EOV/BLM
Artist Name: Amelia Sobha
Artist Statement
Our small group consisting of Tanitia, Kayla, Ruby and I started talking about this project in October of 2020, just about 8 months into the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown. By this point classes were now all on zoom, a lot of work was now remote, and things were somewhere on the precipice of open or closed for good and we had just begun venturing outside again. We are all used to wearing masks by now and have become accustomed to seeing them just as you would a shirt on someone’s back. Our professor put us in random groups of our class peers, and we knew nothing about one another; then said that we were going to make a monument together. Our first reaction was “what?”, and naturally there was a lot of confusion of where to start and if we would all even agree on anything at all. We surprised ourselves by agreeing to include all of our ideas so long as they all had something to do with the theme of this monument.
Our overall message of this monument is:
“In remembrance that we are locked together as brothers and sisters during a time living with an Equal Opportunity Virus and fighting for Black Lives to Matter.
We may not know each other; however, with the tragedies and victories 2020 brought to us, we were forced to look at one another, love one another and in many cases unite with one another.”
The notion that this virus is an “equal opportunity virus” came from Tanitia Burton. The moment the words left her mouth, we were all in agreement. This virus did not care where you came from, it did not care what color you are, if you were light or dark. It did not care if you were rich and living in a palace or if you were poor and slept on the streets, it did not matter if you held a prestigious job or if you were a criminal or prisoner. It spared no one, had no rest, and united us all in fear. Ironically, during the time we are all struggling to come to grips with this virus, the Black Lives Matter movement picked up steam and once again became something that united us and divided us.
Our idea was that we needed a clear message that the world is changing, and we are in the middle of this change, we are leading this change, and we are also being swallowed by this change.
It is such a strange time to live through and we wanted all of it to come through to out monument.
The first draft of our monument was meant to be a globe that shows that the entire world is affected and not just our country. We wanted to be able to show all the fires in Australia and California, and how badly that affected the people that live in these places. Many of those people were now without a home and many animals were as well. The environmental awareness aspect of this project was one that we found to be just as important as everything else. Next, we wanted to include photos of medical professionals working in all the PPE that was required to have some semblance of safety as well as photos of hospitals and clinics that were full of people trying to get help. We wanted photos of this from around the world because it was the same everywhere really, and on that part, we were all one in our suffering. We also chose photos of people doing online learning because it was incredibly important to us as this is an online class, and it is something that affects us a great deal across the country. Photos of scientists working on a cure and vaccine were included, and of makeshift—pop-up hospitals, of countries spraying people and streets with disinfectant, of empty grocery store shelves, people protesting police brutality and women protesting against rape in their countries, empty classrooms and an empty Times Square. We
believed that these photos showed best how strong and resilient humans are even in the face of a pandemic.
The last touch to our monument was the very important lock and chains. This was an important aspect of our monument and it spoke the loudest to us. This lock and chain symbolize the world being on literal lockdown during this pandemic. It is about not being able to leave your home, not being able to go outside for fear of getting sick, not being able to visit your loved ones or go to church—not being able to go anywhere else but home. All restaurants were closed to dining, the bars and the clubs, the museums—literally everything, even some doctor’s offices.
This lock symbolizes the struggles of Black men and women everywhere being locked down by circumstances, by the system, by the police unjustly. It represents those who locked arms in protest against police brutality, against systemic racism, and rape and violence in other countries across the world. Those who locked arms in the BLM movement, and those who locked themselves in at home to keep our doctors and nurses safe, to keep our elderly safe, and to keep all our essential workers safe.
Our monument was meant to continue to inspire change, we believe in a world where people feel safe together, equal, and hopeful, but we cannot get there without change. This monument represents unity, the fight for peace of mind, freedom to be ourself and to walk around feeling safe. Our monument epresents the love we can have for one another, and a world without judgement.
