Rewrite the World
Glassell School of Art (Bucher Gallery)
5101 Montrose Blvd
Houston, TX 77006
On View
December 3, 2020 – February 14, 2021
Organized by
Ana Tuazon
︎Go to interactive online exhibition
︎Watch online panel discussion, “A Voice of Hope: Remembering Carl Hampton and Houston’s Black Panther Party“ with Jamal Cyrus, John “Bunchy” Crear and Emory Douglas
︎Read Sam Stoeltje’s review on Cite Digital
Rewrite the World highlights a multigenerational grouping of artists who have made the revelation of historical and structural injustices a cornerstone of their practices. Dating from the 1970s to present, works by Jamal Cyrus, Demian DinéYazhi', Newton and Helen Harrison, and Cecilia Vicuña illustrate how art making can intersect with other forms of producing and sharing knowledge—among them poetry, dance, archival research, and mapmaking. The exhibition also features a selection of free materials, available in both print and digital formats, created by artists and activists during the past year to protest police brutality and honor Black lives.
The exhibition borrows its title from the writings of Paulo Freire, the late Brazilian philosopher and author of Pedagogy of the Oppressed. Based on his belief that the world must be regarded as a “reality in process,” Freire argued that a liberatory model of education would understand dialogue as an act of world-building unto itself. In this spirit, Rewrite the World explores the dialogic potential between artist and audience, suggesting that such encounters can be both learning experiences and openings toward personal and collective transformation. Here, artists’ formal interventions into the ways information is shared—and the very structure of language—begin to undo the fixity of an unjust social order designed to control and suppress dialogue, inviting in new, revolutionary ways of living and relating.