About the Project 

For this bright, colorful mural design, artist Derrick Adams was inspired by a series of conversations about television and media with youth in Art Education classes at Vision Quest and Achieving Independence Center. Adams combined student commentary with ideas from his ongoing body of work on television and race, creating a mural that represents “exaggerated characterizations of the black subject portrayed in entertainment.” A vintage wood TV with dials stands against a background of color bars, with rows of expressive emojis inside the screen. The emoji-based design “make[s] way for a new wall of contemporary emotion…serving as a present-day expression while acknowledging the past and looking towards the future,” says Adams.