ASU connects George Floyd Minneapolis tragedy to a Phoenix killing through artifacts

On May 25, 2020, George Floyd, a 46-year-old Black man, died after being pinned to the ground by police officers in Minneapolis, one of whom pressed his knee on Floyd's neck as horrified bystanders watched and recorded while Floyd struggled to breathe.

Floyd's death, which sparked nationwide protests against police violence, happened in the evening near the intersection of 38th Street and Chicago Avenue in south Minneapolis.

Earlier that same day, another Black man, 28-year-old Dion Johnson, died after he was shot by an Arizona Department of Public Safety trooper in the gore point of the Loop 101 and Tatum Boulevard in the northern part of Phoenix.

A new exhibit links the two deaths by police in an effort to highlight ongoing struggles against police violence across the U.S.

"Twin Flames: The George Floyd Uprising from Minneapolis to Phoenix" runs through July 28 at the Arizona State University Art Museum in Tempe.

The exhibit features more than 500 handwritten signs, posters and art, some of which include strong language, curated from among thousands of artifacts and offerings left by mourners and Black Lives Matter protesters in a four-block area now known as George Floyd Square in Minneapolis, which encompasses the site where Floyd was murdered.

The exhibit is the first time items from the George Floyd Global Memorial in Minneapolis have been shown outside Minnesota, said Brittany Corrales, a curator at the ASU Art Museum.

Also included are signs and posters carried during a series of Black Lives Matter demonstrations that occurred in Phoenix to protest the death of Johnson, Floyd and other people killed by police.

The U.S. Department of Justice launched an investigation into the practices of the Minneapolis Police Department in April 2021 in response to Floyd's murder.

The Phoenix Police Department has been under a Department of Justice investigation into its practices, including the use of deadly force, since August 2021.

Arizona consistently ranks among the top five states for the rate of people killed by police. The Phoenix Police Department had 131 deadly encounters from 2013 through 2021, according to The Washington Post, citing data from the organization Mapping Police Violence. In 2023, among the top 10 most populated cities, Phoenix ranked second in deadly police encounters, with a rate of 0.85 deaths per 100,000 people, behind San Antonio, according to Mapping Police Violence data.

George Floyd memorial leader: 'This is why we do these exhibits'

The exhibit is intended to draw meaning, elicit discussion and keep alive the message of exposing injustice that was central to the demonstrations that took place in the wake of Floyd's death, said Jeanelle Austin, the executive director of the George Floyd Global Memorial in Minneapolis. The memorial holds thousands of artifacts left by mourners and protesters at George Floyd Square.

"This is how racism exists, by misremembering and dismembering the story. Our work in preserving our own narrative and preserving this memorial and preserving the protests is to keep people from forgetting," Austin said. "This is why we do these exhibits — because the gravity pull that exists in this narrative is toward forgetting. Forgetting the protests, forgetting the injustices, forgetting the people who died, forgetting their names."

"The pendulum is swinging because that is what whiteness does — whiteness has 'whitelash,'" Austin added. "2020 was a huge year for exposing systemic injustices, not just racism but all kinds of -isms and inequities. And whitelash has been coming back and trying to close those doors."

Austin worked with ASU faculty and museum officials to bring the Floyd artifacts from Minneapolis to the ASU Art Museum. A panel of community members from Phoenix, including Black Lives Matter activists, selected each item in the exhibit during a process that involved people in Minneapolis holding artifacts up in front of a camera during Zoom calls.

The exhibit comes as the Black Lives Matter movement has lost some of its energy. Donald Trump, who has expressed contempt for Black Lives Matter, is the Republican frontrunner for the presidency, and Blue Lives Matter flags and other expressions in support of the police are often seen in public.

"Every time I fly to Phoenix I pray my Lyft doesn't have a Blue Lives Matter license plate. Y'all got them everywhere. It makes me nervous," Austin said.

The exhibit, organized by themes, is meant to spark conversation

The exhibit is located on the second floor of the ASU Art Museum. Visitors climb stairs on which the names of 46 people killed by police in Maricopa County have been inscribed.

Visitors then enter a large room where black-painted walls are covered from floor to ceiling with signs and posters that instantly evoke the sights and sounds of the 2020 protests against police violence and racial injustice.

In the center of the room stands a 12-foot wooden fist erected by artist Jordan Powell-Karis in George Floyd Square. The artist dismantled and rebuilt the artwork inside the ASU Art Museum.

"It became really the symbol of the square's protests," said Michael McQuarrie, director of ASU's Center for Work and Democracy. McQuarrie frequently traveled to Minneapolis during the protests and helped organize the Twin Flames exhibit.

The exhibit also includes a 5-minute documentary film, "The Free State of George Floyd," which covers the first 200 days of the 2020 protests in Minneapolis.

The Center for Work and Democracy commissioned the film. It was produced mostly from videos shot with cellphones by people who participated in the demonstrations, McQuarrie said.

Most of the signs and posters were made from brown cardboard, diaper boxes and other household items. They are weathered and faded from exposure to the sun and the rain in Minneapolis. Posters and artwork created by children have been intentionally placed lower on the walls to better catch the eye of younger visitors. One created by Floyd's daughter reads, "My daddy changed the world."

The items have been arranged by themes: Say Their Names, Justice, Black Lives Matter and Solidarity.

Among the names on signs and posters, in addition to Floyd and Johnson, are Ahmaud Arbery and Breonna Taylor. Arbery was a 25-year-old Black jogger chased by three white men in Georgia and then gunned down in February 2020. Taylor, a 26-year-old emergency room technician, was shot and killed in March 2020 in her Louisville home by police who broke down her door to serve a search warrant.

A question mark placed after the word "justice" reminds visitors that while four Minneapolis police officers were sentenced to prison for the killing of Floyd, the families of other people killed by police are still awaiting justice.

A fifth theme — Community Bringing Safety — fills a portion of the last wall of the exhibit. This section includes posters with strong language that some viewers may find objectionable, organizers acknowledge. Several signs bear the letters "FTP" and "F12," shorthand for an anti-police expression, which is also fully written out on some of the signs.

Organizers debated whether to include signs with strong language. Some expressed concern they might turn off visitors who otherwise may be moved to action by the exhibit. But organizers ultimately decided to include the signs to convey the anger people feel in communities where police are not viewed as protectors but feared as oppressors.

"My heartbeat races every time a cop is behind me," said Rashad Shabazz, a professor of African and African American studies at ASU who helped organize the exhibit.

The signs with strong language have been placed near the exit on the final wall to spark conversations as people leave the exhibit. A round table and chairs give people the opportunity to sit and talk, Shabazz said.

"We wanted to provide this table and chairs and give people an opportunity to sit and talk and for people to say, 'OK, you know, for me ... (expletive) the police is really how I understand my lived experience of what it means for me to be engaged with the police' and for other people, police might be getting cats out of their trees or, you know, speaking to them with dignity," Shabazz said. "But the point here is, let's sit down. Let's have a conversation. This is what it means for me. This is what it means for you. And the real question is ... what does moving forward look like?"

Reporter Miguel Torres contributed to this article.

Reach the reporter at daniel.gonzalez@arizonarepublic.com.

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: 'Twin Flames' ASU exhibit links George Floyd, Dion Johnson killings