Krispy Konfederate Kebab

View the project here: https://a360.co/3vNGMBg

* side note about the 3D document, when opened, fusion likes to turn the sharp square forms of the monument into rounded ones. To see in 3D how I would like it to look, change the display mode of bodies 1-16 from the smooth display into box display.

There are over 700 Confederate monuments in the United States. These monuments represent a time of racism, white power, and deep separation in our country. Many have tried to remove them, but so many of these monuments are still standing in our communities. They remind us of a past that is horrific, and the fact that these monuments still exist shows how messed up our country still is.

Confederate Monuments around the US

These monuments, not only are reminders of the horrid history of our country and the racism that still stands in our country today, but the way the monuments were created shows the immense white power rooted in their form. These monuments have a theme of being high on pedestals as if to say they are taller, stronger, better, and higher up than anyone who is not like them. Their height makes it so everyone can see them and feel inferior. The pedestals of these monuments add a literal hierarchy to the social constructs of our country, and not removing them, makes it seem like these social constructs still stand and never will not.

For my project, I wanted to create something that took away the power from this monument. I wanted the pedestal to look like a joke, not something that someone would be proud of, but would bring a mockery to the monument and its history. If I couldn't remove the pedestal or the monument, how could I add to it and change its meaning?

My addition to the monument is to add in a mouth at the bottom and change the pedestal which is meant to be something of power, to something so unimportant as a toothpick. On the monument, I added pieces of lettuce onion cheese, and meat to turn it into a Barbecue Kebab.

I chose this specific monument of “Chip” in Franklin Tennessee because this monument has been through the legal system where people attempted to remove it and failed. It had thousands of signatures in 2017 but still didn't get removed.

"Chip" Franklin, Tennessee

Sketch of the project

The pieces of food and mouth would be basically giant pillows made out of fabric and stuffing. The process of installation would be one full of audience participation since It would be installed through a game of Ring Toss. This would add community engagement and give it the possibility to go viral. It would show the community working together to change the meaning and bring down the hierarchy of these harmful monuments.

The transient nature of the material would mean that this wouldn't technically be vandalism since pieces could easily be removed. On the other side, the material would be cheap and easily reproducible, meaning they could keep being added to this sculpture and maybe confederate sculptures all around the country.

The goal of this project is to take away the power from the white supremacist monuments and make something good out of something with so much negativity. This project is meant to add humor and change the narrative. If they won’t take the monuments down, we will just make them into fun funky art.

These are the 3d Renders of the finished sculpture