Photographer and activist LaToya Ruby Frazier’s Monuments of Solidarity is monumental in all senses of the word. This retrospective covering over 20 years of the artist’s output represents an opportunity for Frazier to not only show a body of work that she has devoted her creative life to, but also to show it in a way that she never thought she might be able to.
Comprised of a series of installation pieces that Frazier has declared “workers’ monuments”, this exhibit has given the photographer a rare chance to show her work on her terms – that is, to not merely show her photographs as pictures on walls, but to contextualize them via installation work that give a sense of the full networks of relationships and activism that she has built up while taking the photos. According to Frazier, it was an unexpected delight that an institution like New York’s Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) granted her the authority to do this exhibition on her terms. “This has been the most organic, harmonious working relationship,” she said. “They have let the work lead, which is really big.”
