An Infrastructure of Silence is a collection of works that confronts institutional racism in U.S. America and the interconnections of slavery, race, poverty, wealth, and segregation in the United States. As a citizen of this democracy and an artist with shameful ancestral roots in the institutions of slavery, I have a shared responsibility to help confront the divisive and persistent effects of institutionalized racism on all Americans.
The wallpaper and frames used as media throughout the collection reference my family’s racist history and the historic nightmare alliance between policy, the law, the pulpit, and the press who joined forces in colonial America to deepen perceived differences between ‘the races’. Racism has a lamentable staying power and continues to be used as a potent political and psychological tool in America today.Throughout the exhibition, text is intertwined with the artwork. Using materials of association, each piece is a confrontation with racial disparities regarding wealth, housing, criminal justice and political power.