Exhausted Monument
2023
Salvaged polyester velour, upholstery trim, poly-cotton thread, Catalogue of the Exhibits of the State of Pennsylvania and Pennsylvanians at the World's Columbian Exposition (1893), bookweight
Dimensions variable, max 10 ft x 10 ft x 54 ft
At the Chicago World’s Fair in 1893, the central display in the Mines and Mining building was a fifty-four foot obelisk made of anthracite coal. The obelisk was fabricated by a Philadelphia-based coal trust and sent to the fair to represent Pennsylvania’s mineral riches. It was dismantled but records of it survive in the fair’s catalogs and photography.
The obelisk was a celebratory object to mark the dawn of a new era of technology, power, and its profits, and their relationship to American global dominance. When it was erected, the coal it was built from had already made an unprecedented impact on the world’s atmosphere, and would contribute to some of the earliest detections of global warming.
In light of what we now understand about the effects of coal’s expansion, the slipcover recasts the obelisk as a collapsed form: an anti-monument. The dark, matte fabric absorbs light, creating depth and making the slipcover’s dimensions difficult to assess. It lies on the ground, not as a resurrected memorial, but as a shadow of the past on the present.