#InTheLoop | Socrates Sculpture Park’s ‘Monuments Now’ Show Is Still On Display – QEDC

#InTheLoop | Socrates Sculpture Park’s ‘Monuments Now’ Show Is Still On Display

BY QEDC It's In Queens

MacArthur Genius Grant winner Jeffrey Gibson’s “Because Once You Enter My House, It Becomes Our House” is on display at Socrates Sculpture Park right now. The huge, outdoor work draws from Indigenous Mississippian culture, activist graphic traditions, and queer performance strategies to pay homage to inclusion and diversity at a time when protesters are toppling monuments around the world.

“Eternal Flame” by Paul Ramírez Jonas is also on site. The California native who grew up in Honduras created a huge communal grill that emphasizes how cooking is central to culture and expression in immigrant communities. His art strives to invite dialogue and exchange…and maybe even whet a few appetites.

In early September, Xaviera Simmons, an Agnes Gund Art for Justice Award winner who works in choreography, installation, performance, photography, sculpture, sound, and video, installed a series of figures dubbed “The structure the labor the foundation the escape the pause.” Click for more info.

There’s more. A following phase, subtitled “Call and Response,” added 10 pieces to the mix in fall 2020. The following artists were selected from a pool of almost 250 proposals: Daniel Bejar; Fontaine Capel (2020 New York Community Trust Van Lier Fellow); Patrick Costello; Dionisio Cortes Ortega; Bel Falleiros; Jenny Polak; Aya Rodriguez-Izumi; Andrea Solstad; Kiyan Williams (2020 New York Community Trust Van Lier Fellow); and Sandy Williams IV (2020 New York Community Trust Van Lier Fellow).

“The Next Generation” opened this past fall, too. High school students from the venue’s arts education program, who are lovingly known as “Socrateens,” are currently doing research to create a structure.

“Monuments Now” will exhibit until March 21, 2021. Socrates Park is open daily from 9 am to sunset with free admission. The entrance is at 32-01 Vernon Blvd. near the intersection with Broadway in Long Island City.