\n<\/p>\n
\u201cThey double-timed<\/em> that,\u201d Hamza told me. \u201cThe conservation of the one in Arlington Cemetery\u2014this has a really high price ticket on it. And I would say the same with the Pike, I didn\u2019t expect it to go back up so quickly\u2014I think obviously it\u2019s to make a statement, to send a message.\u201d<\/p>\n Simpson explained that it\u2019s not as if we\u2019re about to see any of the statues in \u201cMonuments\u201d go back up, since they were all acquired from local or state governments, unlike the Albert Pike statue and the Confederate Memorial, which are under federal jurisdiction. \u201cI say jurisdiction<\/em><\/a> and I say, Oh, there\u2019s legal distinctions between these things\u2026but you also know that he doesn\u2019t give a fuck about legal distinction,\u201d Simpson said.<\/p>\n \u201cYeah, that\u2019s right,\u201d Hamza said, chuckling nervously.<\/p>\n \u201cSo if it\u2019s expedient or useful for him to say something about anything, he\u2019ll do it, whether it\u2019s real or legal,\u201d Simpson said.<\/p>\n Trump hasn\u2019t weighed in on the show\u2014yet!\u2014but it\u2019s already angered a few of his favorite outlets, with more invective surely to come. In a Fox News article<\/a> helpfully labeled Opinion,<\/em> David Marcus<\/strong> called Unmanned Drone<\/em> \u201cthe most grotesque of the works,\u201d and likened the exhibition to a middle finger to the right. The headline? \u201cLA museum\u2019s desecration of Confederate statues is pure barbarism.\u201d<\/p>\n Simpson noted that, for all his discussion of barbarism, Marcus\u2014the author of Charade: The COVID Lies That Crushed a Nation<\/em><\/a>\u2014did not mention the massacre in Charleston, the origin point of the show.<\/p>\n \u201cSo the idea that, \u2018Well, it\u2019s, like, pure barbarism\u2019\u2026I think you might want to save that for that,<\/em>\u201d Hamza said.<\/p>\n It\u2019s unclear from the article whether Marcus visited the show in person. If he had, he might have noticed the subtle moments, the more low-key flexes. It plays with scale in an ingenious way. Statues that were once perched high on pedestals are installed on the ground, allowing one to fully grapple with their high-romantic kitsch.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n