Civil Rights and Civil Wrongs: South Africa and US

Seven artists have been chosen to create new
work in Civil Rights and Civil Wrongs: South Africa and US, an exhibition opening at the Mattress
Factory on May 25, 2018. Dr. Tavia La Follette is returning to collaborate with the museum on
this exhibition, the latest in a series that brings American artists and artists from countries
facing human rights crises together in a virtual – and actual – dialogue. Previous projects
involved artists from Egypt in 2011, and from Israel and Palestine in 2013.
In Civil Rights and Civil Wrongs, four artists from South Africa work with three artists from
Pittsburgh. Each artist confronts racial politics using different mediums, explains La Follette:
“We have a sound artist who archives the world around him, a filmmaker who addresses
gentrification, and a multimedia artist who brings together myth and futurism. We have a
choreographer who considers himself a community developer, an outsider architect who
engineers castles from forgotten debris, a painter and printmaker who captures uprisings in
mining towns, and a formerly incarcerated drug dealer turned art teacher who is a role model
to the children around him.”