Artist Coco Lashar

Artist’s Statement

There are so many important aspects of our society and communities coming to light right now. Most people don’t even know how to talk about them. We say “with everything going on”, or “things are so crazy right now”. I’m grateful to be a part of this project that works towards summarizing and bringing these issues to light on a community-based scale, so when those conversations arise, we ourselves and those around us feel prepared and informed to join in on the conversation.

My work, “Question The Systems, Not The Symptoms”, helps juxtapose the difference between the questions and bigger questions. “Why are black people 4x more likely to die from COVID-19?” is really just the tip of an iceberg that reveals bigger issues in our society as a whole.

While my work focuses on issues related to race inequality and COVID-19, I hope that the dialogue sparked from this specific issue relays out into other areas. For each question about an issue in the community, there is a better question that can help us understand the systemic problem as a whole.