Ti-Rock Moore, American
Flyover, 2014
In this work artist Ti-Rock Moore is concerned with the neglect and violence that black communities experienced after Hurricane Katrina due to the government’s inequitable handling of relief efforts. She combines the famous image of George Bush flying over New Orleans surveying the damage with an image of African Americans working on a cotton plantation, along with an American flag covered in racial epithets. She is highlighting the deep history of systemic racism in the US and the fact that this racism was deeply entrenched in the relief efforts after Hurricane Katrina. The calm seeming indifference on Bush’s face is jarring when juxtaposed with this imagery of racialized poverty and the suffering after Hurricane Katrina. Moore, a white woman, focuses on race in her work as one way to combat white silence and provoke discussion. Every person, white and black, must fight against racism; white silence is a form of compliant racism which perpetuates the status quo. Label by Savannah Singleton