Urban Pieta honors Darnella Frazier, a seventeen-year-old woman who witnessed and recorded the murder of George Floyd. Ms. Frazier’s courageous act exposed the violence and trauma inflicted on people of color in such a profound and moving way that it served as a catalyst for a global movement, resulted in the conviction of 4 police officers and profoundly changed policing in our community.
My work compares this act of witnessing to Michelangelo’s Pieta where the Virgin Mary holds her slain son. In the modern version, the shroud is replaced by a hoodie and the “holding” is done electronically via cell phone. But the pain, horror and grief are the same in both works.
My intention is to honor Ms. Frazier for her transformative contribution to addressing the racial inequities that plague our world, nation and community.
