Description
“WASHINGTON: White-Washed City” (acrylic on heavy watercolor paper) layers the U.S. Capitol and White House with postcard-style lettering, inserting figures from Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s 1963 March on Washington into a contemporary scene of political and cultural erasure. As the figures witness the National Guard, the removal of Black Lives Matter Plaza, and the demolition of the White House’s East Wing, the altered phrase “white-washed city” turns the postcard into a protest against attempts to diminish the histories and contributions of Black Americans and other marginalized communities. The work asks how a nation can claim democratic progress while seeking to revise, obscure, or undo the hard-won gains of the civil-rights movement.
