Imagine that you are driving down a highway when you spot a thought-provoking billboard showing an extreme close-up image of the upper part of a human face. All you can see are the person’s eyes and the inscription, “Do you see me for who I am or what you think I am?”
This is just one of many artists’ billboards on view (in smaller reproductions) through Dec. 14 at the George Washington University’s Corcoran School of the Arts and Design, housed in the Columbian College of Arts and Sciences. The billboards were created by artists associated with For Freedoms, a nonprofit collective centering art as a catalyst for civic engagement, conversation and action.
Billboards created by For Freedoms artists have appeared in all 50 states as well as Puerto Rico and Washington, D.C. For the next three years, this artist-led collective is in residence hosted in partnership between the Corcoran and the National Gallery of Art.
The exhibit is part of the official launch of the For Freedoms residency. Several events, all built around the theme of interdependence, were held last weekend at the National Gallery and at the Corcoran.
The billboard described above spoke eloquently to Tizita Leka, a visitor from Orange County, Calif., who said she related its message to her religious faith.
“As human beings, we are all the same,” Leka said. “We are all God’s children, and we are all made in the image of God. When people see me, I want them to see me like that. I’m not perfect, but I try every day to see people that way.”
Other billboards display text asking questions such as “What can we do with all this pain?” or “How late would it be right now if this was all a dream?” The latter message was written in a childish script in phosphorescent green against a dark background, with a question mark hovering above a crudely drawn sleeper and, occupying roughly a third of the image at the right side, blurring headlights of cars moving down a highway—a powerful strategy for implicating viewers passing by. Another billboard bore the inscription of a grafitto on a wall reading, “No soy tu mamacita” (“I am not your little mother”).
Several round table discussions were held over the weekend, each facilitated by a member of For Freedoms, a Corcoran faculty member, and a staff member from the National Gallery of Art. At the Corcoran on Oct. 4, multidisciplinary artist Autumn Breon and Mel Harper, interpretive projects manager at the National Gallery, joined Anna Jayne Kimmel, assistant professor of dance, for a discussion of “Body and Sites of Performance: Memory and History.”
On Oct. 5, the Corcoran hosted a discussion on the vexed and vexing issues surrounding “Archives and Artifacts: Accessibility, Restitution and Stewardship.” Facilitators included Lena Stringari, chief of conservation at the National Gallery, with Clement Akpang, assistant professor of art history, and DA Mekonnen, an Ethiopian American musician and composer.
On Oct. 6 in the Flagg Building, there was a discussion centered on “Labor and the Creative Workforce: Repair, Creation and Social Engagement,” facilitated by artist Nandita Raman and Damon Reaves, head of education at the National Gallery, joining Maria Del Carmen Montoya, associate professor of sculpture and spatial practices.
An array of events rounded out the weekend, including a book talk and film screening. Both were hosted by Susan Sterner, associate professor of Art and Design and director of graduate studies in the New Media Photojournalism program. Photographer Jess Ingram spoke with Sterner about her photographs of young ROTC participants in rural Tennessee. An Iraqi American multimedia artist, Wesaam Al-Badry spoke with Sterner at a film screening.
The Flagg Building was also the site of a public workshop on kite and billboard making, led by Corcoran students.
At the National Gallery, For Freedoms artist Helina Metaferia and Smithsonian historian Jon Grinspan discussed the Wide Awakes, an abolitionist organization dedicated to electing Abraham Lincoln to the White House in 1860, as well as the contemporary group of Wide Awakes, artists working to restore joy to politics.
On Oct. 5, a trio of For Freedoms artists, Nekisha Durrett, Hank Willis Thomas and Corcoran visiting professor Eric Gottesman, talked with Philip Brookman, a consulting curator of photography at the National Gallery, about the newly published monograph, “Where Do We Go From Here?” The book collects hundreds of billboards representing a broad range of styles and approaches.
For Freedoms: Billboards on View is at the Corcoran School of the Arts and Design, Flagg Building (500 17th St. NW,) second floor, through Dec. 14. The exhibit is open Wednesday through Saturday from 1–5 p.m.
