Columbus Circle, NYC II, 2020

At the centre of New York City, within an iconic traffic circle named for him, Christopher Columbus stands flanked by the Time Warner Center and the Trump International Hotel & Tower. This public site and its monument occupy a prominent position in ongoing debates around the memorialisation of historical figures, the examination of the contexts from which they emerge, and the question of their continued presence or removal. Against this backdrop, the work attends to everyday moments of life unfolding in the shadow of the monument, scenes that are mundane, absurd, humorous, lonely, dubious and spectacular, and inseparable from the larger debate that surrounds them.

In 2020, the work was reworked to include a timeline of US events, running from left to right, from the construction of the Columbus statue in 1892 to September 2020. Comprising 140 moments in US history, the timeline traces shifts in power, highlighting when dominant narratives have been established, challenged or rewritten. It charts a history of empowerment and disempowerment, reflecting the formation of US national identity and the country’s contested collective past.