Warning: This May Trigger Debate, 2017–2019

Warning: This May Trigger Debate is a socially engaged extension of Rituals of Commemoration that asks: Can we remain neutral in the face of injustice? What does silence communicate?

The work invites participants to select and temporarily take responsibility for a 25-pound, charcoal-black concrete block bearing the name and date of death of a Black person killed by police. Participants place the block in a visible location—a home, yard, workplace, or other shared space—transforming an object of remembrance into a catalyst for conversation, reflection, and exchange.

By moving these memorial objects from an art context into everyday life, the project explores how acts of commemoration can become forms of participation. Each person determines where the block will live, who will encounter it, and what conversations may emerge around it. Participants document the experience through photographs and the hashtag #ritualsofcommemoration, creating an evolving record of collective remembrance.

The installation consists of 25 inverted half-pyramid concrete forms, each measuring 12 × 8 × 5 inches and weighing approximately 25 pounds. Cast in charcoal black with names and dates rendered in gold, the blocks memorialize Black lives lost to police violence since 1979.

Rather than asking viewers simply to observe, Warning: This May Trigger Debate asks them to carry, place, remember, and engage—making remembrance an active social practice and creating space for difficult conversations about loss, responsibility, and collective memory.