Remade Stonewall Jackson Statue Debuts in Los Angeles Exhibit on Confederate Monuments
A dismantled and reconstructed statue of Confederate general Stonewall Jackson, once a focal point of white supremacist rallies in Charlottesville, Virginia, is now the centerpiece of a new art exhibit in Los Angeles, opening to the public today.
The statue, removed from Charlottesville in 2021 following a series of violent protests – including the deadly 2017 Unite the Right rally – was acquired by a California-based arts non-profit with the intention of “transformation, not further veneration.” Artist Kara Walker has reimagined the 8,900-pound bronze equestrian statue as “Unmanned Drone,” a disjointed and disturbing figure with severed limbs and a faceless head. The exhibit, which includes other decommissioned Confederate monuments, arrives at a time of increasing debate over public symbols and historical memory in the United States.
“It’s strange. It’s a very strange show,” said Bennett Simpson, a senior curator at the Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) and co-curator of the exhibit. “There’s a lot of beauty in it, but it’s heavy. It deals with real shit that people don’t often really want to deal with.” Walker described the remade statue as a monument to the “horror, rather than the myths, of American white supremacy,” adding that having the monuments “removed from their pedestals and taken out of context…takes away some of that power to harm.” The exhibit also features works by Black artists, including Karon Davis, whose sculpture references potential familial connections to Confederate figures. You can learn more about the history of Confederate monuments at the Monument Lab website.
The broader “Monuments” exhibit, on view at MOCA and The Brick gallery through May, displays statues in various conditions – some pristine, others defaced with paint, and one reduced to bronze ingots after the Robert E. Lee statue in Charlottesville was melted down. Jalane Schmidt, a professor at the University of Virginia and activist involved in the removal of the Charlottesville statues, noted that recontextualizing these objects within an artistic setting is a “vital medicine.” As of 2024, four out of five Confederate monuments in the United States remain in public spaces, according to The Guardian.
Curators anticipate the exhibit will spark further dialogue about the legacy of the Confederacy and the ongoing struggle for racial justice, and are currently reviewing proposals for a new artwork to be created from the bronze ingots of the melted Lee statue.
