Brooklyn art installation "Witnessing" reimagines emergency call boxes to spark conversation about police brutality
NEW YORK - A public art installation in Downtown Brooklyn aims to spark a conversation about police brutality.
The Plaza at 300 Ashland is temporarily home to six 7' tall black towers, shaped like emergency call boxes. Inside each box, a screen plays video and audio of 20-year-old testimonies of police violence and injustice.
Retired detective Graham Weatherspoon reflects on the words he said for the project two decades ago.
"Very emotional for me. I spoke about an incident where I was attacked by two NYPD officers because I was running down the street in Midtown Manhattan," he explained to CBS2's Hannah Kliger.
The installation is called "Witnessing," and if the vintage-looking call boxes look familiar, that's the whole point. If you lived in New York City before cell phones, you may remember them on nearly every street, for people to call the fire and police departments during an emergency.
The antiquated, forgotten structures are now key in telling stories of these victims. Artist Bradley McCallum, who created both the original project 20 years ago, and this reincarnation, says the work was born in response to the protests following the brutal abuse of Abner Louima and the killing of Amadou Diallo.
"What struck me is how little has changed. The trauma and the pain and the grieving that was shared is as relevant today as it was then," McCallum says.
The project is part of an effort to showcase art by the Downtown Brooklyn Partnership and the DUMBO Art Fund. It was sponsored by a grant from the state's Downtown Revitalization Initiative, and was one of several projects chosen.
"We received over 300 submissions," says Regina Myer, president of the Downtown Brooklyn Partnership. "And we are so proud to choose this work because it is such an important piece of art to present now."
The point is to get people to stop and listen, to restart the conversation.
"This is something that everybody could interact with and we can try to make the world more better, you know? Especially dealing with the police," says Million Hollins, of Bed-Stuy, who was shopping nearby on a chilly November day.
Weatherspoon compares the issues we face today with those he dealt with on the job 20 years ago.
"This is a systemic problem and the issue of race and policing is not going away," he says.
"Witnessing" will be on display until the start of 2023.
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