Kahlil Robert Irving

“How long before drastic changes are taken to rework the colonialist system that still shapes how we live? Until then, the work will continue to remind viewers of the past, and how colonialism has evolved into the present.”
–Kahlil Robert Irving

This flag, one of three in the collection, serves as a memorial to and for the Black community. It takes its title from rapper 50 Cent’s 2003 song “Many Men (Wish Death).” The stars symbolize lives lost to imprisonment and people murdered by police and civilians. Irving makes sculptures that address the political and economic realities of St. Louis, his hometown. His series Black Matter tackles mass incarceration, poverty, redlining, and the killing of unarmed Black Americans.

Every year in the United States, gun violence systemically controls, threatens, and murders thousands of Black and Brown people, as well as people who belong to the LGBTQIA community. As school shootings proliferate, militarized police and white vigilantes continue to surveil and harass non-white people, often without consequence.