A collage square with images of monuments in a gradient filter with “monuments.” written in bold yellow text in the center. Monuments include The Statue of Liberty, Robert E Lee Statue with “BLM” and an image of Breonna Taylor projected onto it, The Central Park Suffragette monument, the Martin Luther King Jr Statue in Washington DC, the sculpture of Prometheus in Rockefeller Center, the Stonewall Monument, the Arch in Washington Square Park with red paint covering the statues on the sides, the Statue of Atlas in Rockefeller Center, the statue of Christopher Columbus in Columbus Square, one of the New York Public Library Lions with a mask covering the mouth of the lion, Laetitia Ky with her hair shaped in a scale with the male and female gender symbols on each side, an image of the Wall Street Bull and Fearless Girl statues, the statue of Theodore Roosevelt that is placed outside of the museum of natural history, and a statue of Jeferson Davis with “BLM”, “ACAB”, and “5/30 cops ran us over”.

Monuments and Movement: Power During the Pandemic

Quaran-Zine is a collection of artistic and literary representations of the pandemic’s impact on our lives and understanding of NYC.

Covers by Lucas Ayala, Anling Chen, Arya Harris, and Peter Manos

Lucas Ayala, Anling Chen, Arya Harris, and Peter Manos

Monuments and movements are two topics that have been greatly impacted by not only the pandemic, but also through current events and the political climate of the past few months. With everyone stuck inside, we have had time to contemplate how monuments are more than just a structure, but they also represent the histories of who constructed them. Furthermore, we reflect on movements that we may no longer be able to do and how to keep moving forward during uncertain times. We created a collage concocted of sharp, vivid images to enhance the importance of monuments and to capture a feeling of “Movement Beyond the House.”

A collage of tilted images portraying various activities with the word “MOVEMENT” in white and highlighted in purple on the bottom left. Images include: people running, dancing, putting on a mask, jumping, preparing for a bicycle race, and people walking in a parade.

The pandemic made us realize that all monuments are not created equal and different groups of people have varying levels of accurate representation in fine art. Creating zines encouraged us to reflect on those injustices and ways to create equitable monuments for post-COVID New York City. While making our cover, we noticed how many monuments had been “vandalized” with writings from recent political movements. This begs the questions: should these monuments still be here, and what do they stand for? That is what we ask the viewer to answer.

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