complexity of questions of race and lineage throughout America.
Episodes 6 and 7 tell the unlikely story of Roosevelt Island. Originally imagined as an idyllic, multi-racial, multi-income community during the social housing movement in 1960s-70s New York, the story of how that vision was created and gradually destroyed drives home just how hard it is to change how housing works in America.
Kanyinsola Anifowoshe, Paul Farber, Patricia Eunji Kim, Hilary M.V. leathem, Sue Mobley, and Yannick Trapman-O'Brien. Illustrations by Mike Murawski & Bryna Cambell with Super Nature Adventures
In the early months of the pandemic, the Monument Lab team came together to strategize how we might support the various remote learning situations emerging around the United States. The idea came up to make a template for an “at-home Field Trip,” which could be completed in any neighborhood in America, or even virtually.
Across the many projects I’ve worked on for Monument Lab, I’ve always felt the most interesting thing we could present a member of the public was well-formed question. Good interaction design can invite a participant to reflect and consider for a moment, but if you can embody all that consideration in a question a participant can take with them, they have the ability to take that perspective and create their own moments of curiosity, investigation, and insight. I think the Field Trip ended up doing an excellent job gathering these kinds of questions into pages that participants of many ages can consider one page at a time or all together, for a full guided activity.
My favorite question came from our youngest staff member at the time, and was added to a section titled “Expanding the Pedestal:
"Find a monument that depicts a single person.
In the circles above, write down some of the people who would have made this person's work possible: anyone who might have been associated with them, took care of them, collaborated with them, or on whom they depended.
Ask at least one person to help you add to this list."
What I think is so remarkable about this question is how well it functions for both monuments to individuals we celebrate or revile. It’s such an excellent reminder that even (and perhaps especially) the most prominent historical figures represent networks of association and care, and that neither personal choices nor the turning points of history are ever so simple as one person’s choices.
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It’s gonna be a Monument Lab Month on Patreon; if you’re curious to learn more, there will be plenty of chances. But if Public Art doesn’t thrill you*, have no fear - we’ll be back talking about my very “private” style of performance next month.
*for those of you indifferent, I will pass along a reminder courtesy of one of the co-founders of Monument Lab, Professor Ken Lum: You are the Public. That makes you an expert on the subjects of Public Art, Public Space, and Public History. What would it look like if those spaces and conversations held a place for your voice?
