There is a new exhibit open in the main gallery of the UNM Art Museum — dealing with civil rights issues in our country from the past to the present.
The exhibition, entitled “Necessary Force: Art in the Police State,” opened Friday and will run through Dec. 12.
Curated by Karen Fiss and Kymberly Pinder, dean of the UNM College of Fine Arts, the exhibit features more than 30 artists focusing on “the systemic forces in our history and our society that continue the violation of civil rights in this country through a range of issues, including police brutality, surveillance, imprisonment, poverty, gun violence, racial profiling, as well as the power of collective protest and collective healing.”
“We felt that it was really important to have it here at the University because it's all about education and dialogue,” Pinder said. “A lot of it is very conceptual, so you don’t get it right away and you really need to take time with it. That was one of our goals, was to slow everything down, because news media gives you tons of information in a sensationalist way and the curator and I really wanted to go in the other end of that.”
On Friday evening, the museum was packed for the opening, with guests and artists alike speaking about the various pieces. One of them, an overturned police car titled “We Did It For Love,” takes up half the room.
Along one wall, beside a photo series of an outed police informant being beat up by a criminal counterpart, black and white photos are posted displaying police activity at the uniform and undercover level.
Jade Dukeminier, a sophomore biochemistry major, said the exhibit was timely when looking at the debate of what may or may not be excessive force used by police in today’s society.
“It kind of opens your eyes a little bit, to the things that were going on and potentially things that are still ongoing,” Dukeminier said.
Another piece titled “Night Rap,” by Mel Chin, focuses on the policeman's nightstick as “a symbol of authoritarian force and the microphone arms the force with vocalization,” according to the adjoining program description.
In one corner of the main gallery, yellow and black police tape cordons off a square containing 41 bright-yellow chalk circles with 41 nametags, one for every circle.
It’s called “We Own the Night” and it recalls the death of Amadou Diallo on Feb. 5, 1999. Four police officers, who mistook Diallo as a rape suspect, shot him 41 times when he reached for his wallet outside his front door.
The imperfect yellow circles overlap in many spaces, a name emblazoned on each tag next to it, four separate names, over and over again.
Get content from The Daily Lobo delivered to your inbox
The museum is free to the public and open Tuesday through Friday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. and on Saturday from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m.
Matthew Reisen is a senior reporter for the Daily Lobo. He can be reached at news@dailylobo.com or on Twitter @DailyLobo.
