FREEDOM.
What does it mean to you? How does it play out in your daily life? If you don't stand up for it who takes it from you, who controls it? Does your government control you? Does your husband, wife or partner control you? Does your community control you? Are you free to say what you want to say? Are you free to feel what you want to feel? Are you free to marry who you want to marry? Are you free to love who you want to love? We should be asking these questions all the time.
This exhibition organically culminated in a mostly women artist show. All of the participating artists have an unintentional common thread in the dialogue questioning our freedom as women and looking in at women. This writer is a woman, and the dialogue in the exhibition is powerful. It doesn't represent freedom in a positive light necessarily, but rather comments on or questions whether it exists wholly. We as women are powerful but find great nuances and possibly false truths in whether that power is permitted or celebrated. The dialogue in the exhibition also taps into narratives about personal freedom, whether that exists or not. There are walls, gazes, cuts, and blank faces in the artwork. But despite that pain there's also a part of the dialogue where freedom of expression overrides the walls and barriers. Who are we really if we don't have our freedom? If we don't have the freedom to express ourselves; to speak our voice; to tell our story and to be.
