Universal Declaration on Human Rights - Article 16:
The family is the natural and fundamental group unit of society and is entitled to protection by society and the State.
Men and women of full age, without any limitation due to race, nationality or religion, have the right to marry and to found a family. They are entitled to equal rights as to marriage, during marriage and at its dissolution.
Marriage shall be entered into only with the free and full consent of the intending spouses.
Part I - Marriage Contracts in America:
Part II: Obergefell Vs. Hodges
Obergefell Vs. Hodges was the Supreme Court case (2015) that legalized same-sex marriage on the federal level in the United States of America. The works based on this court case contains fourteen paintings with the text from the entire ruling laser cut throughout the paintings. The first painting has the text from the Syllabus laser cut into an image of Tori Sission and Shanté Wolfe, the first same-sex couple to get married in Alabama. I consider this piece as showing “contemporary history”. The next four paintings have the Opinion of the Court laser cut throughout images of four couples I personally know who have been able to get married over the past decade due to the changing laws in America. The final section contains nine paintings based on historical references with the four separate dissents from Justices Roberts, Scalia, Thomas and Alito laser cut into them. The main justification for the opposing dissents is that marriage, throughout history, has always been only between a man and a woman. As a means to question the justification within these dissents I paired their text with visual evidence of the acceptance of same-sex unions throughout history from various cultures, religions and time periods. As a whole, this series celebrates the legalization of same-sex marriage as a new positive social agreement in America.
