Historical monuments help preserve the memory of past events, which are often ambiguous. There are opposing points of view on how to behave, how to build a historical policy, and how to deal with monuments. Nowadays, in American society, various monuments and mutually exclusive historical discourses exist in one space. Therefore, the existence of symbols that mutually negate each other is a problem that needs to be solved.
Gao expresses the idea of moving the monuments to museums or storage. Removing a monument is an act of great symbolic significance, but it is not the same as destruction. Although this idea seems somewhat logical, I would approach the problem of the existence of monuments differently. In the US, for historical and cultural reasons, issues of equity and justice are framed in terms of race. It is worth looking at the war with monuments in the context of this war not for historical justice but for a fair social order. And it seems to me that the battle with the monuments testifies to the weakness of those who are waging this war for justice. Given the availability of resources, involvement in political processes, and a real opportunity to influence political decisions, I believe that these people were not concerned about the issues of monuments or solved the problem of monuments that did not suit them in a different, more civilized way. Other aspects deserve attention: the institutions of power, the individuals who lead these institutions, and the ideas that these individuals are inspired by.
Moreover, in most cases, the fight against monuments is characterized by high costs since the dismantling of monuments costs hundreds of thousands of dollars. Accordingly, not every city can afford such an expensive activity. Thus, in my opinion, it is possible to add tablets to the old monuments, explaining the historical context of certain events. It is clear that removing monuments does not solve the problem of inequality; action should be taken at a higher institutional level.
Gao’s other idea is to give artists the freedom to work directly with these statues. Indeed, the transformation of the meaning of a work of art is quite real. This is confirmed by the example of broadcasting Black Lives Matter messages on the Rumors of War statute. At the same time, it is important not to cross the line and not bring offensive views into this transformation.
Work Cited
Gao, Joyce. Gao ’24: Removing Confederate Statues Is Not enough. We Need to Creatively Engage with Viewers to Reinvent Their Meaning. The Brown Daily Herald, Web.