Woven Shield

Completion: 2019

Location: Durham Police Department Headquarters, Durham, NC

Description: Woven Shield speaks to the concept of stitching together or healing in the context of the historical tensions that have existed between the police and the African-American communities of Durham. This concept envisions the Durham police shield dynamically formed from three intersecting elements that symbolize the community, the police, and the historical Hayti police, converging into a singular radiant gesture.

Colorful rods based on the hues of the City of Durham flag evoke linear fibers pulled through a loom and converging together. Like a composition of intersecting rays of color, the work creates a warm, welcoming experience that has a hand-crafted presence, but also a uniquely contemporary feel. Like many of our past works, this concept also invites viewers in from a distance, creating different visual experiences as they approach and move around the work.

As artists, we envision the process of weaving as a metaphor for a community that continually grows and changes. In weaving, the different qualities of warp and weft combine to create new, unanticipated colors in a woven fabric, just as we all come together to shape a community unique to the circumstances and people that played a role in creating it.

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“We all should know that diversity makes for a rich tapestry, and we must understand that all the threads of the tapestry are equal in value no matter what their color.”

-Maya Angelou

Design Optimization/Management: Metalab