An Artist Honors Tamir Rice, One Orange Object at a Time

[sheshe2]

Some of the orange objects donated by residents of Cleveland or collected by Michael Rakowitz at the opening of “A Color Removed,” a tribute to Tamir Rice, at the Spaces gallery on July 14.
Credit
Andrew Spear for The New York Times

The installation, by Michael Rakowitz, an Iraqi-American artist and professor based in Chicago, is titled “A Color Removed,” and it asks, Can you remove a color — and a symbol of safety — from an entire city? Rakowitz is trying to do just that, as a tribute to Tamir, the 12-year-old boy who was playing with a pellet gun when he was fatally shot in 2014 by a Cleveland police officer, Timothy Loehmann. The police chief, Calvin Williams, said that the pellet gun had been “indistinguishable from a real firearm” because it was lacking its orange safety cap.A grand jury did not indict Mr. Loehmann, who was fired last year for lying on his employment application.

“When that minor object got isolated, it was outrageous and infuriated me, but at the same time I thought, ‘That’s something to talk about, because we’re talking about color,’” said Mr. Rakowitz, whose art practice often involves trying to execute impossible-seeming actions, including reconstructing — from disposable materials — all the artifacts looted from the National Museum of Iraq.

“If we need an indirect way of talking about black and white, maybe we can talk about red and yellow,” he said of his Cleveland project. In other words, maybe metaphor can be a useful way of getting at the reality of race. As Mr. Rakowitz said, “We are living in spaces where color is removed every day with the shootings of young black men.”


snip

The artist was also struck by a coincidence: in Arabic, the word “tamir” means “date,” a food found in abundance in his family’s home country and a frequent subject of his work. “That’s where you realize you’re living in a world where it really is all connected,” he says. He saw Tamir Rice’s death as both a local tragedy and something more universal: “the brutality of difference being marked on somebody’s body.”




Orange objects donated to Mr. Rakowitz for his art gallery show, his effort to remove the color from the city of Cleveland as a statement on the right to safety.
Credit
Andrew Spear for The New York Times

Read More:https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/29/arts/design/tamir-rice-cleveland-triennial-orange-rakowitz.html?action=click&module=Editors%20Picks&pgtype=Homepage

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“We are living in spaces where color is removed every day with the shootings of young black men.”

“the brutality of difference being marked on somebody’s body.”

Some objects are especially poignant, including a plastic figure of a child holding a sign that reads, “Caution: Children at Play,” and the life jacket of a Syrian refugee who never reached Europe.

A beautiful, yet haunting tribute to Tamir Rice. A cautionary note, Children at Play.

[brer cat]

1. I hope that something will be permanent

as a memorial and tribute to Tamir. If he couldn't live his life, at least let it be remembered and honored.

[sheshe2]

2. I agree, brer.

Remembered and honored.

The artist Michael Rakowitz, he did that with heart. Remarkable.