BLACK LIFE AS SUBJECT MATTER II
Artists Statements
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TITLE: “BEE BOY II”
by Kevin Harris
Media: Pigment Ink on Canvas Mounted to Wood
Size: 16″ x 20″
Hue: Color
Copyright 2021
Price: $400.00
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TITLE: "SWARM II"
by Kevin Harris
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Media: Pigment Ink on Canvas Mounted to Wood
Size: 16" x 16"
Hue: Color
Copyright 2021
Price: $400.00
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Artist Statement:
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“ "FIGHT OR FLIGHT”
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A cherub encounters a bumble bee in the digitally created, graffiti-laced artworks,
BEE BOY and SWARM. The motifs are metaphors for Tupac’s acronym, “t.h.u.g.l.i.f.e.”
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The cherub, weaponed and winged, ready to fight or take flight, symbolizes children of color misjudged as menaces to society. An assumption that has led to torture and trauma for young migrants or proved fatal as for Trayvon Martin and Tamir Rice.
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The yellow and black markings of the bee are nature’s warning that the bee may pose a threat. The colors of the bee, in turn, preserve life by deterring predators.
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Graffiti references the Broken Windows policing policy that led to Stop and Frisk practices and the strangulation death of Eric Garner. The first effort of Broken Windows was to eradicate graffiti.
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The pair of images is from an ongoing body of work that began as woodblock print of a bee hovering above a Black-Eyed Susan blossom, a symbol of judgement. The print takes its title, Bee Judged, from Dr. King’s I Have a Dream speech, “I look to a day when people will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.”
KEVIN HARRIS
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