At Tubman Gallery in Fort Worth, a mannequin head wearing a black ski mask and wrapped in rope sits atop a worn box fan. The fan hums steadily, until its whir breaks into sharp clanks that sound like distress.

Poetic Malice, the piece by Los Angeles sculptor and performance artist Suni Mullen , portrays the history of lynching and the myth of “the Black monster.” It is one of several works in “Two Tears in a Bucket,” a new exhibition curator Mueni Rudd says is about survival, letting go and healing.

The title comes from a phrase deeply rooted in Black vernacular: “Two tears in a bucket, [expletive] it.” For Rudd, it represents a spiritual shrug.

“Two tears in a bucket resonates this idea of what you need to let go or that process of letting go, learning to let it go, or the l

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