Save the Date: January 8, Jesse Hazelip “Don’t Shoot” at Mishka LA

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Visual artist Jesse Hazelip returns to Los Angeles for his first solo and performance piece in two years. Last seen as part of Cartwheel Art’s “Dark Progressivism: Metropolis Rising” at the 2015 LA Art Show and later at the “Manifest Justice” mega-pop-up in Spring of 2015, Hazelip focuses his delicate line work and careful draftsmanship on powerful messages of social justice.

Hazelip’s  “Don’t Shoot,” opening at Mishka LA, 128 S. La Brea, on Friday January 8, will feature his current works which deal with mass incarceration and the U.S. judicial system, and a performance by the artist to highlight the growing epidemic of police murdering unarmed minority men, women, and children.

Hazelip has chosen the phrase “Don’t Shoot”—which was adopted by protesters after the murder of Michael Brown by a police officer in Ferguson, Missouri—as the focus of his latest protest performance. During the performance piece Hazelip will have the words “Don’t Shoot” tattooed on the inside of his palms, readable in the arms-raised position. The tattoo will be done by world-renowned tattoo and recording artist Amer The Gamer, owner of the infamous San Diego tattoo shop Lavish Tattoo. The performance will take place inside a “cell” structure built by Hazelip, that mimics the size of a solitary confinement prison cell.

Hazelip will dedicate this performance to the memory of Oscar Grant, Michael Brown, Eric Garner, Tamir Rice, Akai Gurley, Rumain Brisbon, Laquan McDonald and many more. Musical guest DJ ABCNT will accompany the performance.

Hazelip’s choice of Los Angeles for “Don’t Shoot” is especially profound. Though there have been many high profile cases of police shooting in other regions, Los Angeles County, whose law enforcement includes the LA County Sheriff Department and Los Angeles Police Department as well as other municipal law enforcement agencies has particularly disturbing statistics, according to radio station KPCC:

Between 2010 and 2014, police  shot 375 people; no officers were prosecuted. Of the people shot, about one in four was unarmed. And 24 percent of those shot and killed were black, while African-Americans make up 8 percent of the L.A. County population.

In 2015 the number of injuries or death from LAPD officer involved shootings from 23 in 2014 to 45. Thirty-for of these injured or killed people.

Attendees are asked to wear black and encouraged to take part in this event by bringing candles.

Jesse Hazelip, “Don’t Shoot”
Opening reception/performance: Friday, January 8, 2015
7pm to 11pm
Mishka LA
128 S. La Brea Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90036
Hanging through January 22

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