You might remember the results of the 2020 election, but not likely the winner in 1920. Now try to remember the losers of these races.
There's an art installation in the Valley that’s determined to showcase them in the form of one big campaign sign graveyard.
One home in the midtown Phoenix neighborhood of Coronado stands out and not just because the little lawn is packed with more than 50 different signs.
“The signs are so bright, they're so colorful and they're just everywhere on this lawn. It's just this riotous cacophony of the kind of insanity a little bit. But then you kind of start to see a method to the madness,” said Keshia Turley, assistant curator at the Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art.
On second glance, you'll notice that some of the campaign signs are not of this century, and that none of these signs belong to candidates who were successful.
“I mean, I have, you know, Adams in ‘92 and what people don't know is that, that's 1792,” said Carrie Tovar, one of the owners of the house.
It turns out it's not a visual display of an enthusiastic neighbor's political fervor compelling you to vote for a specific candidate, but rather an art installation.
It's a collection of fake signs for every losing presidential ticket since the country's founding. The installation monument to the unelected was created by Brooklyn-based interdisciplinary artist Nina Katchadourian. It was originally commissioned in 2008 by the Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art.
“I was invited to be part of an exhibition at SMOCA, called ‘Seriously Funny,’” Katchadourian said, adding she was inspired by the abundance of election signs in town that year, especially considering Arizona's own John McCain was running for president
“While all that was going on, these election signs were kind of almost following me around town everywhere I went,” Katchadourian said. “And I thought, what if I made a series of election signs with the names of everybody who ever ran for the office of president of the United States, but who lost?
SMOCA brought “Monument to the Unelected” back to the Valley and other locations across the country during presidential election season from early October until the winning ticket is announced.
Katchadourian said the piece is often misunderstood as an endorsement or indictment of past campaigns. But in fact, “Monument to the Unelected” isn't meant to say anything particularly political at all.
“Although it's a piece about politics and a piece about elections, it's actually a very politically neutral piece. And what I mean by that is that you could feel happy or sad about the results of any of these names that are on the signs, any of the people who lost an election. But the piece does not take a position on that,” Katchadourian said. “I'm actually really just presenting a series of facts, a series of facts about the past.”
Over the years, the installation has garnered a variety of reactions but mostly confusion.
“It's not every day that you see the front of a home inundated with yard signs and you might kind of question like what is going on here, what is happening,” Turley said.
And the owners of the home say it's also been an opportunity for neighbors to connect, reflect, learn and have a good laugh.
“About four years ago, so the last election cycle, we decided to install Katchadourian’s “Monument to the Unelected. And we gave her a selection of houses in which to choose from because she has a vision of what she would like it to look like, and she chose our house,” Tovar said.
“It was surprising at how many people I think came to the house. What wasn't surprising to me was how engaged they became. There wasn't really any political animosity. People were just interested in the history of America rather than any kind of political stance because that's not really what it is. It's really just all of the paths that we could have taken that we didn't,” Tovar said.
Their front yard, located near 12th Street and Thomas Road, will be chock full of signs from now until it's time to add a 60th sign for the newest election loser.
