JA NELLE PLEASURE | Seeds of Injustice

"It was born out of a frustration of the violence in the world and within our backyard in Champaign County. Life is taken for granted on so many levels and people nowadays have been hit so hard with pain after pain and struggle after struggle, that I feel we have become a nation of numb feeling characters. I choose the garden for a couple of reasons. One the serene outlook of food growing, the strong sense of community of those who have a plot there. The fact that the spot is nestled in between two school buildings one that is kept up and the other falling apart also speaks to our children and the climate in our educational system. The biggest voice of the entire piece is gun violence it has broken my heart to see mothers like myself tear-filled because their babies won't every enjoy growing up or enjoying life because it was cut short by someone who had no real care for human life. It's haunting and frustrating and I don't always know what to do. How to react. It causes my soul to tire out. So I put all of those thoughts, frustrations, anger-filled tirades into a box looking back at us. I want people to feel something when they look at this piece."

 

LOCATION: Randolph Street Community Gardens | Champaign