Dread Scott
“My message is “Carlos Ernesto Escobar Mejia”. This is the name of the first immigrant to die in US detention from Covid-19. His death was absolutely unnecessary and preventable. To the leaders that run this country and those who implement its laws, immigrant lives do not matter. In the streets around the country, demonstrators are boldly saying the names, George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery and many others. Remembering the name Escobar Mejia both honors him as individual and contributes to peoples efforts to end the system that killed him. American immigration policy kills people. It kills people ICE detains. It kills people crossing a harsh desert. It kills people it deports. My initial sky writing phase was “USA KILLS US”. The NY sky typing company that In Plain Sight hired refused to type this message, censoring the project. Effectively they have created a situation where the government can kill people hidden form sight and artists and activists are prevented from making a public conversation about this. At at time when people are sensitized to death from Covid-19 and fighting systemic racism and police murder, it would have been important to have a message that would link the deaths of immigrants to the inequality and injustice that is at the foundation of this society. While I am very happy to lift up the name Carlos Ernesto Escobar Mejia, it is a shameful sign of the times that a company that has a monopoly on what can be seen in the sky is more comfortable with America killing immigrants than they are with artists writing a message about it.
*information on Carol's name and life is taken from an article published in The Guardian”
BIO
Dread Scott makes revolutionary art to propel history forward. His work is exhibited across the US and internationally. In 1989, his art became the center of national controversy over its transgressive use of the American flag, while he was a student at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. President G.H.W. Bush called his art “disgraceful” and the entire US Senate denounced and outlawed this work. Dread became part of a landmark Supreme Court case when he and others defied the new law by burning flags on the steps of the U.S. Capitol.
OWN WORDS
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