Henry Hering, “Defense,” 1928. Relief on the southwestern tower of the Michigan Avenue Bridge in Chicago.
“This constellation—public space, power, history and meaning—arrives at the core of what must be asked of each of our monuments: What history does this image construct? Who owns that history, and who benefits from its telling as such? What is being left unsaid? Who owns this space, and who controls it? These are questions with answers that can and should change over time, lest we fall under the spell of the monument and forget that the future, like history itself, has and will always be ours for the making.”