The Walker Art Center announced Monday that it is postponing the reopening of the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden until June 10 in light of controversy surrounding the gallows-like "Scaffold" sculpture.
Also Monday, the artist behind the sculpture that sparked angry protests outside the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden issued a statement addressing the anger it provoked.
In the statement, Los Angeles-based artist Sam Durant clarified that the intended audience for "Scaffold" (2012) was "white people who have not suffered the effects of a white supremacist society and who may not know it consciously exists." He expressed remorse about not including dialogue or engagement with the Dakota people in the placement of the work at the Sculpture Garden.
"In focusing on my position as a white artist making work for that audience I failed to understand what the inclusion of the Dakota 38 in the sculpture could mean for Dakota people," he wrote in the statement. "I offer my deepest apologies for my thoughtlessness. I should have reached out to the Dakota community the moment I knew that the sculpture would be exhibited at the Walker Art Center in proximity to Mankato."
Olga Viso, executive director of the Walker Art Center, has said the sculpture will likely be taken down in response to the protests. She declined to comment Monday after the Walker announced it had delayed the Sculpture Garden's scheduled June 3 opening.
"Scaffold" references seven U.S. state-sanctioned gallows executions, including the hanging of 38 Dakota in 1862 in Mankato, the Haymarket gallows hanging of four anarchists in 1886 and the 1936 public hanging of 26-year-old black man Rainey Bethea, among others.
" 'Scaffold' seeks to address the contemporary relevance and resonance of these narratives today, especially at a time of continued institutionalized racism, and the ongoing dehumanization and intimidation of people of color," Durant wrote in his statement. " 'Scaffold' is neither memorial nor monument, and stands against prevailing ideas and normative history. It warns against forgetting the past."
The protests over the artwork continued Monday, with signs hanging on the fence outside the Sculpture Garden. One sign said, "$200 for scalp of artist" and others listed the names of the Dakota warriors executed in Mankato.