FORWARD: Issue #7: Monuments & Memorials
Public Art Now
Leading Voices Sharing Public Art of the Moment
Growing up in Compton, California, I repeatedly walked past the MLK memorial in front of the Compton courthouse. As a kid, I associated this large white concrete sculpture with police, metal detectors, long lines, and vending machines. It wasn’t until I was an adult that I realized this sculpture is dedicated to Dr. King's memory and work. To me, the sculpture demonstrates a huge disconnect with the surrounding environment, and to my own lived experience.
It wasn’t until I moved to San Francisco that my introduction to public art took root. A friend took me to Balmy Alley murals, the largest concentration of murals in the Mission District, where I learned that art, culture, history, social justice, and community are intertwined. Seeing the painted faces that look like those of my own kin and neighborhood instilled in me a sense of pride, importance, and belonging, and a desire to advocate for more representative public art.
What is the difference between public art and monuments and memorials? Monuments and memorials are part of the realm of public art. Both have the power to create impacts on the people and neighborhoods around them. However, since the COVID pandemic, we have started to pay closer attention to how monuments and memorials can be alienating when we walk past giant sculptures that purport to represent moments in “our” history, depicting people that our society allegedly agrees “should” be honored. But many monuments represent moments in history characterized by colonialism, white dominance, genocide, and heteronormativity.
Since 2020, people have witnessed grassroots topplings of monuments, sanctioned removals, and newly formed advisory committees working on defining and evaluating processes and auditing what monuments and memorials should not be. In many communities, conversations around what goes up and what comes down are finally getting started. In Portland, Oregon, for example, after five monuments were toppled in 2020, the City of Portland removed the monuments and was preparing a public process in response. However, possibly for political reasons, some of the monuments appear to be slated for reinstallation for public view—without the public process.
Beyond the United States, monuments are coming down worldwide. In my mother's homeland of El Salvador, in January 2024, the Monument to Reconciliation was removed from a public park. It was said to be a monument built on corruption and therefore was torn down. In early February, President Nayib Bukele shared an Instagram reel showing that the metal had been melted down to cover up manholes.
As an artist, creator, dreamer, and very much part of the conversation, I wonder: When did monuments stop being considered public art? Are there existing examples of how we can redefine monuments and memorials? What is the collective interest in the future of our monuments and memorials? How do we honor our past for the future? And when I think of “our,” whose stories are not included? Or are misinterpreted?
The following five public artworks have elements of monuments and memorials: creating impact through engaging history, storytelling, and collective memory. These five works are seeds of possibilities and imagination for the future of monuments and memorials.
—Anna Lisa Escobedo
Image: In the 40 ACRES Archive: The Wax Monument Series, by Sandy Williams IV, the artist challenges the traditional aesthetics of monuments by using the unconventional material of wax to create replicas of public monuments and cultural symbols. This photograph, The Fall IV (Lincoln) [2022] depicts a miniature beeswax candle-like replica of the Lincoln memorial. The photo of the candle-like sculpture is part of "The Fall Series," an ongoing documentation of these small replicas melting in front of the monuments they mimic. In addition to the smaller replicas, the artist creates human-scale wax replicas. 40 ACRES: Camp Barker is a six-foot wax version of the Lincoln memorial, occupying a historically significant site. Photo courtesy CulturalDC.
01: Memorial to the Extinct Xerces Blue Butterfly
Xerces Blue Butterfly intervention at Golden Gate Park. Photo courtesy San Francisco Arts Commission.
Golden Gate Park
San Francisco, California
2023
In 2020, in Golden Gate Park in San Francisco, a statue of an 18th-century Franciscan friar, Padre Junípero Serra, was removed and placed in a city storage facility. Since then, the plinth had sat empty.
In 2023, a day before Earth Day, San Franciscans were delighted to see a new guerrilla sculpture of a Xerces blue butterfly where the Serra statue once sat. The accompanying plaque noted that the last sighting of the butterfly was in the Presidio on March 23, 1943. The artist behind this installation was never publicly disclosed, and the San Francisco Arts Commission removed it immediately, citing the lack of official approval. However, this piece became an example of what the neighborhood wants to see—a monument that expands public knowledge and challenges observers. The Xerces Blue Butterfly sculpture pushed the community towards a conversation about which stories should be memorialized and who gets to decide this: city officials, the mayor, the people, or the artist.
The original statue at Golden Gate Park depicts an 18th-century Franciscan Friar. Photo courtesy San Francisco Arts Commission.
Xerces Blue Butterfly intervention at Golden Gate Park. Photo courtesy San Francisco Arts Commission.
02: Little Amal
Little Amal on September 19, 2023 at Union Station in Washington, DC. Photo by Miki Jourdan / flickr / CC by-NC-ND 2.0 Deed.
The Walk Productions
Global
2021–present
I asked a good artist friend for help researching public art that creates impact, brings awareness to today’s genocide, and shows support for Palestine. She told me about Little Amal, designed and built by Handspring Puppet Company of South Africa and produced by The Walk Productions, a nonprofit that presents “large-scale participatory public art that brings communities together to celebrate art, community and each other, challenge assumptions, rethink narratives and provoke change.” A puppet that stands 12 feet tall, Amal represents a 10-year-old Syrian refugee child. Since July 2021, Amal has visited over 166 cities, towns and villages. Little Amal is a monumental symbol to many refugees; the name can be interpreted to mean “hope” in Arabic.
September 17, 2023 at Franklin Square in Washington, DC. Photo by Miki Jourdan / flickr / CC by-NC-ND 2.0 Deed.
June 11, 2023 at the Luminato Harbourfront in Toronto. Photo by Eric Parker / flickr / CC by-NC 2.0 Deed.
Little Amal on September 19, 2023 at Union Station, Washington, DC. Photo by Miki Jourdan / flickr / CC by-NC-ND 2.0 Deed.
September 17, 2023 at Franklin Square in Washington, DC. Photo by Miki Jourdan / flickr / CC by-NC-ND 2.0 Deed.
September 17, 2023 at Black Lives Matter Plaza in Washington, DC. Photo by Miki Jourdan / flickr / CC by-NC-ND 2.0 Deed.
September 19, 2023 at Union Station in Washington, DC. Photo by Miki Jourdan / flickr / CC by-NC-ND 2.0 Deed.
Large-scale participatory public art that brings communities together to celebrate art, community and each other, challenge assumptions, rethink narratives and provoke change.
November 19, 2021. Walking through The Hague in the Netherlands. Photo by Roel Wijnants / flickr / CC by-NC 2.0 Deed.
September 8, 2023 in East Boston, Massachusetts. Photo by KrisNM / flickr / CC by-NC-ND 2.0 Deed.
June 11, 2023 at the Luminato Harbourfront in Toronto. Photo by Eric Parker / flickr / CC by-NC 2.0 Deed.
Little Amal is a monumental symbol to many refugees; the name can be interpreted to mean “hope” in Arabic.
June 23, 2022 in Birmingham, England. Photo by Tony Hisgett / flickr / CC by 2.0 Deed.
03: 40 ACRES: Camp Barker
Photo courtesy CulturalDC.
Sandy Williams IV
Northwest Washington, DC
2023 and 2024
Sandy Williams IV was commissioned by CulturalDC with support from the Public Art Building Communities Grant to create a 6-foot, 3,500-pound wax replica of the Lincoln Memorial at what used to be Camp Barker (now Garrison Elementary), a historic site that served as a refugee camp for formerly enslaved African Americans. This memorial not only occupies a historically significant site but challenges the traditional aesthetics of monuments by utilizing the unconventional material of wax. Additionally, the community was encouraged to participate in activating the installation, and students were invited to contemplate and interact with the Abraham Lincoln representation by melting and carving the statue.
Instructional materials for participants, courtesy CulturalDC.
40 ACRES: Camp Barker was first installed at Garrison Elementary in September 2023. The original artwork was prematurely lit and significantly melted ahead of its planned dedication ceremony, and was removed in early October 2023. The redesigned sculpture features fewer wicks, strategically placed to preserve the figure's integrity over time. Photo by Isaac Maiselman, courtesy CulturalDC.
Photo by @lipheofjai, courtesy CulturalDC.
The artist (top right, wearing sunglasses), at an opening celebration held in February 2024. Photo by @lipheofjai, courtesy CulturalDC.
According to the CulturalDC project website, "While camp [Barker] conditions were often undesirable, the camp was a symbol of hope and resilience, where individuals could rebuild their lives and find a sense of community. The camps provided a safe haven and an opportunity for freedom for those seeking to escape slavery." Camp Barker historical photo from the National Archives, Mathew Brady Photographs of Civil War–Era Personalities and Scenes1860–65.
Children from Garrison Elementary interact with the sculpture at an opening celebration held in February 2024. Photo by @lipheofjai, courtesy CulturalDC.
Photo by @lipheofjai, courtesy CulturalDC.
This photograph, The Fall IV (Lincoln) [2022] depicts a miniature beeswax candle-like replica of the Lincoln memorial. The photo of the candle-like sculpture is part of "The Fall Series," an ongoing documentation of the artist's small replicas melting in front of the monuments they mimic. Photo courtesy CulturalDC
In June 2024, an extreme heatwave melted the sculpture, which became a viral symbol of the political climate, among other critical social issues. While the fabricators used wax rated at 140°F, it was not strong enough to withstand consistent heat. Photo by Johnny Fogg, courtesy CulturalDC.
The artist shared, "It should not be this hot outside. The ways we are [hurtling] through all of the climate disaster projections, ceilings, and barriers should be unacceptable AND the roots of our problems go as far back (farther) as enslavement, Lincoln, and our failures to reconstruct. These roots, and our current social, political, and climate disasters, are also intrinsically related to the ongoing genocides, displacements, hyper-militarizations, and the global warfare that is empirically destroying our planet. It must end! That is the metaphor of this melting sculpture, for me." Photo by Johnny Fogg, courtesy CulturalDC.
04: Tesla Crushed by an Olmec Head
Photo © Chavis Mármol, courtesy the artist.
Chavis Mármol
Mexico City, Mexico
2024
As the final performative work in artist Chavis Mármol’s series titled Neo-tameme, he sculpted a 9-ton replica of an Olmec head that was lifted by a crane and then lowered to crush a blue Tesla Model 3. The series title uses the Nahuatl verb tlamama, meaning “to carry”; tamemes was the name given to porters who carried loads of materials on their backs in pre-Columbian times.
Mármol's work has a combination of humor and critique. For this installation, the artist wants the public to think about its “relationship between the past and the present, as well as about the role of art in society,” according to Laura Islas of Merca2.0. Mármol also wanted to “troll” both Elon Musk and “Giga Mexico,” the company’s first car assembly plant in the nation. Though Mexico's federal environment ministry approved land-use permits for Tesla Incorporated to build its new “gigafactory” in the northern state of Nuevo León, and the local government has invested $130 million into the infrastructure, construction of the factory was delayed, with groundbreaking dates unclear. The car company’s presence represents both economic opportunity and corporate power, says Colima71 Art Community Hotel, the organization that commissioned the artwork.
“In the face of the temptations of the modern world,” the boutique hotel explains, Mármol’s work “celebrates our roots as a source of identity and power.” Mármol says that seeing how many people have connected with the sculpture “fills me with excitement and joy.”
In the face of the temptations of the modern world, Mármol’s work celebrates our roots as a source of identity and power.
Photo © Chavis Mármol, courtesy the artist.
05: Pay the Rent
Photo by Johannes Ortner / flickr / CC by NA 2.0 DEED.
Richard Bell
Kassel, Germany
2024
Monuments and memorials are typically placed in squares, centers, or heavily trafficked areas. Pay the Rent was installed atop the Fridericianum’s façade in Kassel, Germany. It is a long, digital sign that calculates the debt owed to Aboriginal people by the Australian government in real time. Richard Bell, a self-dubbed activist masquerading as an artist, hopes it raises discussions about the exploitation of Aboriginal people. Pay the Rent is a warning to the legacy of colonial projects worldwide and those who continue to benefit from these today.
A warning to the legacy of colonial projects worldwide and those who continue to benefit from these today.
Anna Lisa Escobedo
Anna Lisa Escobedo is a multifaceted artist, encompassing roles as a visual artist, muralist, artivist, event producer, cultural worker, and networker. As a cofounder of the Calle 24 Latino Cultural District, she chaired the Cultural Arts and Assets Committee, leading a team of more than 20 active members. Anna Lisa's most fulfilling accomplishment lies in her direct engagement with the community and fellow artists. Having contributed to numerous art projects and collaborated with community-based organizations in the San Francisco Bay Area, Anna Lisa is deeply rooted in the local artistic landscape. Her overarching goals revolve around supporting artists and creators, with a keen focus on nurturing the vibrancy of the arts and culture ecosystem in the Bay Area.
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FORWARD: Issue #7
Monuments & Memorials
© COPYRIGHT 2024 - FORECAST PUBLIC ART ISSN 2768-4113