The artists and families tied to soon-to-be-demolished Salt Lake City murals depicting people slain by police diverge on how best to preserve their legacy.
In the pivotal days and weeks after George Floyd’s May 2020 murder, artists mobilized to erect countless visual reminders of the marinating national trauma unfolding around them. In what would become the largest series of protests in United States history, the Black Lives Matter movement sought a reckoning with America’s systemic racism and the untold deaths of marginalized communities at the hands of law enforcement. What began as a simple but striking portrait of George Floyd’s face painted on one panel of an abandoned building in Salt Lake City’s Fleet Block District quickly spread to neighboring sections of the enormous structure, each bearing the image of an individual killed at the hands of police. The site soon became a stop on marches against police brutality and a place of remembrance for the individuals whose likenesses beckon recognition from those who traverse the well-trafficked street.
The project of multiplying portraits was the brainchild of SL Mural Makers, a collective of anonymous artists. For years those who consider the site a sacred place of remembrance have remained in limbo regarding the fate of the portraits. In recent weeks, Salt Lake City has unveiled development plans for the site that include a demolition of the building that bears the portraits.
The large, white structure located at 300 West and 900 South in Salt Lake City covers the entire block, wrapping around neighboring side streets. Each portrait is crafted in a similar aesthetic and palette, individual faces looming largely within the boundaries of sizable square panels. In addition to George Floyd, national figures like Breonna Taylor and local victims Bernardo Palacios-Carbajal and Bobby Ray Duckworth adorn the building’s edifice…