Colony Little, Culture Shock Art

I have few words today, so I will let David Hammons do the talking.

Injustice Case (1971) is part of his body print series and is in reference to the judicial misconduct against Bobby Seale who was on trial for conspiracy as a member of the Chicago Eight. After Seale was refused an attorney of his choice, a judge also denied Seale’s request to represent himself. The same judge later ordered that Seale be bound to his chair and gagged in front of the jury overseeing the trial after a verbal confrontation.

Hammons’s thoughts on the 1969 trial also speak to broader issues of injustice that are particularly resonant today: “I feel it is my moral obligation as a Black artist, to try to graphically document what I feel socially.”