Titus Kaphar

Painting (Painting)

Although the objects depicted in Titus Kaphar’s diptych 2016/1963 might not be immediately recognizable, the work’s title and the inscriptions ‘Alabama 1963’ and ‘North Dakota 2016’ reveal their use as tools of brutal force. The work with the inscription ‘Alabama 1963’ is a painting of the nozzle of a high-pressure water jet that the Birmingham Police used against black protesters, including children, during a non-violent campaign against racial segregation led by Martin Luther King JR. during the civil rights movement. The second painting depicts the nozzles used against protestors that in 2016 opposed the plans to build the Dakota Access pipeline near the Standing Rock Indian Reservation, many of whom were seriously hurt and left soaking wet during freezing temperatures.