Historic Corrections

Historic Corrections consists of several elements: a 7’x8′ reproduction a photograph of a 1919 lynching — a Black man on fire with a crowd of white onlookers; a series of translucent Duraclear photographs of Black & Latino “urban youth” framed on one side by prison bars. Centered between the mural and these photographs, a full sized replica of an electric chair. Positioned around the electric chair are four police batons which each strike a cast fiberglass head every 10 seconds with a loud hard blow. Live, un-edited police reports picked up by a police radio accompanies the sound of these headbeatings. Viewers can walk through the piece and view it from different perspectives. Furthermore, given the translucent nature of the Duraclear photographs, viewers can see the “urban youth” either as jailed criminals or they can see the artwork “through their eyes” and be on the same side of the bars as these youth.

Date

1998