Reclaiming the Monument

Dustin Klein, American

Reclaiming the Monument, 2020

Dustin Klein projected a powerful image of the late George Floyd onto the Robert E. Lee monument in Richmond, VA. In the Reclaiming the Monument series, Klein has projected other victims of police brutality as well as influential BlPOC. The artist’s reasoning for projecting these influential figures is to provide periods of healing and inspiration. The projections have created a positive space for grieving and paying respect for victims. Label by Olivia Falb

COVID-19: Labor Camp Report: June 28, 2020

Piotr Szyhalski, Polish, born 1967

COVID-19: Labor Camp Report: June 28, 2020, 2020

Beginning on March 24th, 2020, Minneapolis-based artist Piotr Szyhalski has created a hand- drawn poster every day for his COVID-19: Labor Camp Report series. Each piece mimics the style of the Polish posters the artist regularly encountered while growing up, but the striking visual language now communicates messages of action and change amid the coronavirus pandemic and widespread protests of deep-seated racial inequality in the U.S. In the entry for June 28th, Szyhalski references the toppling of monuments across the country as part of the effort to unmask past injustices and violence. The term also references the violence of those who refuse to wear a facial mask to protect themselves and others from the virus. In the upper right margin, the artist has included the number of reported coronavirus cases in the U.S. by the date of the piece’s creation, as well as the recorded deaths. Label by Sarah Roberts

Reclaiming the Monument

Dustin Klein, American

Reclaiming the Monument, 2020

Dustin Klein’s Reclaiming the Monument is a work that “reclaims” the space of the Robert E. Lee Monument in Richmond, Virginia, a symbol of hatred and racism. A series of video projections lasting multiple nights, Reclaiming the Monument started out as a memorial dedicated to those whose lives were lost to police brutality then shifted to a space supporting black empowerment and those protesting injustice. This work also shifts the energy surrounding the space from one of intimidation and discomfort to that of healing and support. The image shown above pictures Breonna Taylor, who was killed by police in Kentucky. Her face brings color to the dark, looming figure of Robert E. Lee, while BLM is projected on the figure, directing the attention of onlookers from the figure itself to the message on its surface and literally as well as figuratively overpowering the message the monument sends. Label by Grace Moser

John Wayne, American

David Manuel, American, born 1940

John Wayne, American, 2020

Amid the Black Lives Matter protests of summer 2020, it was suggested that the Orange County, California John Wayne Airport name be changed because of the white supremacist comments the actor had made in interviews during his lifetime and the attitudes toward indigenous peoples commonly expressed in Wayne’s films. Residents of Winterset, Iowa, the town of Wayne’s birth, quickly joined the debate through local news and social media. Many expressed anxieties that this local statue of the actor might be removed. Others stated their disdain that Wayne was prominently featured on a main street named for him while Black botanist George Washington Carver, arguably a more important figure in the town’s history, was only commemorated in a small alleyway park one block away. The over-life-sized statue of Wayne in the cowboy attire common in his movies remains standing, continuing to raise the questions: who gets celebrated and where? Label by Morgan Brittain