When
Walter Scott was shot and killed by a police officer in South Carolina earlier this month, artist Loring Cornish closed his gallery and began working on a new exhibition outside of his work studio in Baltimore, Maryland.
“I am in mourning for all of the black men that are dying needlessly, and the United States of America is doing nothing about it. And it seems like we can do nothing about police brutality,” he told Baltimore NBC affiliate
WBAL.
The deaths of
Michael Brown,
Eric Garner, Akai Gurley,
Tamir Rice and, sadly, many others have spurred nationwide protests and brought the issue of police brutality to the forefront of America’s consciousness in the past year.
But Cornish is protesting in his own way -- he grabbed some baby dolls, painted them black and hanged them from a tree in front of his studio.
“I wanted to make a statement. I wanted to show people exactly what's going on with a figure of something that I've been feeling. It’s pretty much death. We're being killed like innocent babies,” he
said. “Who should get shot eight times?”
.. I never knew one building could be so damn important. Its like the white business owner was your GOD. This shyt reminds me of when Walmart shut down and nikkas was crying cuz they had no where to go. Like Walmart is the only muthafukkas hiring. I know felons, people with messed up backgrounds, people without degrees that STAY WITH A JOB, even when odds are against them. Quit crying "whoa is me" and get off your ass and show folks that blacks can overcome. One fukking job burning down aint gonna stop us. Grow a damn backbone
