The shifting new cowl of the time explains "America Should Change".
The America Must Change cover of Time Magazine by Charly Palmer
The new double issue of Time Magazine contains five paintings that commemorate the racist injustices of the Atlanta-based artist, illustrator and designer Charly Palmer. One of them is shown on the cover. The theme, America Must Change, comes after the death of George Floyd, who was killed by the Minnesota police in late May, and subsequent protests against Black Lives Matter in the United States and beyond.
The cover artwork In Her Eyes shows the profile of a young girl, inspired by a friend's nine-year-old daughter, whose head is filled with images of police brutality, riots and fires. In contrast, the girl's torso is replaced by a living floral display, a staple of Palmer's work since his mother's death in 2008. The flowers represent “a symbol of beauty that sometimes serves as a distraction to the harsh realities of black accompany life, ”says a press release – even though the flowers are bleeding here.
Memory of George, a portrait of George Stinney Jr. who was wrongly sentenced to death in 1944 at the age of 14
The edition features a portrait of revered writer and dramatist James Baldwin and a painting of George Stinney Jr., a black 14-year-old from South Carolina who was executed in 1944 as the youngest person in the United States to face illegal murder charges. He was released 70 years after his death. "George Stinney is a subject that I have painted many times. It is important that we continue to remember him and his terrible story," Palmer said in a statement.
Also included is a painting of a boy in patriotic colors with the words "public sale" over his head – a direct reference to a sign at a slave auction. The artwork is part of Palmer's Silent series, which examines how black ideas and opinions are dampened.
A work of art that reflects a sign at a slave auction
All of Palmer's artwork featured in the issue relates to American iconography, regardless of whether the translucent stars and stripes flag is over the faces of his motifs or the roadmap embedded in his artwork, Eminent Domain, that reflects the displacement of black communities through government activities, such as z as the construction of highways.
"Little black kids are scared today," Palmer said of the cover. "I am a child of the 60s and I didn't think we would still be tackling the same problems that I have been alarming about for 30 years. Our nation must unite to change this."
Eminent Domain refers to government plans that displace black communities
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