Placed within a 2 tiered structure, Matthew Monahan’s The Benjamins suggests a decrepit power. Posed with Soviet-style glory, mutated figures toil and salute, weathered emblems of a fictitious nation, both barbaric and industrious. Exposing all the evidence of their clumsy making, Monahan invents a parallel world where the artist is creator and conjurer of nightmarish fantasy. Riddled with dark humour, Monahan’s shrunken monument offers a sinister element in its parody propaganda. Abject and absurd, The Benjamins brings to mind whispered lore of Amazonia, voodoo dolls, and witchcraft, contriving monster lore from recent history.