Citizenship: A MICA Community Show
Title
Citizenship: A MICA Community Show
Subject
Citizenship
Immigration & society
Civil Rights
Justice
Gun Reform
Description
Questions about what make a citizen are as precinct as ever in a landscape where lines continue to be drawn between identities, nationalities, races, and classes. Citizenship is and has always been more than a birthright to a country or a flag. We are each tied to multiple communities as participants - locally, nationally, and globally - in a web of interconnected societies that help define who we are as individuals, and what we aspire to as a people.
Inspired by Claudia Rankine’s 2014 book Citizen: An American Lyric, this exhibit asks artists and viewers to grapple with hard questions about what it means to be a citizen, who is granted the right to have a voice in society, the duty of society to the individual, and how we work to enact change in an unjust social system. Each artist has responded to these issues in unique and powerful ways, influenced heavily by history, personal events, and the world around them.
We hope all viewers and visitors to Decker Library in the coming months spend time with these five pieces, and have the chance to experience new insights into the complex and challenging nature of what is means to be a citizen.
Allison Fischbach, curator
Spring 2019
march for our lives, 2018
Matthew Bailey
Undergraduate, Photography
The March for Our Lives was a student led march that took place in Washington DC on March 24, 2018. The march was focused on gun reform in the United States after many school shootings, including Stoneman Douglass High School.
Personally I felt the need to go because it was just after the passing of two friends, Zaire Kelly & Jamahri Sydnor, at the hand of gun violence.
We must end gun violence by voting in members of our government who speak for what we believe in!
The Things We Bring With Us
Camila Franco Ribeiro Gomide
Photography and Electronic Media MFA
Camila Franco Ribeiro Gomide (b. 1996, Ilhéus, BA, Brazil) is a lens-based artist. She holds a BA in communications from Mississippi Valley State University (2017). She is currently pursuing her MFA in Photographic & Electronic Media at the Maryland Institute College of Art. Camila’s work has been shown in Ilheus, BA in Brazil, Baltimore, MD and Portland, OR in the United States. Camila currently works and lives in Baltimore, MD.
In her recent work, The Things We Bring With Us, Camila explores traveling and immigration by photographing items people choose to bring with them for thousands of miles. The goal is to understand and share the significance of these objects, and how much culture is brought and how much is left behind by the people who migrate, herself included.
Beginning from the Head
Kurt Guo
Undergraduate, Photography/Humanistic Studies
During the summer of 2017 I went back to Beijing. The different perspective on freedom between China and United States almost worked as a reverse culture shock on me. My parents had a hard time accepting my new appearance, especially my long hair. Beginning from the Head is a performance, where I wrote “Status of Exception” in Traditional Chinese on my head, after I shaved the hair I grew while I was in United States.
It is also worth pointing out, throughout Chinese history short hair as an identifier for masculinity is only a trend in recent decades. Before the modern era, men never cut their hair after reaching adulthood and shaving was a major offense to the family. This work focuses on personal expression and has a lot of resonance among people experiencing similar culture changes.
Economic Justice
Robert Krinsky
Open Studies
Citizens’ struggle for economic justice has been a perennial presence on the American scene since its establishment. These efforts continue into the twenty-first century. The current citizen movements to raise the minimum wage and to achieve equal pay for equal work are just some of the initiatives to address the growing disparity in income and wealth in our nation.
This intaglio print seeks to give visual expression to the growing phenomenon of economic inequality and the quest for economic justice. The print joins the iconic images of the raised fist of empowerment with the scales of justice. These are placed against a background of reverse dollar signs to suggest the misdirection of current economic trends toward greater economic inequality. The print’s assemblage of well-recognized images of empowerment, justice, and money are intended to spur conversation about citizenship, community and collective responsibility in our democratic republic.
The Blueprint
Xavier Lightfoot
Undergraduate
The Blueprint is a continous one-line drawing, a passage through parts of America’s horrific history. Through slavery, African-Americans were deemed 3/5ths of a citizen. The Blueprint is a technical drawing that documents the truths of American history behind an architecture of America’s society today. Recognize the racism, the stereotypes, the abuse, the lynchings, and pain that African-Americans had to endure in order to be recognized as full citizens.
Inspired by Claudia Rankine’s 2014 book Citizen: An American Lyric, this exhibit asks artists and viewers to grapple with hard questions about what it means to be a citizen, who is granted the right to have a voice in society, the duty of society to the individual, and how we work to enact change in an unjust social system. Each artist has responded to these issues in unique and powerful ways, influenced heavily by history, personal events, and the world around them.
We hope all viewers and visitors to Decker Library in the coming months spend time with these five pieces, and have the chance to experience new insights into the complex and challenging nature of what is means to be a citizen.
Allison Fischbach, curator
Spring 2019
march for our lives, 2018
Matthew Bailey
Undergraduate, Photography
The March for Our Lives was a student led march that took place in Washington DC on March 24, 2018. The march was focused on gun reform in the United States after many school shootings, including Stoneman Douglass High School.
Personally I felt the need to go because it was just after the passing of two friends, Zaire Kelly & Jamahri Sydnor, at the hand of gun violence.
We must end gun violence by voting in members of our government who speak for what we believe in!
The Things We Bring With Us
Camila Franco Ribeiro Gomide
Photography and Electronic Media MFA
Camila Franco Ribeiro Gomide (b. 1996, Ilhéus, BA, Brazil) is a lens-based artist. She holds a BA in communications from Mississippi Valley State University (2017). She is currently pursuing her MFA in Photographic & Electronic Media at the Maryland Institute College of Art. Camila’s work has been shown in Ilheus, BA in Brazil, Baltimore, MD and Portland, OR in the United States. Camila currently works and lives in Baltimore, MD.
In her recent work, The Things We Bring With Us, Camila explores traveling and immigration by photographing items people choose to bring with them for thousands of miles. The goal is to understand and share the significance of these objects, and how much culture is brought and how much is left behind by the people who migrate, herself included.
Beginning from the Head
Kurt Guo
Undergraduate, Photography/Humanistic Studies
During the summer of 2017 I went back to Beijing. The different perspective on freedom between China and United States almost worked as a reverse culture shock on me. My parents had a hard time accepting my new appearance, especially my long hair. Beginning from the Head is a performance, where I wrote “Status of Exception” in Traditional Chinese on my head, after I shaved the hair I grew while I was in United States.
It is also worth pointing out, throughout Chinese history short hair as an identifier for masculinity is only a trend in recent decades. Before the modern era, men never cut their hair after reaching adulthood and shaving was a major offense to the family. This work focuses on personal expression and has a lot of resonance among people experiencing similar culture changes.
Economic Justice
Robert Krinsky
Open Studies
Citizens’ struggle for economic justice has been a perennial presence on the American scene since its establishment. These efforts continue into the twenty-first century. The current citizen movements to raise the minimum wage and to achieve equal pay for equal work are just some of the initiatives to address the growing disparity in income and wealth in our nation.
This intaglio print seeks to give visual expression to the growing phenomenon of economic inequality and the quest for economic justice. The print joins the iconic images of the raised fist of empowerment with the scales of justice. These are placed against a background of reverse dollar signs to suggest the misdirection of current economic trends toward greater economic inequality. The print’s assemblage of well-recognized images of empowerment, justice, and money are intended to spur conversation about citizenship, community and collective responsibility in our democratic republic.
The Blueprint
Xavier Lightfoot
Undergraduate
The Blueprint is a continous one-line drawing, a passage through parts of America’s horrific history. Through slavery, African-Americans were deemed 3/5ths of a citizen. The Blueprint is a technical drawing that documents the truths of American history behind an architecture of America’s society today. Recognize the racism, the stereotypes, the abuse, the lynchings, and pain that African-Americans had to endure in order to be recognized as full citizens.
Creator
Allison Fischbach, Decker Library
Date
2019-02-07
Language
English
Files
Collection
Citation
Allison Fischbach, Decker Library, “Citizenship: A MICA Community Show,” Decker Library Exhibits and Displays, accessed May 4, 2024, https://deckerlibrary.omeka.net/items/show/77.