Balance

Balance represents the same shape, as both a positive and negative or a convex and concave form. These mirrored shapes, from certain viewpoints, present a balanced perspective of the shape, in the same way the balance of the scales of justice is dependent upon one’s perspective.

In meeting with the City’s Police Department to hear their stories, I gained a better understanding for what the members of the police force experience as they face society’s ugly truths in the pursuit justice. This creates a common bond by necessity. This inspired an artwork that would instill a sense of tranquility and calm.

Creatively, this work communicates my own reflections on justice and the investigative practice of examining a situation or event from multiple points of view with the aim of making sense of a complex truth. The Investigations Bureau is responsible for gathering perspectives and evidence for this purpose. This is done by engaging with community, talking with people, gathering testimony and establishing accountability. These many individual viewpoints must be assembled together in order to make a whole picture.

The 340 columns of glass that form this work represent how a single image has many different fluctuating facets and can generate many varying interpretations, changing perspectives, and degrees of understanding. This project helped me to better recognize that public safety is not just the absence of crime; it is the presence of justice. I hope viewers will find some pleasure in engaging with this artwork and that it will inspire in them a similar form of personal and social reflection on justice and the art of everyday life.