In a recent Vogue article 10 Black Artists on Life in America Right Now, Hank Willis Thomas '98 (BFA, Photography and Imaging) and Professor Bayeté Ross Smith (Photography and Imagining) shared their work and their statements.
"Our past and our present are coming together to weave us into a more liberated future. The universe gave us a new download and it’s time to update our global operating system. The spinning wheel of senseless death must stop. Force Quit. Control alt delete. reboot. Wake up! You’ve got mail. LMIRL." —Hank Willis Thomas '98
"Taking AIM is a series of targets that raise the questions: Who is considered a victim, and who is considered a threat? Furthermore how does the perception of victim or threat, increase or decrease the likelihood of someone becoming involved in interpersonal violence or state sanctioned violence? Additionally this series examines our cultural relationship to violence more generally. I am interested in that fine line that exists between acceptable, condoned, recreational violence, and deplorable criminalized violence. This dichotomy exists throughout popular culture, from television, music and movies, to the way history is told and recorded, in terms of what wars, massacres, and assassinations are considered justified, versus when the same types of historic events are considered atrocities." —Bayeté Ross Smith