Cal State Fullerton’s Grand Central Art Center, in collaboration with Community Engagement, presents Nina Katchadourian’s “Monument to the Unelected” exhibition from Sept. 26 to Nov. 17.
The art installation is located on the lawn at 896 S. Oakwood St. in Orange, California. This temporary installation consists of 59 signs that bear the names of losing candidates from every presidential election in American history, and coincides with this year’s presidential election. Once results are official, a 60th sign with the name of the losing candidate of the 2024 presidential election will be added.
Katchadourian was initially commissioned by the Scottsdale Museum of Art and curator Cassandra Coblentz to create a new work around the time of the 2008 presidential election. The artist became interested in the plastic election signs sprouting up on front lawns, vacant lots and busy intersections around Scottsdale, Arizona.
“These markers tend to crop up in the weeks leading up to an election, after which they disappear, with some of the names going on to take office and others being largely forgotten,” said Katchadourian.
The signs also struck her as an American tradition with an aesthetic all their own.
Working with designer Evan Gaffney, Katchadourian created a series of signs bearing the names of individuals who ran for president and lost. Each sign was made in a contemporary design vernacular, even if it advertised a candidate from previous centuries. None of the signs and designs were used in the candidates’ actual election campaigns. She pulled design inspiration from many of the signs that she documented in Scottsdale, and others are modeled on signs seen across the country. All signs are printed on corrugated plastic using similar commercial production methods as typical election lawn signs.
At this moment, when the country is deeply preoccupied with a major national election, “Monument to the Unelected” serves as a reminder of the country’s collective political road not taken. It does not reflect a particular political viewpoint or endorse a specific party, but it does highlight the United States’ history with the peaceful transition of power. “Monument to the Unelected” has been exhibited nationally during the past four presidential election cycles, usually spanning a period before and after the election that allows for the addition of the losing candidate’s name.
This election cycle, the work will be shown simultaneously at six additional locations nationwide, including Roots Community Health Center, The di Rosa Center for Contemporary Art, Minnesota Street Project, Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art, Center for Art and Dance, St. Olaf College, and Home of the Abrahamson Family Collection.
Katchadourian is an interdisciplinary artist whose work includes video, performance, sound, sculpture, photography and public projects. Her video “Accent Elimination” was included at the 2015 Venice Biennale in the Armenian pavilion, which won the Golden Lion for Best National Participation. Group exhibitions have included shows at the Serpentine Gallery, Turner Contemporary, de Appel, Palais de Tokyo, Istanbul Museum of Modern Art, Turku Art Museum, Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego, ICA Philadelphia, Brooklyn Museum, Artists Space, SculptureCenter, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Morgan Library and MoMA PS1. A solo museum survey of her work entitled “Curiouser” opened at the Blanton Museum in 2017 and traveled to the Cantor Art Center at Stanford University and the Brigham Young University Art Museum.
Katchadourian completed a commission entitled “Floater Theater” for the Exploratorium in San Francisco in 2016, which is now permanently on view. In 2016, Katchadourian created “Dust Gathering,” an audio tour on the subject of dust, for the Museum of Modern Art as part of its “Artists Experiment” program. Katchadourian’s work includes public and private collections for the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Blanton Museum of Art, Morgan Library, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Margulies Collection and Saatchi Gallery. She has won grants and awards from the the New York Foundation for the Arts, Anonymous Was a Woman Foundation, Tiffany Foundation, American-Scandinavian Foundation, Gronqvista Foundation and Nancy Graves Foundation. Katchadourian lives and works in Brooklyn and Berlin, and she is a faculty member at the New York University Gallatin School of Individualized Study. She is represented by Catharine Clark Gallery and Pace Gallery.
Forbes recognized the 2020 Grand Central Art Center presentation of “Monument to the Unelected” as one of the six exceptional art exhibits in 2020.
GCAC expresses its sincere gratitude to Deb and Jon Webb for providing their front lawn as the installation site for the 2024 showing of “Monument to the Unelected.” Visitors should be respectful of the Webb property, neighbors, neighborhood and the work included in the installation.