THE PROCESS
STEP ONE:
ONE POLICE PLAZA
The first step in our process for this project was to visit an interesting location in New York City and spend time photographing it. My previous two projects had a heavy focus on brutalist architecture so I was interested in building off that for my final. I chose the Police headquarters downtown called One Police Plaza. Originally my main purpose for choosing it was strictly because of it’s architecture, however, after spending an hour walking around the space and thinking about the larger concept, the location began to develop a deeper meaning.
THE STRAND:
I also visited the Strand to try and collect a lot of texture images. I enjoyed searching for the small details within the bookstore, however, in terms of the concept and aesthetic I was looking for, the photos didn’t quite do anything to push it forward so I ended up not using any.
STEP TWO:
Sketches and Mockup:
I came to my final design of the crucifix through a combination of photoshop and sketching. I placed a full picture of the entire Police Plaza in photoshop and I began cutting away different areas using only a straight line selector. This allowed for me to create new geometric shapes and forms in the already existing architecture. I eventually minimized the building down to a single pillar. I felt that transforming the building into a cross without actually manipulating anything was important. The fact that the cross is not only already engrained into the building but also the largest support pillar that the entire plaza was built upon is also important.
The idea of bringing a cross out of a police plaza lead me to draw parallels between religion and its tumultuous history and Policing in America and its history. Karl Marx once compared religion to an opium saying
“It is an opium which drags people to accept poor conditions without complaining.”
In the recent years I have began understanding this quote as a reference to the colonization of Africans. Christianity has always been intertwined with the agenda of the west. It taught enslaved people that this is where they belong, that their god is a white man.Walter Rodney, An acclaimed historian and activist, accuses Christianity of “preaching humility and submission in the face of gross injustice, inhumanity and dehumanization.”
With all of these heavy and powerful messages hidden behind only a black and white cross, I became interested in preserving the simplicity of the visuals while loading as much as I could in every detail.
My inspiration for this piece derives from Black artists and this country.
STEP THREE:
THE FINAL PIECE
Untitled (In the Midst of Darkness) 33″ x 40″ Graphite and Digital Print
In 2018 we now live in a society that is a product of it’s birth.
We went through 400 years of psychological manipulation in the form of an “all loving God”.
Today, 79% of Blacks in America identify as a part of the Christian faith, it has been a mere 148 years since slavery ended.
The loved ones of Michael Brown, Trayvon Martin, Eric Garner, and the 12 year old Tamir Rice all said their final goodbyes in a Christian Church.
This piece is a commentary on the acceptable and pacified behavior of blacks in America under the judgement of a white system created under a white religion.
