Local 412 presents ‘Hands Up’, a thematic group exhibit in response to the enduring police brutality inflicted on black bodies and the « hands up, don’t shoot » rallying cry.

Whether Brown uttered those words or not should not be the focus. Myth or lie, the events surrounding the killing of Brown and multitude of other black bodies subjected to an untimely death due to police force is no folklore—it is fact. Reflecting on this controversy, Hands Up turns to this narrative of fact and folklore to one, explore the continued anguish and brutality black bodies endure and, two, re­imagine a rallying cry that isn’t stoked in resistance and violence. The organizing theme of the exhibit takes a page from Kevin Quashie’s notion of quiet, which he views as a different read of resistance that is not overly public. Quiet asks us to reflect on the interior or inner character of an individual. Applying this read to the gesture of « hands up » reintroduces a new vernacular behind the concept of surrendering through hands held high.

The works considered in the group show will document the realities and the reveries of black subjectivity or experience, with a third eye that also imagines what is happening in the inner character of black bodies when we engage in the symbolic gesture of hands up.

Hands Up is curated by Ikechukwu Casmir Onyewuenyi with Christiane D, Dr. HollyHood, and co­presented by Pittsburgh Artists for Social Change.

Participating Artists: Alisha Wormsley (Pittsburgh, PA), Dread Scott (New York, NY), Shikeith (Pittsburgh, PA), Duron Jackson (New York, NY), Daniel Campos Ramos (Pittsburgh, PA), Devan Shimoyama (Pittsburgh, PA), D.S. Kinsel (Pittsburgh, PA), Damon Davis (St. Louis, MO), Vanessa German (Pittsburgh, PA), Paradise Gray (Pittsburgh, PA).

Opening reception: Friday, June 5th, 6 – 10 pm

LOCAL 412
4901 Penn Avenue, PGH, PA 15224
United States

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