Same Narrative, Different Names

Same Narrative, Different Names

A look into the works of Shaun Leonardo

By Abby Roxas

Shaun Leonardo, Walter Scott, charcoal on paper, 8.5” x 11” each, 2015

 

Growing up, I have seen the injustices against people of color on television and how the framing of these events victimizes or criminalizes that community. With the recent attacks, starting with the killing of George Floyd, I realized that stories of police brutality, gun violence, and social injustices are repeating narratives but with different names.

Multidisciplinary artist, Shaun Leonardo, helps shed light on these important issues. Leonardo’s performances use what he calls ‘physical embodiment’ where audience participation is crucial in creating an organic conversation of the topics presented. On February 11, 2021 through the SJSU Platform Speaker Series, the artist gave a talk titled Shaun Leonardo: From Seeing to Witnessing, in which he states that “there are certain stories that can’t be told, and certainly there are some stories that whether intentionally or not have gone untold or are impossible to articulate verbally.”


 

Video Documentation of Primitive Games (2018) by Shaun Leonardo

 

Leonardo’s performance work uses physical embodiment to tell a story. The audience, thus, experiences these narratives in a physical way rather than through screens. In I Can’t Breathe (2017), the artist incorporates self-defense training to refer to the killing of Eric Garner; The Eulogy (2017) shows strangers mourning together; Primitive Games (2018) enacts a nonverbal debate. This physical strategy makes the work organic and gives the audience a different approach to understanding and communicating the information.

In his most recent work, Memory/Cycle (2020), Leonardo said: “The body tells a story. That story is truer than the words that we might share because our bodies don’t lie in the same way.” Leonardo asks his participants to use their bodies to create gestures based on the scenarios he gives. He points out that we are able to recognize the raw emotions and we can see our stories in other people’s gestures.


 

Shaun Leonardo, Eric Garner, charcoal on paper, 8.5” x 11” each, 2015

 

Breath of Empty Space (2014-2019) is a collection of traditional works that deconstruct images of police brutality against the black community. Each work guides the viewer’s attention to details that have been overlooked. For example, the work above consists of six drawings that were drawn on different days. This distinction gives the audience, and the artist himself, time to examine and reflect on the relationships between the victim and different elements in the environment. This work was going to be featured in a show at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Cleveland, which was cancelled. This cancellation brought up debates between censorship and graphic imaging that could trigger families who lost loved ones to police brutality. According to Artnet, there is a “lack of consensus about best practices in dealing with such difficult material.” This shows how sensitive the topics of police brutality, gun violence, and social injustices are, but also how important it is for people to continually learn. Artists like Shaun Leonardo help bring awareness to these topics and encourage discussion. 


Follow Shaun Leonardo

https://elcleonardo.com

https://www.facebook.com/elcleonardo


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