This Liminal Moment

The article reviews the exhibition "MONUMENTS" at the Geffen Contemporary at MOCA and the Brick in Los Angeles, which addresses the legacy of Confederate monuments through contemporary art. It highlights Cauleen Smith's installation "The Warden" (2025), which features a live-feed of the decommissioned Confederate sculpture "Vindicatrix" (also known as "Miss Confederacy") by Edward V. Valentine, originally atop the Jefferson Davis Memorial in Richmond, Virginia. The exhibition is curated by Hamza Walker, Kara Walker, and Bennett Simpson.

This exhibition matters because it is the first major museum effort to critically engage with the afterlives of Confederate monuments in the post-2020 era, a time of heightened social and political turmoil. By juxtaposing historical monuments with contemporary artistic interventions, the show offers a generative dialogue about memory, white supremacy, and public space, making it a significant cultural response to ongoing debates about racial justice and the dismantling of democracy.