Found shard of business sign, screen print, chainlink, privacy slats and turf rubber crumb
6'L x 4'H x 4'W
2023

In The Wake was inspired by Christina Sharpe’s book of the same title. In the book she describes the ripple effect of the transatlantic slave trade as the wake rippling out from the hull of a slave ship. I found the broken plexiglass sign in the middle of the street in a historically black neighborhood in Indianapolis. I was struck by its shape which resembled a shark fin, and by its color palette which mimicked the African hair supply store and Jamaican restaurant signage in the same strip mall. It was clear that this predatory business appropriated its color palette to blend in and appeal to the predominantly black community members of the neighborhoods and that its only intention was to predate on the low-income folks in need of quick cash. I was reminded of the ripple effects Sharpe described and Kyle “Guante” Tran Myhre’s quote, “White supremacy isn’t the shark; it is the water”.

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