Overrepresented In Prison

The purpose of the artwork is to show that African American men and women are overrepresented in the prison population. The piece represents the silencing of the incarcerated men, who were stripped of many rights. The Artist uses tar to symbolize the silencing of these individuals. Titus Kaphar also wants to shed light on the fact that so many African American children have fathers in the penitentiary system. He personally experienced not being able to find his father because the prison systems are overflowing with black men. Any of those men could be his father and he wanted to express to his audience the injustices of the penitentiary.
My interpretation of the piece is that the men painted symbolize the many men in the criminal system who