AN AUGMENTED REALITY MONUMENT FOR BREONNA TAYLOR AND THE SAY HER NAME MOVEMENT
Artist Brianna Harlan has partnered with 4th Wall, COORDINATES, and 21c Museum Hotel to create a virtual Augmented Reality (AR) monument for Breonna Taylor and the “Say Her Name” movement. AR is an interactive experience of a real-world environment where the objects that reside in the real world are enhanced by computer-generated perceptual information. The artwork features Breonna Taylor ascending to become a guardian angel in the city’s fight for equality. She is held up by protestors demanding justice in moments that depict marching, speeches, and the passing of Breonna’s Law. On pillars, two women look over us with the weight of history: Nancy Green and Alberta Odell Jones. Nancy Green was the original “Aunt Jemima” of the pancake brand, born a slave in Kentucky. Alberta Odell Jones was one of the first African-American women to pass the Kentucky bar and the first woman appointed city attorney in Jefferson County. She was brutally murdered in 1965 at age 34. Halos surround the crowns of these women and float in the air as countless unnamed Black women that have suffered, sacrificed, and died in Kentucky are honored. Audio activates the experience further with chants layered with spoken word poetry from Hannah Drake.
SHE ASCENDS is located in Breonna’s Square (also known as Jefferson Square), facing Metro Hall like a spirit keeping watch. It is only visible by the 4th Wall app. Suddenly, it appears, floating in space as a way to interact with and visit the memory of this moment: the fight for Breonna Taylor, Black women, and community justice.
