WE ARE HERE (Aarhus)
Summary
The photographic installation We are here (Aarhus) is based on traces from the Women’s March on Washington held in Washington, DC on January 21, 2017. This work reflects Coble’s meticulous, on foot, documentation of the fences surrounding the White House as marchers piled their protest signs around the parameter.
Supported by
Galleri Image, Aarhus DK
Danish Arts Foundation
City of Aarhus
BUPL Solidaritets- og Kulturfond.
Description of project
This series of over 260 photographs was taken during the Women’s March on Washington on Saturday Jan. 21, 2017 in Washington, DC and was exhibited for the first time on the one year anniversary of these massive worldwide demonstrations .
The Women’s March occurred one day after the inauguration of Donald Trump as President of the United States, and it brought hundreds of thousands of protestors to Washington, DC and millions in similar protests across the world. The mission of the marches was to “harness the political power of diverse women and their communities to create transformative social change”. Spurred by the general oppression of patriarchy and the specific misogyny of Trump, women and their allies gathered to march for reproductive rights, LGBTQIA rights, worker’s rights, civil rights, disability rights, immigrant rights, environmental rights etc.
We Are Here represents parts of the vast conglomerate of protest signs that people marched with and then left along the barriers surrounding the backyard of the White House. Coble began photographing a few signs that were propped up along the fence, and continued the documentation as more and more signs we left around the White House in solidarity and protest. What could have been a few snapshots turned into six hours of performative movement around the fences and a systematic, durational documentation of the signs, posters and people.
At Galleri Image the viewers are invited to re-enact the movement along the fence surrounding White House and to explore the variety and creativity of the signs – ranging in tones of seriousness and humor, anger and parody, and referencing everything from historical oppression to popular culture and internet memes. The signs not only establish links to historical struggles but also to protest movements what would grow during 2017 and continues to this day such as the #metoo mobilization.
For the exhibition at Galleri Image the individual pieces of We are here can be moved around in the space, exchanged for a donation and potentially reactivated in another context. All donations (3500 DK) from We are here exhibed at Galleri Image (2018) were given to LGBT Asylum in Denmark. There are over 260 images mounted on found wood. The installation varies in size and quanity each time it is produced.
This work was commissioned for the exhitbion Acting in Numbers at Galleri Image, Aarhus, DK. Uniting photography and performance, the works in Coble’s solo exhibition focus on iconic symbols, bodily gestures, chants, and signals used in political protest and as forms of resistance. Photography and performance can offer distinct temporalities that are urgent for capturing, sharing and activating often ephemeral signs of defiance.
Type of work
Photographic series commissioned for Acting in Numbers Solo Exhibition
Published in
Galleri Image, Aarhus DK
Link to web site
http://www.marycoble.com/photography/we-are-here-2017-18
http://www.galleriimage.dk/index.php/en/component/rseventspro/event/222
https://kunsten.nu/journal/queer-kunstners-call-to-arms/
https://finespind.dk/index.php/artikler-og-billedserier/815-queer-feminisme-og-social-retfaerdighed-kunstner-mary-coble-i-galleri-image-interview
View/ Open
Date
2018-01-12Creator
Coble, Mary
Keywords
Art and Activism
Artistic Research
Photography Performance Art
Performativity
Play
Political
Protest
Activism
Washington
Womens March on Washington
#metoo
Publication type
artistic work
Language
eng