Social Enlightenment Exhibition
My class's section of this year's winter exhibition was about social enlightenment. We read books and made art about social topics like race, politics, identity, and other things. We also wrote and performed short vignettes about judgement.
My art piece is called “Conversation”. Rather than focussing on a social justice issue, I focused on a social justice solution, one that works for many if not all specific issues. In my opinion, the best way to spread awareness and/or progress further in today's society is to partake in healthy, informed, discussions. Any important topic is on the table as long as it’s handled responsibly. Even if you aren’t sure if you’re right about an issue, there’s often at least one person who is willing to politely inform you of the facts without personal bias. Not to mention, information is more readily available now than ever. Nearly any kind of discussion or debate is better and more productive than arguing or staying silent. This message is important for everyone to know because everyone is unique and special, thus, everyone brings something new and unique to the table. That’s why the message I chose to send is not, “A conversation changes the world,” but instead is, “Conversation changes the world.” This message is important to me because in the past, I’ve made the conscious decision to stay silent during conversations because of two main reasons: I know too little about the issue, or I wouldn’t be saying anything new. I’ve already mentioned the rebuttals to both of these points. All of this is why I chose to highlight conversation in my art piece. My group's vignette was called "My Age." It was about a pair of sisters where the older sister looked younger and the younger sister looked older. They go through their first day at school getting misjudged. This forms a rift between them where neither of them fully understand each other. This is a true story based off of the experiences of my group member. I am very proud of where both of my displays went. I feel like I impressed a lot of people at exhibition with my art and my performance. I don’t think I would’ve changed much if I could (besides accidentally missing my time to be at the math exhibition. Whoops!). Everyone put all of their effort toward their final products and they all turned out very well. If I had to pinpoint certain ways I participated, I’d say that I helped to keep our exhibition integrity in line. In high school, it’s easy to put little effort into work and/or projects. Even so, I tend to take projects seriously and I keep my work genuine. |