Decommissioning Stage 4 Is An Invocation.

It is a spirit-filled invitation to a contemplative evaluation of the beauty, value and power of figurative symbols. The installation includes elements of Kemetic, West African, and African-American spiritual science, technology and imagery. It serves to silently yet prayerfully utter the names of those featured and unknown who have suffered violence at the hands of the desensitized. It affirms the fact that the ancestors have the backs of the central figure and the being(s) it embodies. It accesses sacred technology such as binary code and Ma’atian balance to invite the ancient and most powerful energies to bring truth, justice, righteousness, and reciprocity to the figure, the viewer and the situation associated with the installation.

The piece is a multi-lingual, multi-dimensional affirmation that gives the central figure a voice and a mechanism for escape fueled by the ancestors with his sacred feminine ancestors appearing prominently on the strongest, most resilient and typically most beautiful part of his wings. The central figure boldly proclaims “with his chest” and in the language of the computer program that made his physical form and of the infinite spirits that concocted the likeness “I AM A MAN” for all to hear with their eyes and in their hearts.

The title of the piece is a reference to Dr. Gregory Stanton’s 10 Stages of Genocide. Stage four is dehumanization. In the words of Dr. Stanton: “When a group of people is thought of as “less than human” it is easier for the group in control to murder them.”