Holding Space for Nobility: A Memorial for Breonna Taylor, Ackland Museum, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, 2020-2021

Breonna Taylor was fatally shot by officers of the Louisville Metro Police Department after they forced entry into her home on March 13, 2020. She was twenty-six years old. In the months since her death, her story has become a part of national conversations about racial violence and an impetus for activism against systemic injustices.

In this immersive commission, Gay transforms the museum’s ART& room into an area that can “hold space” for Taylor’s memory. Through acrylics and oils, Gay renders publicly shared images of Taylor’s face from happy times in her life as a reminder of her roles as daughter, niece, friend, and, as Gay writes, “someone who was loved and is worthy of justice and being seen.”

Gay combines such found imagery with zebra and deer features to create monumental chimeric figures that she has dubbed the Devouts. The Devouts have appeared throughout Gay’s practice, and they serve as intercessory figures for cries that go unheard. The animal elements in the figures enable a symbolic hybridity wherein the combined associations of animal and human spirits both heal and empower. For example, deer antlers are symbolic of renewal, as the creatures routinely shed and regrow their antlers. Zebras are typically unable to sleep unless another from their herd stays awake and alert to intruders. By surrounding the recumbent central figure with fellow watchers, Gay has created a space where Taylor’s spirit has a chance to rest. - Lauren Turner, Assistant Curator for the Collection Ackland Art Museum

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holding space for nobility

holding space for nobility: a memorial for Breonna Taylor

holding space for nobilityAckland Museum

holding space for nobility: a memorial for Breonna Taylor

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