A piece created in 2015 which tells a tale as old as time for the United States of America. As an African American, there is a history that Demetrius feels obliged to. There is also a present that demands his understanding.
in accompaniment to the demands created as an artist, there are also the realities that Demetrius lives in as an individual. He is placed in life, as he understands it, as the central character in the one narrative which he has been granted the opportunity to genuinely understand and feel: his own.
in accompaniment to the demands created as an artist, there are also the realities that Demetrius lives in as an individual. He is placed in life, as he understands it, as the central character in the one narrative which he has been granted the opportunity to genuinely understand and feel: his own.
As an African American man, he feels restrained, looked down upon and pained.
His eyes are tired, and his body subdued. When will this white cloth remove the constraints from the black body? When will he, and the rest of his people no longer be silences.
Silenced
Charcoal
Colored Progression
Acrylic Paint
Colored Progression. This piece was created in 2014. The relevance it has in 2020 makes it an essential representative piece of Demetrius's work.
The rope refers to the lynchings that were once commonplace in the United States. The red gun sight is a reference to police violence toward black people.
Murder of black people is permitted and promoted as necessary punishment for any crime potentially committed.
Lynchings have not ended.
They have only changed in means and method.
