The Popp Martin Student Union art gallery has hosted a solo exhibition by Malik J. Norman, a senior photography major and member of the CoA+A Student Diversity Council. Project Noose: Unidentified addresses the systematic abuse of Black bodies. It opened on December 6 and runs through January 29, with a virtual closing reception on January 29.
Beginning with the history of lynching of African Americans in the United States, Project Noose: Unidentified visually explores the legacy of those crimes and the ongoing injustice to Black bodies and Black lives - what Norman identifies as "Black Gold."
"The extrajudicial, not legally authorized, killings of Black bodies have not become obsolete, only the method in which lynching occurs," he writes in an artist statement. "Lynching today wears the mask of mass incarceration, police brutality, racism, gentrification, unequal distribution of wealth, among other tactics that eradicate Black lives and culture."
Norman incorporates three primary elements in Project Noose: representations of the Black body, clay, and rope. “The Black body connects to the Black diaspora,” Norman recently told The Charotte Post. “The rope is a symbol of the abuse and oppression. The clay pays homage to the land on which lynching has occurred.”
Read more about Norman and his work in the article in The Charlotte Post.
Norman also recently had work in the Seeing Voices: Community (Un)heard Group Exhibition at The Light Factory, a local gallery devoted to photography. The exhibition on view November 19 through January 7 and can also be accessed on The Light Factory website.