lives matter - MiXX Projects + Atelier

lives matter
Dontre Hamilton || 31 || April 30, 2014 || Milwaukee
officer not charged
Eric Garner || 43 || July 17, 2014 New York
officer not charged
John Crawford II || 22 || August 5, 2014 || Dayton, Ohio
officer not charged
Michael Brown Jr. || 18 || August 9, 2014 || Ferguson, Missouri
officer not charged
Ezell Ford || 25 || August 11, 2014 || Florence, California
investigation ongoing
Dante Parker || 36 || August 12, 2014 || Victorville, California
investigation ongoing
Tanisha Anderson || 37 || November 13, 2014 || Cleveland, Ohio
investigation on going
Akai Gurley || 28 || November 20, 1014 || Brooklyn, New York
officer charged: second-degree manslaughter, criminally negligent homicide, second-degree assault, reckless
endangerment, and two counts of official misconduct
Tamir Rice || 12 || November 22, 2014 || Cleveland, Ohio
officers not charged
Rumain Brisbon || 34 || December 2, 2014 || Phoenix, Arizona
officer not charged
Jerame Reid || 36 || December 30, 2014 || Bridgeton, New Jersey
officer not charged
Tony Robinson || 19 || March 6, 2015 || Madison, Wisconsin
investigation ongoing
Phillip White || 32 || March 31, 2015 || Vineland, New Jersey
investigation ongoing
Eric Harris || 44 || April 2, 2015 || Tulsa, Oklahoma
officer charged with manslaughter
Walter Scott || 50 || April 4, 2015 || North Charleston, South Carolina
officer charged with murder after video footage release showed Walter running away and the officer firing his
gun into Walter’s back
Freddie Gray || 25 || April 19, 2015 || Baltimore, Maryland
officers charged
Sandra Bland || 28 || July 13, 2015 || Waller County, Texas
death ruled a suicide
Kindra Chapman || 18 || July 14, 2015 || Homewood, Alabama
death ruled a suicide
Samuel DuBose || 43 || July 19, 2015 || Cincinnati, Ohio
officer charged with murder and voluntary manslaughter
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AtJgDYysES8
"Indeed, in America there is a strange and powerful belief that if you stab a black person ten times, the bleeding stops and the
healing begins the moment the assailant drops the knife. We believe white dominance to be a fact of the inert past, a delinquent
debt that can be made to disappear if only we don’t look.“ -Ta-Nehisi Coates’ excerpt from “The Case for Separations,”
Image by Devin Allen, courtesy of the Reginald F. Lewis Museum
Devin Allen. Baltimore, 2015
Sarah Green Illustration
Mary Engelbrite Illustration
‘My Kind of People’ by Bayete Ross Smith
Cameroonian artist Barthélémy Toguo’s “Urban
Requiem” is about shared human experiences and
perspectives. His wooden sculptures are emblazoned
with words like “Hope,” “End Police Brutality,” and
“Black Lives Matter.”
Artist Jordan J. Weber reimagines a Ferguson, Mo., police car.
in his piece called "American Dreamers, Phase 2." An artist’s
rendition of Trayvon Martin is seen in the background under a
halo.
“I tell stories that speak to the human experience. The hands
you see are images I have captured of people who have
shaped and upheld this movement. The peoples movement. It
is our right – to be seen, to be heard…to be validated. It is our
collective responsibility. The ‘All Hands On Deck’ project is an
ode to that diverse collective dedicated to protecting our
human rights, no matter race, age or gender. 'All Hands On
Deck’ is our charge - a call of action to stand with those who
stand for us all.” –Damon Davis
“The fencing is meant to “symbolize the barriers AfricanAmericans encounter in everyday life,” said Christopher
Metzger, a Morgan State University professor who
organized the piece. The theme of this public art is
“Black Lives Matter,” and when his students chose it last
spring, they had no idea just how relevant it would
become.
This piece is a part of the Inside Out project, a global
initiative that allows people to share their portraits and
make a statement for what they stand for. ”
"It's haunting; it's shocking, It humanizes the situation in a very strange way.“ -Tyler Shields
Hank Willis Thomas
"It’s not an easy task. This is the thing. It’s not an easy thing to undo,"
Clark explained to Leila Ugincius of Virginia Commonwealth University
"Thread by thread. It’s a little frustrating." Although this sentiment
primarily points to the physical act of deconstructing the flag piece by
piece, it also extends to the slow and toilsome task of dismantling the
ideals of the Confederacy and the notion of racism in the United States.”Sonya Clark, ‘Unraveling and Unravelled’
“The large installation, ‘Storm in the Time of
Shelter,’ dominates the Creative Alliance’s Main
Gallery, where the floor is painted blood red.
Mannequins wearing mostly red, white, and blue
Klan robes, handmade by Rucker and his sister-inlaw, are arranged in a large circle. The hulking
figures center around a large metal cross on the
floor, with their blank faces covered by elaborate
hoods. Most disturbing, at the foot of the cross, a
circle of three children in full Klan regalia hold out
their hands, as if playing Ring Around the Rosy.”
Commentary on Paul Rucker’s ‘Rewind’ Exhbition
"Growing up, in a mostly Caucasian
area, I had not [realized] until I was
much older that the image of a black
boy or man is often one of anger or
aggression."
"The reasons for my rage and my
anger should not be pushed aside
and belittled simply because of the
color of my skin."
"My skin color and my race represent
who I am and where I come from, but
shouldn't dictate how people treat me."
The ‘I’m Tired’ Project by Paula Akpan and Harriet Evans
Kehinde Wiley
Jaques Louis-David 1801
Kehinde Wiley 2005
Kehinde Wiley
“Wiley investigates the
perception of blackness and
creates a contemporary hybrid
Olympus in which tradition is
invested with new street
credibility.”
Wiley describes his own work
as “interrogating the notion of
the master painter, at once
critical and complicit.”
His paintings quote historical
sources and position young
black men and women within
that field of power; thus
fusing history and style in a
unique and contemporary
manner.
In 2011, Kaphar began searching for his father’s prison records.
When he visited a website containing photographs of people
who have recently been arrested, he found dozens of men who
shared his father’s first name, Jerome, and last name. The artist
was influenced by the writings of Michelle Alexander and
William Julius Wilson on the prison-industrial complex and the
use of policing and imprisonment by the US government as a
means to address economic, social and political problems. The
panels are based on police portraits of the men named Jerome
that Kaphar found online, which represent only a portion of
each man’s identity yet are preserved in the public record.
Although each work depicts an individual, this series represents
a community of people, particularly African American men, who
are overrepresented in the prison population.
After completing the portraits, Kaphar submerged a portion of
each panel in tar; initially the tar-covered area corresponded to
the percentage of his life that each subject had spent in prison.
Kaphar abandoned the formula after considering the countless
consequences of imprisonment for the men’s lives, even after
their release. In his later panels, Kaphar began with his original
equation and extended the tar at least up to the mouth,
representing the silencing of the incarcerated men, who were
stripped of many rights, including the right to vote and access to
federally funded programs in many states.
‘Manifest Justice’ Project in L.A.
Pinhole
Photography by
Incarcerated Girls
at Remann Hall,
Washington State
Curated by Prison Photography editor Pete Brook, Prison Obscura explores an area of society that, in spite of its explosive
growth, continues to exist in the shadows: the country’s prisons and jails. Presenting rarely seen vernacular, surveillance,
evidentiary, and prisoner-made photographs, the exhibition sheds light on the prison industrial complex and those it confines.
Richard Ross
“The entire discussion of race in America centers around the protection of White feelings.”
John Metta
There’s a headline from The Independent that sums this up quite nicely: “Charleston shooting: Black and Muslim killers are
‘terrorists’ and ‘thugs’. Why are white shooters called ‘mentally ill’?” John Metta
“Here’s what I want to say to you: Racism is so deeply embedded in this country not because of the racist rightwing radicals who practice it openly, it exists because of the silence and hurt feelings of liberal
America.”
John Metta
“the average white household in America has 16 times the wealth of the average black household. No group in
America suffers from our nation’s economic inequality more than black people. Further, closing the racial wealth
gap is probably the single most effective thing that any politician could do to help advance the cause of ending
structural racism in America.”
Hamilton Nolan
“there are close to 20 people of color in prison for every white person.”
John Metta