'MONUMENTS FOR THE USA" presents artists' responses to the Wattis Institute's invitation to address the state of this nation in a proposal for a monument. The work collected explores America as a political and cultural phenomenon, and implicitly critiques the status quo from a broad range of distinct vantages. Ilya and Emilia Kabakov propose a Monument to Tolerance, constructed with transparent pipes and architecturally based on the image of two figures pulling a rope in opposite directions, with a third figure in the center holding them together. The structure would resemble a cross, as a symbol of specifically Christian tolerance, but would also incorporate symbolic references to the major world religions and stage their reconciliation. The Kabakovs' proposal recalls the legacy of the United States as a bastion of freedom and challenges the current culture of fundamentalist intolerance, but it also seems naive in its piety. Yoshua Okon, on the other hand, provides a cynical animated video of helicopter tours of his monument: a giant, gold, reflective statue of the letters "US." In his accompanying text, he explains that his "us" refers not only to "us vs. them" but also to the narcissism of patriotism in which "me, myself and I = us." Hans Haake's Star Gazing proposes publicly broadcasting the image of a white man in a red T-shirt, wearing a blue hood with white stars. And Monica Bonvicini's politically aggressive That Hangs, presents a floodlight attached to a thick, heavy noose, painted black at the joint. The title refers to Lenin's pronouncement "The capitalists will sell us the rope that hangs them." Other work in the show focuses on culture rather than politics. Elmgreen and Dragset approach America through art history by offering different versions of their Monument to Short Term Memory, constructed in the style of text-based artists Jenny Holzer, Felix Gonzalez Torres, and Robert Indiana. And Olav Westphalen proposes a Monument to the Anonymous, Local Pioneers of Internet Pornography, which would be built in towns across the country, in the likeness of an image found on a local porn Web site. Text on the monument would celebrate the proliferation of Internet porn as the manifestation of fundamental American values, including entrepreneurship, Yankee ingenuity, and freedom of expression. Tues. and Thurs., 11 a.m.-7 p.m.; Wed. and Fri.-Sat., 11 a.m.-6 p.m., 1111 Eighth St., S.F. (415) 551-9210. (Clark Buckner)