Professor Javier Arbona was recently interviewed in the LA Times about the present and future meaning of public sculpture. In the December 13 op-ed “The most controversial thing about Gov. Pete Wilson’s statue is its dull irrelevance,” columnist Gustavo Arellano takes a look at the Wilson monument in San Diego and asks why it is, or isn’t, controversial.

According to Arbona, monuments “tell us more about the contemporary. In a sense, they help erase or forget things about the past and re-create something rather hazy that redraws what the future is about.” Eventually history is whitewashed and people expect permanence for their public monuments — “they’re heritage and therefore have to be respected. It’s very powerful.”

Read the full article here.