A statue of a hand holding a tiki torch on a stone column mysteriously emerged at Freedom Plaza in Washington, DC, on Monday, October 28, four days after a viral sculpture of a massive turd on Nancy Pelosi’s desk appeared in the National Mall facing the Capitol.
The apparently satirical plaque accompanying the bronze-colored sculpture, titled “The Donald J. Trump Enduring Flame,” reads:
This monument pays tribute to President Donald Trump and the “very fine people” he boldly stood to defend when they marched in Charlottesville, Virginia. While many have called them white supremacists and neo-Nazis, President Trump’s voice rang out above the rest to remind all that they were “treated absolutely unfairly.” This monument stands as an everlasting reminder of that bold proclamation.
The plaque quotes directly from a press conference three days after the deadly Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville in August 2017, when former President Donald Trump notoriously stated during a news conference that there “were very fine people on both sides.” White supremacists, neo-Nazis, klansmen, Proud Boys, and members of the broader alt-right had marched in protest of the city council’s decision to remove a memorial statue of Confederate General Robert E. Lee and rename the namesake park it stood. They held Nazi, Gadsden, and Confederate flags and assorted weapons; chanted racist or antisemitic slogans; and carried lit tiki torches that became symbolic of the entire ordeal.
A permit was filed by Julia Jimenez under Civic Crafting LLC and granted by the National Park Service for both last week’s poop artwork and the tiki torch sculpture.
At just over eight feet tall (~2.4 meters), the latest sculpture will remain at Freedom Plaza until 5pm local time on Thursday, October 31.
Both the Pelosi desk and the tiki torch artworks are under 24-hour surveillance, as outlined in the permit request the National Park Service shared with Hyperallergic.
“The issued permits spell out the specific conditions under which the event will take place to ensure public safety, the protection of park resources and to maintain a commemorative atmosphere where appropriate,” said Mike Litterst, a spokesperson for the National Mall and Memorial Parks, in a statement to Hyperallergic. “The National Park Service does not consider the content of the message to be presented.”
