It\u2019s a strange feeling, reading a detailed description of what Sandra Bland\u2019s cell looked like, from the placement of the sink to the color of her bedding, in a report printed out and displayed in American Monument, artist lauren woods\u2019 and co-leader Kimberli Meyer\u2019s traveling installation examining the \u201ccultural conditions under which African-Americans lose their lives to police brutality.\u201d<\/p>\n
Never fully realized at Cal State Long Beach\u2019s campus museum (now called the Kleefeld Contemporary), American Monument opened at the Beall Center for Art + Technology at UC Irvine on Oct. 5. The turntables are on this time; the records that were paused for the duration of their stay last year in Long Beach can be played, you\u2019ll just have to drive 30-40 minutes down the 405 to hear them (that\u2019s sans traffic, mind you).<\/p>\n
Though it’s been a year since the Long Beach exhibit\u2014you can learn more about why woods placed her own artwork on pause here<\/a>\u2014the installation’s reason for being remains timely in the wake of another high-profile police shooting, this time the killing of 28-year-old Atatiana Jefferson, an African American woman shot while sitting inside a Fort Worth house, playing video games with her 8-year-old nephew.<\/p>\n