Sandy Speaks: An Ode to Sandra Bland
Sandy Speaks
An Ode to Sandra Blande
February 7, 1987 – July 13, 2015
Died in custody in Waller, Texas
Video made from footage of her diary series Sandy Speaks
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This piece responds to the continuous tragedies prompting the Black Lives Matter Movement. Sandra Bland was arrested in July of 2015 after being pulled over for not signaling as she changed lanes. She was taken to jail and died three days later. Before this, she created a video diary series called Sandy Speaks. I have used footage from her diary, to recreate her video.
I use water as a lens like a kid with a magnifying glass, pulling things - in this case, transparent layers of video imagery- apart to study them. I engage in a process of disorientation to rotate and shake the snow globe of my life. This projection process traces the energy of people and ghosts in their shadows. Sandra Bland’s situation of being killed at the height of her youth creates baffles and scares me, and turns the world I try to create for myself and my children on its head with its injustice and pain.