Extending Our Hands In Solidarity
Hands speak. They touch, feel, hold and give. Often, they see more clearly than our eyes. They gesticulate to accompany lively conversation. They change over a lifetime and I like to think I still have access to my child’s hands, the ones that know how to play, invent and create possibilities for a better world.
When my son was born, I could hold his entire little body in the palm of my hands. His were tiny jewels then. His hands today are twice the size as mine, but still very gentle. In my life as an artist, mother and teacher, hands touch, collaborate and work together. I like to think that we all carry ghost hands, ancestral and fantasized hands, which guide us and allow for a more sensitive and supportive relationship with the world and with others.
This work is an outgrowth of the playing WITH-playing OUT exhibition that Natasha Reid and I collaboratively developed, which invited folks to engage in playful artistic actions that explore and encourage consent culture.