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New Orleans artist Ti-Rock Moore has come under fire for her Chicago art exhibit that depicts a mannequin as Mike Brown’s lifeless body.

According to the Huffington Post, Moore, who is white, created the racially charged piece for “Confronting Truths WAKE UP!” at the Gallery Guichard. With Earth Kitt’s “Angelitos Negros” playing in the background, the piece places a mannequin meant to be the dead teen on the floor, surrounded by police tape and traffic cones.

The moment comes from Brown’s fatal encounter with former Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson in 2014. Brown’s body was left in the street for hours after he was killed.

Moore spoke about the piece before the exhibit’s premiere and even invited Brown’s mother, Lesley McSpadden to the show. With McSpadden under the impression that the piece was a photo, it was covered up upon her arrival.

“There are many artists coming out of this movement and we’re activists and we’re just expressing and we happen to be expressing through visual art,” Moore told WGN-TV. “But we know that the arts are very healing and so I think it’s self-help for many people.”

Michael Brown Sr. called the piece disturbing.

“I think it’s really disturbing, disgusting,” Michael Brown Sr. told FOX2. “That picture is still in my head.”

Critics came to Brown Sr.’s defense, suggesting that Moore’s actions exemplify white privilege.

Gallery owner Andre Guichard says that many have missed the point of the exhibit.

Speaking to DNA Info, Guichard says critics have missed the human message Moore was trying to send.

“This is not trying to make some kind of point about Michael Brown or law enforcement,” Guichard said. “It’s about humanity…It’s about seeing on the news that someone got shot and realizing that it was a human being, not someone you can dismiss as a ‘thug.’ “

He also said that 85 percent of the visitors enjoyed the show and McSpadden’s approval to use her son’s likeliness led Moore to believe her piece would do the cause justice.

Guichard added an apology was sent to Michael Brown Sr. with an invite to the exhibit, but they haven’t received a response.

SOURCE: Huffington Post | VIDEO CREDIT: NDN

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