The ART& space at the Ackland Art Museum is a place for visitors to do homework, drink coffee, meet with friends and relax. Until Jan. 8, it's also a place challenging visitors to think about police shootings.
ART& is currently displaying a piece by Stacy Lynn Waddell, a local artist and assistant professor in the art department at Elon University.
Waddell’s piece consists of black mirrored vinyl with the words “Please Don’t Shoot Me” spelled out in black lettering. The piece was put up before Thanksgiving break.
“It has an enormous impact because of its scale and color," Allison Portnow Lathrop, public programs manager at the Ackland, said. "You don’t see a lot of completely black walls in art museums and using that high impact to convey a political message is very smart.”
Waddell said she wanted to raise awareness with her piece. She said the majority of the people who view the piece have probably never been confronted with profiling or violence.
“They’ve never been faced with the targeted hostility that many of the folks we see on the news are targeted with,” Waddell said.
Waddell said she felt like it was the right time and right topic given the current political climate of America, regardless of personal leanings. She said there have been many police shootings that Americans have witnessed, beginning with the shooting of Trayvon Martin in 2012.
She said she wanted to create a camouflage effect with her piece, which is why she chose to have the background and the letters the same color, and to have reflective pieces on the vinyl.
“You have to keep moving your body relative to the piece to take it all in and understand,” Waddell said.
