By Daidrian Hammond
Love is expressed from a multitude of perceptions, actions and words. A myriad of different approaches has made navigating love difficult in modern society.
In the “What is Left Unspoken, Love” exhibition, six themes are employed to exhibit the complexities of love in an unembellished perspective. Each theme tackled a concept of love based in cultural, personal and worldly experience.
The first theme, “The Two,” illustrated the concept of love through union. The union is learning to be a strengthened force to maintain their relationship while establishing an existence in the world. More portraits, videos, sculptures and texts identified the bond garnered in love when in a pair and the strength of individuality to maintain self.
In the second theme, “The School of Love,” artists challenged divergent explorations of love. Love within family, love within death and love with trials and tribulations. Love with hardships is characterized through “The Kitchen Table Series,” which followed the inner communication of a Black love arrangement filled to the brim with transparency and resentment. This theme exhibit love formed as a lesson to appreciate and seek within first.
“The Practice of Love,” presented as the third theme, embodied the reality of love and its methods. The work made achieving love synonymous with devotion, effort, purpose and self-control. Jeffrey Gibson’s work, “The Love You Give Is the Love you Get,” invoked the thought of reciprocity in love and relationships. Moreover, the punching bag alluded to the connection of love and a fight worth fight.
In the fourth theme, “Loving Community,” artists paid homage to the late Martin Luther King Jr by using him as inspiration and illuminated his life vision of “justice, equality, and brotherly love.” The artwork ranged in references to voting rights, equality, social justice efforts and highlighting the people at the forefront of progressive movements in America’s history.
“The Poetics of Love” explored love through the barriers of visual and textual articulations of love in forms of poetry. As the fifth theme, love in the form of poetry cohered with the other projects by highlighting the variety of ways love could be expressed through words. Egyptian artist Ghada Amer crafted a hollow, bronze sphere composed of synonyms of the word “love” written backwards in Arabic. The artwork personified the dimension of love and the complexity of translating love in reality.
In the finale, “Love Supreme,” reigned as the sixth theme and depicted love in the aspect of divinity in culture and nature. Moreover, this concept of love posed as a challenge to evoke a pursuit of wisdom and self-reflection. Rafael Lozano-Hemmer’s interactive, artistic installation, “Pulse Room” was designed to mimic the rhythm of participants heartbeat and sync it with electricity.
He got the inspiration for this design when he was listening to his unborn children’s ultrasound. “Creating electricity syncopated with your heartbeat creates a drum, and it collides with the other cadences and rhythms,” he said. Watching and hearing the heartbeat infused with the vibrations and flickering of electricity hinted at the presences and rhythm necessary for accurate self-reflection and pursuit of wisdom in love.
Love is a universal language, and it tethers the world together by becoming a common denominator in all forms. The love exhibition “What is Left Unspoken, Love” displayed love through an irrefutable lens. The exhibition offered the notion that love is ambiguous and the artwork provided the framework of six different concepts of love. No one interpretation of love is correct, and it should be navigated with an insatiable desire to feel, experience, and learn.