Opening Night Curator’s Tour of Loud Silence: Expressions of Activism, Sordoni Gallery
LOUD SILENCE: EXPRESSIONS OF ACTIVISM
October 23 - December 16, 2018
Sordoni Art Gallery; Wilkes Barre, PA
The artist’s role is to serve as society’s mirror. In that role, artists have been advocates for marginalized populations for years. This exhibition examines communities who have been forced into silence because of society and circumstance and the artists who create an awareness of their circumstances. As a result, artwork created becomes a form of activism- sometimes using their silence or contemplative practice as a gesture of protest, sometimes allowing the artwork to scream louder than words are able.
Important to the exhibition is the human figure. In many cases, judgments are made and rights compromised due to gender, race, and sexuality. The works featured demonstrate the unique perils of living while a woman, while of color, while indigenous, while LGBTQ, and while an immigrant. Artists have come to use the body as an integral expression of their activism. The exhibition will distinguish between depictions of the body (figure study) and works OF the body.
Those who have been denied a voice are forced to scream the loudest. This exhibition calls on the viewer to examine their own blind-spots and understand suffering they may have never known, through art.
Artists featured: Judy Chicago, Kara Walker, Ana Mendieta, Alison Saar, Lien Trong, Hung Liu, Diane Edison, Liza Lou, Nancy Spero, Julie Heffernan, Elizabeth Catlett, Betye Saar, Lesley Dill, Ilona Granet, Donna Lief, Jessie Oonark, Faith Ringgold, Kiki Smith, Zoe Strauss, Jenny Holzer, Cannupa Hanska Luger, Sobia Ahmad, Nicholas Galanin, Sara Rahbar, Lorna Simpson, Helen Zughaib, Dyke Action Machine, Rachel Farmer, Linda Stein, Ellen Shumsky, Annie Sprinkle, Alex Donis, Miller and Shellbarger, Theodore Newman, Harvey Milk, Rashid Johnson, Juan Logan, Martha Posner, Kiana Honarmand
