Geoff Sciacca (co-organizer)
Birmingham, AL
Geoff has been exploring how art & design can challenge people’s prejudices since creating a senior project at Auburn University entitled Eracism back in 2003. This thread continued through his MFA work at Lousiana Tech University and to this day. Half of a biracial marriage and the father to three amazing boys, there isn’t a day that goes by where he doesn’t have to think about race and culture. He is a Graphic Designer by trade/profession, and an activist who seeks to use art and design to impact social change. He hopes that his position at an esteemed place of higher learning, his personal work, and his involvement in projects like this will help push people out of their comfort zones and move the needle in the direction it needs to.
Fifteen-Twelve
Serigraph
It is no secret that America has not lived up to its promise of upholding the idea that “All men are created equal.” And from the earliest beginnings of slavery and indigenous genocides, to the tragedy of Jim Crow, to present-day systemic racial injustice and inequality, the evangelical church has been an integral part of all of America. And in this time, they have either been, at worst, complicit—with the country’s largest Protestant denomination having been founded through a split over their belief in slavery, for example. Or, at best, complacent— standing by as silent spectators, with the vast majority choosing to turn a blind eye to the evils of injustice happening all around them.
Fifteen-Twelve is a rebuke of this depressing legacy—from someone who grew up inside of white evangelicalism. The overwhelming collage of recognizable documentations of acts of violence against Black people at the hands of their white fellow men is pushed to the back, and their memories white-washed. In this covering, the church stands tall in spite of the silenced noise. Its iconic shape is made up of collaged Bible pages, each containing passages speaking of love, equality, and unity—messages that somehow get just as muted as the injustices, as Christians reinterpret the command of “Love your neighbor as yourself” by redefining how Christ himself defined “neighbor.” The irony of the phrase “Silence is Golden” is rephrased into “Silence is Violence” as the curtain is ripped back revealing what is actually going on.
Instead of waiting for legislation and only responding to laws after they change, the church should be on the frontlines, actively bringing about change and living out a message of love.
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