Anyone who keeps up with the news can’t help but notice the growing number of injustices against women, children and LGBT individuals. For some, it’s just a sign of the times and maybe a distant cause for concern, but a local artist is trying to change that mindset with her latest exhibition.
“Oblivious,” which runs Aug. 1-30 at Muse Gallery, features artwork by Philadelphia artist Carolyn Cohen that references the brutalization of women, children, gays and lesbians that are increasing becoming headline news both nationally and globally.
Cohen said the inspiration for “Oblivious” came to her while she was driving home from her parents’ house in upstate New York earlier this year.
“I’m an NPR junkie. I listen to NPR all the time and it was one story after another,” she said. “A woman was gang-raped and set on fire in Bengal. A young woman in Texas was expelled for lewd behavior and her lewd behavior was reporting her own rape. There was a story of a gay man being flogged in Africa. It seemed I was being inundated with story after story of people being discriminated against in horrible ways.”
The exhibition was initially going in a different direction, but the inundation of stories about victimization prompted her to revamp it.
“As a result of that I changed the whole focus of this exhibition to focus on discrimination against women, children and the LGBT community,” she said. “As far as the LGBT community, I feel like the news in the United States in the last few years has been so cognitive. But if you look at what’s happening in the world, it’s frightening. People can actually be killed for being gay.”
The exhibition features paintings, photographs and textiles based on articles and photos that Cohen has amassed related to the subject matter.
“There’s a couple different techniques and styles within it,” she explained. “The colorful works are textiles that have been dyed and then hand-embroidered. Then there are some other works that are paintings on paper. Some of [those depicted] are referencing news stories and pictures that I found of people in the newspaper. I’m going to have a book of all of those available at the exhibition with the articles. Some of them are pictures of myself and my children because, in thinking about these children [who have been victimized], they could be my children. It’s really almost an accident of birth that it wasn’t my daughter who was kidnapped in Nigeria. These children could be anyone.”
Cohen added that there are layers to the techniques she uses that give the art and the messages a significant depth.
“I like that you can look at one small part of each piece and that is abstract. I think that it can be symbolic of the way things are in life. You need to see the big picture to see the big picture. Some of the colors and techniques are very beautiful. I like the juxtaposition of a beautiful color or technique used for a horrific subject matter. My hope is that it will draw viewers in and, as you are admiring the color and the technique, you become sort of complicit in the story behind it and the abuse of the person being shown — because we all are somewhat complicit.”
Cohen hopes her artwork will inspire viewers to not only be more aware of the injustices that inspired it, but to also take a more active role in trying to prevent such incidents.
“Hopefully in talking to the people that come to the exhibition I can stimulate people to get involved in any way,” she said. “I think it‘s so easy for us to do nothing. For me, when I was driving home from Rochester and listening to NPR, I was crying while I was listening, but at the same time I knew I was going to go home and unload the car and cook dinner. Nothing in my life was going to change. All of a sudden that wasn’t acceptable to me. This is the way I chose to make a difference. Yes, I donate to charity and I donate to these different organizations, but at some point it feels very hollow. It’s so easy to send a check and make a donation but what else can we do? And that is something I struggle with. I’m not drawing any conclusions, but I’m hoping that, by showing these statistics, it will give people pause and have them thinking about what is happening in the world and what is happening in our own country. A lot of times people like to think, Oh, this is just happening in African or Muslim countries. It’s not us. Especially living in this area; Philadelphia is very liberal and open-minded and sometimes we forget that the rest of the world and the rest of the country are not like this.”
To that end, Cohen said she will have information available about charities and organizations related to the issues at the heart of her exhibition.
“People will come in for the visual exhibition and then I’m hoping to hook them in to what’s behind the work,” she said. “So I’m going to have some information and more statistics about what is happening in the world and also some fliers that people can take with them. One is for an organization called AllOut.org. They are doing incredible work mobilizing people all over the world to stand up for the rights of the LGBT community. I’m going to have fliers for an organization called CamFed.org, which raises money for the education of women in various African countries. The reason I think that is so important is because to me education is key to changing people’s behavior and the way they treat other people.”
Muse Gallery presents “Oblivious” by Carolyn Cohen, Aug. 1-30, 52 N. Second St. For more information, visit www.musegalleryphiladelphia.com or call 215-627-5310.