It has been almost a year since Michael Brown was shot and killed by Darren Wilson in Ferguson, Missouri, igniting calls worldwide to end police misconduct and police violence against unarmed African-Americans.

To many, the incident brings out an array of emotions, from outrage and disappointment to distrust in authorities, and, most important, a reminder that African-American lives have not mattered to society. 
This is why some have been critical of a new art exhibit that features a replica of Brown's body lying face down on the ground with yellow police tape surrounding it. His body was left in the street for four hours after he was shot, an image that was shared widely on social media.
Ti-Rock Moore, a white woman, is the artist behind what some are calling disturbing work. It is part of a larger exhibit called "Confronting Truths Wake Up!" being shown at Gallery Guichard in Chicago. The show opened Friday and has an additional 49 works. 

Moore described her art as "conceptual and reactive" and that others have called her material "avant-garde." It also appears that Brown's mother, Lesley McSpadden, has also seen the exhibit, having taken a photo with Moore. 

Kirsten West Savali, a writer at The Root, finds the exhibit unsettling:

Moore’s “art” is not original; it is a crude plagiarism of Darren Wilson’s brutality, nothing more. Memories of Michael Brown’s desecrated body are already emblazoned across every home and every hood and every heart of every black person who has ever realized that this country never loved us at all.

We do not need a “courageous” white artist to sign her signature on the body of our dead to understand that.

Read full essay here.

Follow Natelege Whaley on Twitter: @Natelege_

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