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The Armory Show’s packed Saturday run became the site of a guerrilla “die-in” performance piece protesting the circumstances of Eric Garner’s death.
About a dozen participants began repeating Garner’s last words, “I can’t breathe,” and subsequently fell to the ground at Pier 94—before being led out of the fair by security.
The unauthorized protest was initiated by members of the group Artists for Justice for NYC, which formed after a grand jury declined to indict Daniel Pantaleo, the police officer who used a choke hold—forbidden by police department regulations—on Eric Garner shortly before he died July 17, 2014.
“I was overwhelmed with emotion and a sense of obligation to get involved and take a stand,” Shamirrah Hardin, one of the group’s founders, wrote in an email to the New York Times.
Staged in New York’s foremost art fair, the unsanctioned piece raises, once again, questions about whether art can tackle the challenges of our times (see After Ferguson, A New Protest Culture’s Challenge to Art and Beloved Illustrator Blasted by Fans Over Ferguson Artwork).
A group member, Patrick Waldo, explained the choice of location as an attempt to reach an audience that probably sympathizes with the cause, but would not be typically involved in protests. “We’re trying to get our message out to a crowd that is historically out of touch with the struggle of black America,” he told the NYT.
