Citizen
Citizen is a timeline of the history of people's rights in America starting with the Declaration of Independence. The imagery of people holding up children demonstrates humanity’s ability to make things better for future generations. Most of the text laser cut throughout each painting endorses and upholds this concept with concrete laws, official declarations and speeches expressing egalitarian ideas supporting positive social agreements. Others reveal inequities. The first images are of white people because the truth is America was founded on the idea that “God created all white men equal”. The acknowledgment of different races and genders deserving any rights and/or freedoms appears only later in the constitution and in the establishment of various laws as American society has evolved.
The final two paintings in this gallery deal with the Equal Rights Amendment and are not included in the historical timeline because the ERA is still not an official amendment. The blank spaces that cut across the woman’s arms holding up the child signify a threat to women’s ability to support their children, i.e., our future generations, due to America’s inability to recognize women need equal rights. The ERA was passed by the U.S. Senate and the House of Representatives in 1972. In order for the amendment to legitimately become part of the US Constitution it must be ratified by 38 states. After 48 years the ERA was finally ratified by 38 states in 2020. Republicans in congress are currently fighting to stop the ERA from becoming an official amendment. For information about ways to help the ERA become part of our constitution please visit: www.equalrightsamendment.org | www.now.org |www.eracoalition.org
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