“Promise, Witness, Remembrance” at the Speed Art Museum
Through June 6, 2021

What the museum says: “Promise, Witness, Remembrance at the Speed Art Museum will reflect on the life of Breonna Taylor, her killing in 2020, and the year of protests that followed, in Louisville and around the world. The exhibition explores the dualities between a personal, local story and the nation’s reflection on the promise, witness, and remembrance of too many Black lives lost to gun violence.

In ‘Promise,’ artists explore ideologies of the United States of America through the symbols that uphold them, reflecting on the nation’s founding, history, and the promises and realities, both implicit and explicit, contained within them. In ‘Witness,’ they address the contemporary moment, building upon the gap between what a nation promises and what it provides through artworks that explore ideas of resistance across time, form, and context. In ‘Remembrance,’ they address gun violence and police brutality, their victims, and their legacies.”

Why it’s worth a look: Just about 13 months after Breonna Taylor was killed by Louisville police officers in her home, the Speed Museum’s exhibition is thoughtful, moving, and deeply unsettling. The focal point is Amy Sherald’s portrait of Taylor, looking regal in a bright blue dress, standing with hand on hip, forever 26 and beautiful. The painting, which is owned jointly by the Speed Museum and the Smithsonian, is situated at the end of a dark gallery, with a timeline of Breonna’s life printed on the walls.

As the trial of police officer Derek Chauvin for the murder of George Floyd rages on, and TV channels run competing stories about the death of two more Black men (Daunte White, and Adam Toledo), the inclusion of Khalil Joseph’s BLKNWS®, a fictional news channel dedicated to a celebration of Black life, reminds viewers that media portrayals seem almost exclusively to report on Black death.

Other works in the show are alternately beautiful and horrific, and sometimes both, as in Nick Cave’s Unarmed, a bronze sculptural hand raised surrounded by a wreath of flowers, or Hank Willis Thomas’s simple neon, Remember Me.

What it looks like:

María Magdalena Campos-Pons, Butterfly Eyes (for Breonna Taylor), (2021). Courtesy of the artist and Wendi Norris Gallery, San Francisco.

Installation view, “Promise, Witness, Remembrance” at the Speed Museum. Photo: Xavier Burrell.

Nick Cave, Unarmed (2018). Courtesy of the artist.

Glen Ligon, Aftermath (2020). Photo: Ron Amstutz © Glenn Ligon Courtesy of the artist, Hauser & Wirth, NY Regen Projects, LA, Thomas Dane Gallery, London and Chantal Crousel, Paris.

Installation view, “Promise, Witness, Remembrance” at the Speed Museum. Photo: Xavier Burrell.

Installation view, “Promise, Witness, Remembrance” at the Speed Museum. Photo: Xavier Burrell.

Installation view, “Promise, Witness, Remembrance” at the Speed Museum. Photo: Xavier Burrell.

Noel W Anderson, Check the skin, (2012 -2018) Courtesy of the artist, from his private collection.

Installation view, “Promise, Witness, Remembrance” at the Speed Museum. Photo: Xavier Burrell.

Xavier Burrell, SAY HER NAME!! September 18, 2020. Courtesy of the artist.

Xavier Burrell, The Frontlines, September 23, 2020, Daniel Cameron’s Louisville office/Shelbyville Rd. Courtesy of the artist.

Installation view, of Amy Sherald’s portrait of Breonna Taylor in “Promise, Witness, Remembrance” at the Speed Museum. Photo: Xavier Burrell.

Hank Willis Thomas, Remember Me (2014). © Hank Willis Thomas. Courtesy of the artist and Jack Shainman Gallery, New York.

T.A. Yero, Healing, June 15, 2020, 7:41pm, Breonna Taylor Memorial at Jefferson Square Park, Louisville, KY. Courtesy of the artist

Lorna Simpson, Same (1991). © Lorna Simpson. Courtesy the artist and Hauser & Wirth.

Installation view, “Promise, Witness, Remembrance” at the Speed Museum. Photo: Xavier Burrell.

Installation view, “Promise, Witness, Remembrance” at the Speed Museum. Photo: Xavier Burrell.