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# #BlackLivesMatter vs #ArtBasel
- URL: https://hyperallergic.com/blacklivesmatter-vs-artbasel/
- Published: 2014-12-04T01:57:50.000Z
- Updated: 2025-11-24T15:47:36.000Z
- Description: MIAMI BEACH — Unsurprisingly, the best expression of the cognitive dissonance I'm once again feeling — living simultaneously in the real world and the art world, which feel so frustratingly far apart — comes in the form of a tweet.
- Author: Jillian Steinhauer
- Tags: Opinion, Art Basel Miami Beach, Eric Garner, Marina Abramovic, Politics, Protest, #wp, #wp-post, #image-position-hidden, #Import 2025-11-24 07:08 (2014, 2015, part 2)

![Art Basel Miami Beach 2014 (photo by the author for Hyperallergic)](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2014/12/dsc03469.jpg)

Art Basel Miami Beach 2014 (photo by the author for Hyperallergic)

MIAMI BEACH — I spent hours today inside the Miami Beach Convention Center, taking in the thousands of artworks at this year’s [Art Basel Miami Beach](https://www.artbasel.com/miami-beach?ref=hyperallergic.com) fair and gawking at the colorfully dressed collectors as they casually committed to spending hundreds of thousands of dollars. Cell phone service was spotty at best, but when I emerged in the late afternoon, I opened Twitter to discover that, only a week after the grand jury in St. Louis failed to indict police officer Darren Wilson for the killing of Mike Brown, the grand jury in Staten Island has [failed to indict](http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/04/nyregion/grand-jury-said-to-bring-no-charges-in-staten-island-chokehold-death-of-eric-garner.html?%5Fr=0&ref=hyperallergic.com) police officer Daniel Pantaleo for the [killing of Eric Garner](https://hyperallergic.com/spike-lee-draws-out-the-parallels-between-art-and-life-and-death/).

Protests have now erupted in New York City and throughout the country in response to the decision. And, unsurprisingly, the best expression of the cognitive dissonance I’m once again feeling — living simultaneously in the real world and the art world, which feel so frustratingly far apart — comes in the form of a tweet from artist [Beth Whitney](http://www.bethwhitney.com/?ref=hyperallergic.com):

> And this is why I think the Corporate Art World can pretty much burn: [#EricGarner](https://twitter.com/hashtag/EricGarner?src=hash&ref%5Fsrc=twsrc%5Etfw&ref=hyperallergic.com) [pic.twitter.com/kWLlWU9Cfe](http://t.co/kWLlWU9Cfe?ref=hyperallergic.com)  
>  
> — Beth Whitney (@bethwhitney) [December 3, 2014](https://twitter.com/bethwhitney/status/540261048876797952?ref%5Fsrc=twsrc%5Etfw&ref=hyperallergic.com)

To put those images directly back to back, that’s protesters staging a lie-in at American University in Washington, DC:

[![DCist-Garner](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2014/12/dcist-garner.jpg)](https://twitter.com/DCist/status/540257571769425921?ref=hyperallergic.com)

And Marina Abramović’s booth at Art Basel Miami Beach, where she is tucking visitors into beds when they’re hit by [fairtigue](http://hyperallergic.com/61363/how-to-see-art-in-miami/):

[![Abramovic-nap](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2014/12/abramovic-nap.jpg)](https://twitter.com/magdasawon/status/540258063887106049?ref=hyperallergic.com)

What more is there to say?