Sweep At The Audubon Ballroom, 10.23.92
30" x 40", mixed media.

Life only appears to have it's own
special irony, sometimes overt,
sometimes needing interpretation. A
relative of the artist was making a
documentary for the movie
"Malcolm X" and wanted to film the
exterior of the Audubon Ballroom.
This is where Malcolm X was
assasinated. Instead what they came
upon was a huge police action
accusing just about everyone in the
neigborhood of the solicitation of
drugs. The police sweep hauled all
pedestrians and residents of the
adjacent apartment buildings up to
the walls of the Audubon to be
frisked. The incident was filmed. At
the time, there was talk of that the
Audubon and its surroundings
would be torn down and the real
estate developed. The body posture
of those put up against the wall
remind one of the man they came to
commemorate after all,...X.
© sol robbins

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