“A century ago, in “In the American Grain,” Williams wrote that history “is concerned only with the one thing: to say everything is dead.” No view could be more alien to “Manifest.” These artifacts White has chosen and the photographs he has taken to bear them — yes, bear them, with the solidity and subdued grandeur that plinths bear monuments — are anything but dead. They’re as alive as tomorrow and as present as those viewing them. Look closely, and what viewers see, thanks to those black backgrounds, includes their own reflection.”