Sunday, November 22, 2009

Matthew McConville, "Minument"

Matthew McConville's Minument is on view at the Minstallation Gallery from November 7 – December 19. There will be a reception Thursday December 3 from 5:30-7:30pm.



Every day, hundreds if not thousands of Baltimoreans pass by the Mt. Vernon Square monument to Roger B. Taney, who penned the Supreme Court decision in Dred Scott v. Sandford, denying the rights of African Americans to citizenship. Here, painter Matthew McConville reimagines the statue’s fabrication, with Taney’s head toppled on the ground and replaced with Scott’s. Minument: Reconstruction is a diminutive installment in the artist’s gently absurd series of works looking at the place of monuments and natural wonders in the American landscape. How and why do we construct our monuments? Where do we place them, and how does that speak to our culture’s priorities? Finally, what do a people choose to remember, and what happens as the memories – but not the object – change or fade over time?

Don't miss this minstallation!