Illustrating a Global Perspective on American Politics and Culture
Posters on Politics 2020, curated by Donna Jackson, addresses a wide-range perspective on today’s alarming socio-political climate. It is on view at the Gallery of Art at Marygrove.
There’s a deep layering in art that engages critical conversation and thought toward the conditions of society–from social constructs to political dissent.
In “Posters on Politics 2020”, an exhibition curated by artist Donna Jackson of DMJ Studio, local and international visual art-makers provide commentary on political events, figures, philosophies and ideologies.
The installation expands upon Jackson’s 2016 exhibition, which focused sharply on American politics and came as a response to the emotions experienced throughout the year from voting to immigration policies, gun violence and the #MeToo Movement, to include works that discuss climate change, the Black Lives Matter Movement and the U.S. food supply.
“What was intriguing in 2016 was a lot of the posters focused on American Politics, even though a majority of the designers were from other countries,” Jackson says.
“To see how they saw us, was eye-opening and an honor in that way [because] it also made me understand why it’s important for us, as Americans, to understand our politics and how it effects the bigger world.”
Jackson describes a poster by Chilean artist Gonzalo Holtheuer from their ‘Caution vs. Recklessness’ series that illustrates the silhouette of a Black woman bound in red, white and blue ribbon against a yellow backdrop.
“In a way when you see this, she seems somewhat at peace. It’s a strange thing,” Jackson ponders. “At the same time, this is something that this Black woman is wearing everyday–the American stripes that are her and the American stripes that bound her. For a person in Chile to say symbolically, what I feel everyday was amazing.”
She adds, “But, those same designers who made posters about what they see, I have conversations with them and understand they’re rooting for us to be better. That has been a very human part of this whole [global] project.”
“Posters on Politics 2020” features over 200 artworks and on view at Marygrove Conservancy through November 9.
