The series, Mistaken Identity, shown in the group exhibition A Color Removed, tackles the question, “Who has the right to safety?” by presenting a collection of images of everyday objects that have been mistaken as weapons and led to the deaths of people of color at the hands of law enforcement officers. Much like how the absence of the orange safety tip on Tamir Rice’s toy gun became  part of Cleveland police officer Timothy Loehmann’s justification for shooting within 2 seconds of arriving on the scene, here we are reminded that sets of keys,  wallets, and mobile phones have all been mistaken for weapons across the United States. The extension cord, taken from my studio, was a personal contribution to the monochromatic orange display in the group exhibition A Color Removed.

The project A Color Removed was conceived by Michael Rakowitz, as a response to the shooting of Tamir Rice by Cleveland police and evolved into a group exhibition. Mistaken Identity has also been displayed in the group exhibition Wedding of the Water, curated by Will Brown at the Buffalo Institute of Contemporary Art in 2020 and featured in the The Atlantic’s December 2020 Issue.