The exhibition "Monuments," co-organized by The Brick and the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (MOCA), features ten former Confederate monuments removed from public spaces across the American South. Highlights include Kara Walker's reconfigured "Unmanned Drone" (formerly Charlottesville's Stonewall Jackson monument), Richmond's toppled Jefferson Davis statue, and a graffitied Matthew Fontaine Maury statue. Co-curator Hamza Walker explains the show began after the 2015 Charleston church shooting and gained urgency following George Floyd's murder in 2020, involving complex negotiations with city governments and stewards to secure the politically charged pieces.
This exhibition matters because it directly confronts the ongoing national debate over Confederate monuments and the "Lost Cause" mythology. By displaying these contested objects in an art context, the curators force viewers to reconsider what it means to remove, preserve, or transform symbols of white supremacy. The show has already drawn sharp criticism from conservative media, underscoring how these monuments remain flashpoints in America's reckoning with its racial history.