Activist art project ‘In Plain Sight’ mobilises sky-typing planes across the United States, decrying a culture of incarceration and calling for urgent action
Independence Day, on the fourth of July, has long been an occasion for pomp and splendour, marked by boisterous firework displays and military flyovers across the United States. This year however, an ambitious counter-production, calling for the abolition of immigrant detention and the country’s culture of incarceration, has taken equal footing.
The performance was conceived to expose the locations of these sites, all of which are public knowledge yet widely overlooked, and to draw attention to federal-level injustices that are taking place within one’s vicinity. With already appalling health conditions in these privately run, taxpayer-funded facilities steeply deteriorating due to the pandemic, the need for action has never been more urgent.
‘All art is a form of activism,’ says Hank Willis Thomas, whose phrase ‘Life, Liberty, And’ was flown above the Hudson County Correctional Facility. ‘[My phrase was] inspired by the constitution and the Declaration of Independence, where [it states] everyone is entitled to inalienable rights and the pursuit of happiness,’ he continues.
Cullors says, ‘By exposing the world we live in – racist, sexist, ableist, homophobic and transphobic – we can challenge ourselves to create something truly transformative.’, which features an interactive map that geo-locates exactly where the sites are situated. This specially developed website sidesteps unpredictable algorithms, media bias and the overall white noise that tends to suppress awareness of immigrant incarceration.
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