Mourning Stutter is a multi-component project informed by the successive murders of black people by police officers. Consisting of performance, video, photography, original music score, and text, this project not only reclaims the freedom to access and hold public space without fear, but also asserts the necessity to imagine, build and experience joy freely in a public sphere. The title of the project posits that the black community is in a state of perpetual mourning, specifically relating to the violence of policing and white supremacy.

 

On Sunday May 14, 2017, I created a series of actions for the camera in over 30 public locations throughout Center City Philadelphia. Following a predetermined route, these actions responded to and were choreographed by the architecture and urban design of each location as I discovered unintentional spatial relationships between body and site. Using a 35 mm camera, only one photograph was taken during each action and location.

 

This piece was commissioned by the Barnes Foundation for the exhibition Person of the Crowd: The Contemporary Art of Flânerie.