off the pedestal: Laura Anderson Barbata, New Red Order, and Paula J. Wilson
2024 | off the pedestal: a group exhibition featuring work by New Red Order (NRO), Laura Anderson Barbata, and Paula J. Wilson that addresses the national conversation around monuments.
off the pedestal: Laura Anderson Barbata, New Red Order, and Paula J. Wilson
August 1–October 5, 2024 | Media Art Gallery
*Co-curated with Shana Dumont Garr
The American monumental landscape overwhelmingly represents wealthy, white males and honors war and conquest. When positioned on imposing pedestals in prominent public settings, these mostly figurative statues presume to visualize our shared history. However, by elevating the powerful and the privileged, the monuments exclude important parts of this nation’s history.
off the pedestal speaks directly to the national phenomenon of the removal of Confederate and other racist monuments in the wake of the police murder of George Floyd. Although monuments are generally presented as permanent, timeless, and expressive of universal values, this exhibition proposes that public memory could be more effectively addressed and activated through ephemeral expressions.
In seeking ways to express critique, grief, and remembrance, the broad-ranging artistic practices of Laura Anderson Barbata, Paula J. Wilson, and New Red Order deconstruct assumptions about monuments with activism, advocacy, and aesthetics. Their work explores existing frameworks and suggests new paths forward to represent values such as restoration, repair, equity, and social justice, thus redefining monumentality.
Funded by The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, The National Endowment for the Arts, City of Boston and the Mellon Foundation.