For months after police killed George Floyd in May 2020, people from around the world traveled to the site of his murder in Minneapolis and left signs, paintings and poems to memorialize the man whose death reignited a movement against systemic racism.
Now hundreds of those artifacts are on display for the first time outside of Minnesota, giving viewers elsewhere the chance to engage with the emotionally raw protest art and mourn Floyd, as well as other Black Americans killed by police.
“It’s different than seeing it on TV,” said Leah Hall of Phoenix, who brought her two young children to the exhibit that opened this month at the Arizona State University Art Museum.
“It’s an important part of history that they are not learning in school,” said Hall, adding that she wasn’t able to fly to Minneapolis to honor Floyd’s life.
“Twin Flames: The George Floyd Uprising from Minneapolis to Phoenix” features about 500 artifacts that protesters and mourners left at the intersection of 38th Street and Chicago Avenue, where Floyd was killed. It is the largest collection of work from the intersection that has been on public display.
Paintings of Floyd and poems about him written on poster boards stand on easels throughout the exhibit. Signs made with paper plates and reused cardboard that say “Justice 4 Floyd” and “Enough is Enough” cover the walls.
The heavy themes of the words and images on display are contrasted by arrangements of fake flowers and flickering, battery-powered, white candles evoking the vigil held in Minneapolis after his death.
What’s on display in Phoenix is just a fraction of the thousands of artifacts under the care of the George Floyd Global Memorial. This organization also tends to the living memorial at the intersection where he died and which remains closed off to traffic.
Many of the artifacts appear to have been written or drawn in a hurry. This conveys the urgency with which people felt the need to express their anger and grief after watching eyewitness video that captured the moment before he died, said Jeanelle Austin, director of the George Floyd Global Memorial.
Some recent visitors to the exhibit were moved to tears.
The exhibit organizers say their goal was to create a space for understanding and civil discourse and potentially stimulate collective action against police violence and other systemic inequities in the U.S.
“We have always engaged with social and political work at the museum. Throughout time, art and protest have been side by side, and this (exhibit) really aligns with our mission to center creativity in art in the service of social good,” said Brittany Corrales, a curator at the museum who helped facilitate those organizing the exhibit.
The organizers also see the exhibit as an opportunity to examine the history of museums in America, overlooking the inequities faced by Black Americans and other marginalized communities.