Who are you addressing now?, 2024
Part A: foam, paint
Part B: nylon fabric, computer fan, power station
Brown University Wriston Quad, Providence, RI
Part A installed: May 2–9, 2024
Part B installed: May 9–13, 2024
When it was unveiled on Brown’s campus in 1906, this statue of Caesar Augustus, the first Roman emperor, represented male virtue and faculty. With his right hand raised in the adlocutio pose, Augustus addressed the troops, seemingly speaking of conquest and victory.
Augustus first lost his right arm in the New England hurricane of 1938. A new limb was attached, but it was severed by vandals in 1960. Though the statue was intended as an emblem of dignity and power, it didn't take long for students to make Augustus an object of irreverence. Missing the arm that overtly signaled his authority, Augustus has been variously littered with empty beer cans, masked for COVID-19, and papered with student organizers' posters.
Partially a response to the recent debate over Roman statues on Brown's campus, this two-part prosthetic intervention references the history of shenanigans played on Augustus by the Brown community while asking what power monuments really hold over us.
Related Press:
Maggie Spear, “The Emperor’s New Arm: Brown-RISD Student Reimagines Art, Monuments on Campus,” News from Brown, May 10, 2024
