Browse Exhibits (3 total)

Enactments of Private Love in Public Space

This exhibit offers a commentary on some of the questions of power, privacy, and female representation that arise from the Carrie Brown Bajnotti Memorial Fountain.

Commissioned in 1899, erected in 1901, and unveiled in 1902, the Carrie Brown Bajnotti Memorial Fountain was given to the city of Providence by Count Paul Bajnotti in memory of his late wife. Caroline Mathilde Brown Bajnotti was born in Providence, Rhode Island, the granddaughter of Brown University’s namesake benefactor, Nicholas Brown II. She married Count Paul Bajnotti, a Foreign Affairs officer from Turin, Italy, in 1876, and the couple spent the majority of their married life in Italy until Carrie Brown Bajnotti’s death in 1896. To memorialize his wife’s death, Count Bajnotti commissioned three monuments in Providence: Carrie Brown Bajnotti Fountain (Burnside Park), Carrie Tower (Brown University), and the Pancratiast Statue (Roger Williams Park).

allegorical figure, bronze, burnside park, carrie bajnotti, carrie brown, city beautiful, enid yandell, fountain, providence, public grief, rhode island

Nation as Sovereign and Power: White Surveillance through Monumental Sculpture and Capital Punishment

In his essay “Panopticism” in Discipline & Punish: The Birth of the Prison, Michel Foucault introduced the term "panopticon." He defined it as "enclosed space" in which every participant is "located" and constantly supervised. [1] This location of the subject is done through architecture, enforcing feelings of being watched and thus judged. I believe that the Federal Building at Kennedy Plaza and its accompanying monuments act as methods of surveillance, restricting who is allowed to belong at this site.

One of two monuments flanking the Federal Building, Nation as Sovereign and Power exemplifies the use of sculpture and iconography to demonstrate institutional power. Employing Roman symbols of the justice system and capital punishment, the monument impresses on the traveller that they are being scrutinized for any wrong doing. When one considers the proximity of the monument to surveillance cameras and armed marshals, it becomes clear that this is not a monument for citizens, but rather a tool of control for their government.

allegorical figure, beaux-arts movement, federal building, figurative statue, james massey rhind, justice, law and order, limestone, providence, rhode island, surveillance

Soldiers, Sailors, and Slavery, Oh My: The Soldiers' and Sailors' Monument and Chains of the American Past

The Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Monument was designed to be a site of both honor and grief. Celebrating all men of Rhode Island who served and died, this monument would become notable for the inclusion of Black history through memorializing fallen colored soldiers in bronze both by name and figurative statue. While contributing to the space created for Black figures in the monumentscape, there are possible complications with how these men were represented and consequently consumed, obstructing the progress of Black individuals and freedom.

allegorical figure, bronze, causality lists, civil war, granite, kennedy plaza, manhood, providence, randolph rogers, rhode island, soldier, united states colored troops, war dead, war memorial

Featured Exhibit

The Hiker Monument: White Manliness, US Imperialism, and Colonial Erasure

Kitson condensed the Spanish-American War, Philippine-American War, and China Relief Expedition by following the popular tradition of centering the white...