Freedom in America
Art Lab Interns + Hannah Leathers, Platte Forum, 2018

A one-night exhibition with PlatteForum’s ArtLab high school interns. The result of an eight-week class about the foundations of drawing, and how they relate to foundations of privilege. This exhibit questioned what it means to be ‘free in America’ and contemporary forms of activism. ArtLab students explored unapologetic expression of personal identities and spotlighted oppressive forces in our society.

On the 150+ dual-sided picket signs that make up the work, the ArtLab students portrayed oppressions within their own identities, or those around them. The front of each picket sign was strictly visual art–no text–juxtaposing the typical ‘picket sign’ aesthetic, and inviting the viewer to participate meaning of each sign. During the exhibition, every 30 minutes the ArtLab students flipped their picket signs around to the backsides, exposing a collaborative poem. The poem explores personal identity, oppression, and being ‘unapologetic’ in your own authenticity and truth.

The poem ended with the collaborative statement — “We are the hope of tomorrow that will build the inclusivity and diversity that you could not.” 

Show statement: “This show represents what the American generations before us have created. You have been shouting in our faces “this is freedom!” since we took our first breaths. But what you failed to recognize is that your definition of freedom varies vastly from ours. With this show, we have built a march-less march; our voices coming together as one to construct a unity of power, dismantling oppression and welcoming freedom, abolishing conformity through an act of integration. We are. And We will persist.”