On 30 January 2021 POWER, an exhibition of art, crafted by people in prison, curated by Andrea Hadley-Johnson will open in real life/online at the National Justice Museum in Nottingham.
I am delighted to be one of the writers Andrea commissioned to create gallery interpretation on the objects and the power they hold. This commission enabled me to revisit my doctoral research on power, and how power can be performed in and through art objects and practices. From Steven Lukes, to Amy Allen, to the soap Face and the painted letters addressed To my future self, To my past childhood.
I’ll post the full text when the exhibition opens. Here’s how my text begins…
Power, Solidarity and the Freedom of Imagination
I want to think about how power, as the ability to do something, can be performed. Rather than consider what it is to be powerful and wield power over other human beings or to be power-less. I question how else can acts of power occur within the contexts of the justice system, the museum, and communicated through artworks, objects, and acts of ingenuity.
Dr. Antoinette Burchill FHEA 