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CLICK TWICE ON EACH IMAGE TO ENLARGE.
THE HALL OF LAMENT:
STAND YOUR GROUND FOR TRAYVON MARTIN,
a multi-media installation,
was a response to a devastating tragedy that is not isolated.
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https://catherineljohnson.wordpress.com/2012/04/29/the-hall-of-lament-no-words-necessary-call-and-response-the-reponse-was-visceral-powerful-and-crying/
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A call out for social justice, moral courage and truth.
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Forty hoodies arrived worldwide,
and
each were suspended by wire armatures
and
nailed into the wall 119″ above the floor.
HOVERING.
Head down, sleeves up like wings, and from the side profile: no breath.
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The sonics were recorded on a continuous loop:
Mahalia Jackson singing His Eye is On a Sparrow
Aretha Franklin singing I’ll Fly Away
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The lighting was matched to the time of day Trayvon was shot and killed.
Printed maps of the USA were placed between the hoodies indicating
what states passed and uphold the
STAND YOUR GROUND law.
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The image, the “profile” of the individual in the hoodie
was printed and placed beside every other suspended hoodie.
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I would ask the viewer/participant, when they viewed the image:
Can you tell me about the individual in the hoodie?
Their age?
Their gender?
Their race?
Their socio-economic background?
What is the individual holding in their pocket?
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After the series of questions were answered,
I would reveal that the person in the photograph was me,
the person asking the questions, the artist standing beside them.
ALL were stunned with that fact, that truth.
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As the internationally renown Chinese artist
Ai Wei Wei
affirms/proclaims in his art:
Art’s real context
is not simply the market
or
the institution,
but,
what is happening now,
around us,
in the real world.
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Thank you to all stepped up and participated.
This is Y/OUR action toward a blueprint of diversity, equity
and
a resolution to break the vicious cycle of fear and hate:
a challenge to break open our biases
and
move toward the practice
of calling out the angels within our
humanity.
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A veteran BBC producer/documentarian/journalist, Jo Erickson,
created a podcast for THE MINT PRESS,
an on-line international journal.
The podcast was an interview with Sybrina Fulton, Mother of the late Trayvon Martin,
and myself about my art addressing social justice issues.
https://catherineljohnson.wordpress.com/2013/06/19/documentarypodcast-of-catherine-l-johnsons-art-mint-press-an-international-independent-online-journal-release-date-tba/
Stand Your Ground: Sybrina And Tracy Martin Fight For Justice For Trayvon
http://www.mintpressnews.com/stand-your-ground-sybrina-and-tracy-martin-fight-for-justice-for-trayvon/164383/
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PLEASE NOTE THE LINKS BELOW FOR FURTHER INFORMATION.
https://catherineljohnson.wordpress.com/2012/03/29/stand-your-ground-for-trayvon-martin-you-know-if-i-had-a-son-hed-look-like-trayvon-martin-president-barack-obama-installation-please-participate-please-loan-y/
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https://catherineljohnson.wordpress.com/2012/03/26/the-stand-your-ground-for-trayvon-martin-you-know-if-i-had-a-son-hed-look-like-trayvon-martin-president-barack-obama-installation-272829-april-2012-art-is-an-action/
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https://catherineljohnson.wordpress.com/2012/03/26/symbolism-in-the-hoodie-semiotics-in-the-hood-subconcious-reaction-one-bullet-shot-through-the-hoodie/
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https://catherineljohnson.wordpress.com/2013/07/05/trayvon-benjamin-martin-oh-say-can-you-see-the-complexity-of-socialculturalfamilialindividual-biases-d-are-you-following-him-gz-yea-d-ok-we-dont-need-you-to-do-that-gz-o/
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https://catherineljohnson.wordpress.com/2012/04/19/the-stand-your-ground-for-trayvon-martin-installation-the-hall-of-lament-272829-april-2012-st-paul-minnesota/
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https://catherineljohnson.wordpress.com/2012/04/29/the-hall-of-lament-no-words-necessary-call-and-response-the-reponse-was-visceral-powerful-and-crying/
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THE VERDICT:
https://catherineljohnson.wordpress.com/2013/07/05/trayvon-benjamin-martin-oh-say-can-you-see-the-complexity-of-socialculturalfamilialindividual-biases-d-are-you-following-him-gz-yea-d-ok-we-dont-need-you-to-do-that-gz-o/
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My
THE HALL OF LAMENT:
STAND YOUR GROUND FOR TRAYVON MARTIN
multi-media installation attracted international, national and local media attention.
The attendance/witnessing involved a wide swath of the local demographics:
politicians; families; church groups; pro and anti gun law groups
-people of all ages, socio-economic and ethnic/racial combinations experienced the installation.
The constant denominator was our humanity for the installation called out empathy.
It was not an abstraction.
The installation was a lament, an elegy.
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The installation was a catalyst of profound grief
and the spectrum of emotional responses to guns and murder.
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The St. Paul Pioneer Press:
http://www.twincities.com/ci_20293035/lowertown-artist-wants-hoodies-exhibit
The comments have been since removed.
They were racist, hate fueled and were threatening to me.
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The installation’s HOODIE collection box placed in the lobby
was viciously destroyed,
and the vandal was documented on the building’s surveillance camera:
a neighbor.
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MINNPOST Pamela Espeland:
In response to the tragic shooting of Trayvon Martin and the stupidity of Geraldo Rivera,
St. Paul artist Catherine L. Johnson has issued a call for hoodies:
white, gray, or black, used and not laundered.
The loaned hoodies will become an installation in the fourth-floor hallway of the Northern Warehouse
on Prince Street during the St. Paul Spring Art Crawl, April 27-29.
This has the potential to make a powerful statement. FMI.
http://www.minnpost.com/artscape/2012/03/walker%E2%80%99s-new-acquisition-rock-star
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“Our lives begin to end the day
we become silent
about things
that matter.”
The Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
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After this multi-media, participatory installation
and its deeply emotional response,
I created a series of visual/sonic works, improvisations,
which were necessary gospel songs of LIFE.
Yellow Night: Rise I-XI portfolio 2012
https://catherineljohnson.wordpress.com/2012/09/10/yellow-night-rise-i-xi-2012-9-75h-x-7-5w-catherine-l-johnson-2/
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Softly Spring: EARTH I-VIII portfolio 2012
https://catherineljohnson.wordpress.com/2012/09/10/softly-spring-earth-i-viii-2012-13h-x-10-5w-catherine-l-johnson/
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Green : FECUND + RIND I-XIII portfolio 2012
https://catherineljohnson.wordpress.com/2012/09/10/green-fecund-and-rind-i-xiii-2012-17h-x-13w-catherine-l-johnson/
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Pink: VARUS portfolio I-IX 2012
https://catherineljohnson.wordpress.com/2012/09/10/pink-varus-set-i-ix-2012-13h-x-12-5w-catherine-l-johnson/
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MOON: Aerial MINES 2012
https://catherineljohnson.wordpress.com/2012/09/10/moon-aerial-mines-ix-2012-14h-x-11-5w-catherine-l-johnson/
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HIS EYE IS ON THE SPARROW
Mahalia Jackson
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eM_JRAPSwVM
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CATHERINE L. JOHNSON 
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