Relics (part of the series Tangled Up in Blue), 2021, box cutter, fork, pellet gun, spent firecrackers, cardboard sign, beach ball, knife, partial plastic automobile bumper, pizza box, cotton dust mop, screwdriver, stroller wheel, sleeping bag, wool and cotton yarn, military thread, bedsheets, burlap, brass 9mm bullet casings, collected media reports 2000-2021.

Statement about Relics

Following the murder of 13-year-old Adam Toledo in March 2021, I sought to understand how interactions with the police could result in so many fatalities. Consulting a citizen-run organization that collects media reports of fatal encounters with law enforcement, I looked closely at the data in Cook County, Illinois over the last 22 years. I read through the 624 accounts of individuals who had lost their lives as a result of deadly force, non-deadly force, vehicular pursuit, drowning or taking their own lives.

Relics is my exploration of objects that might have been left behind following some of these encounters. I collected 13 items that were significant to the stories reported. These items include objects that were mistaken for deadly weapons, or that represent the cause of death, or the victim themselves.  I shrouded each element individually, using hand-dyed cotton sheets and burlap, then bound them with yarn and military thread in various shades of blue. I inserted reclaimed 9mm bullet casings into the wrapping of those objects that represented incidences of death by gunfire.