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Hidden Sides

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Our project is called Hidden Side and is displayed in the form of a cube. Each side of our cube portrays a different angle of police brutality that is usually hidden to the general public. We have highlighted the issues of framing, negligence, and police violence. On the first side of the cube that is being shown there is a large image on an eye behind jail bars with tears dripping down. There are questions beside the image that read who does the police target? Are everyone behind bars a criminal? The second image being shown is an image of a police officer’s face looking forward and the other one upside down depicting the friendly side that is depicted and the negative side that is hidden. The next image that is shown is an image of a wanted poster with an image of a police officer with their badge number. The police officer’s eyes are blindfolded, and it depicts the issues that police officers neglect and fail to see. Then there is an image of a gun shooting out bullets, and above it is a question that reads who enforces the law, when the police is the one to shoot? Next, is an image of a cell phone with texts being written to the police that state can you help? Hello?? But the message just says read… which further depicts the negligence of police. The final side of the image has two images of police officers stepping on and beating a person with a baton with the speech bubbles that read please stop resisting.

 Through our artwork, Hidden Sides, we shed light on the fact that police brutality is a multifaceted issue and assert that there is more than what meets the eye. When we roll a die, we are only able to see the side that it lands on. But we are unable to have a clear vision of what is present on sides obstructed from view. Similarly, we only see the versions of the police that the media portrays, but there are a lot more tragic incidents that occur behind the scenes. We drew inspiration from the media surrounding police violence, including the coverage of the recent unjust deaths of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor, and the violence inflicted at protests. We wanted to comment on the lesser-known aspects, exploring topics of unjust conviction, negligence, and the obstruction of truth. Our artwork is a cube sculpture, adorned with drawings that represent different areas of the social issue. It is meant to be explored from multiple angles, and we urge the viewer to carefully examine each facet of the sculpture. Each pair of sides in our cube represents a different angle of police brutality, which are police framing, police negligence and police violence. Our artwork is a form of Artivism because Artivism refers to art + activism which we have portrayed through our project (Comunicar, 2018). We displayed our inner activist voices through a form of art thus, creating art for social change. Through the use of pertinent questions, explicit iconography, and implicit symbolism, we prompt viewers to contemplate the complexity of police violence, as well as confront their own biases and preconceptions.

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