Preview: Don’t Shoot by Jesse Hazelip

Over the past year, the media has finally drawn attention to the growing epidemic of police murdering unarmed minority men and women, thanks to technology now available for civilians to capture these atrocities. Yet despite stunning and damning video evidence, police officers are being enabled in their murderous behavior by our judicial system, which bails them out before they have to answer for their crimes.

To address these issues, Jesse Hazelip has chosen the phrase “Don’t Shoot”—which was adopted by protesters after the murder of Michael Brown by a police officer in Ferguson, Missouri—as the focus of his latest protest performance. During the performance piece Hazelip will have the words “Don’t Shoot” tattooed on the inside of his palms, readable in the arms-raised position. The tattoo will be done by world renowned tattoo and recording artist Amer The Gamer, owner of the infamous San Diego tattoo shop Lavish Tattoo. The performance will take place inside a “cell” structure built by Hazelip, that mimics the size of a solitary confinement prison cell.

Hazelip will dedicate this performance to the memory of Oscar Grant, Michael Brown, Eric Garner, Tamir Rice, Akai Gurley, Rumain Brisbon, Laquan McDonald and many more. Musical guest DJ ABCNT will accompany the performance. The performance will be staged at the Mishka Flagship store and Gallery in Los Angeles where there will also be an exhibition of Hazelip’s current drawings, paintings, and sculptures, which deal with mass incarceration and the U.S. judicial system.