Free as they want to be: Artists Committed to Memory

"Freedom is something people take,

and people are as free as they want to be.”

 — James Baldwin

Free as they want to be: Artists Committed to Memory presents contemporary art inspired by historical memory. The exhibition considers in comparative perspectives the historic and contemporary role photography and film have played in remembering legacies of slavery and its aftermath. It also examines the social lives of a diverse group of Americans within various places—on the land, at home, in photographic albums, at historic sites, and in public memory. Including nineteenth-century photographs made by Cincinnati studio photographer James Presley Ball and other photographs of Black Americans taken during the ongoing struggle for freedom, Free as they want to be offers a view of a people who expressed their desire to be free in early photographic portraits.

This exhibition acknowledges artists’ ongoing efforts to explore the possibilities of freedom and their relationship to it. Their subject matter depicts the persistent quest to be “as free as they want to be” as well as their persistent drive to innovate aesthetic practices in photographic media. Free as they want to be addresses the making and uses of photographic archives, the narratives they tell and the parameters that define them as objects of study. Social and economic histories as well as experiences of race, class, gender and sexuality affect the construction, acquisition and maintenance of archives and their ability to influence knowledge production. This exhibition includes artists working in photography, video, projection, sculpture and mixed media installation. Their strength and determination are documented in their wide-ranging themes and aesthetic practices supported by a fierce engagement with archival research. The exhibition creates a framework in which to reimagine and reflect on historical events, as well as public and personal memory.

This exhibition engages numerous educational themes including the legacy of racism, segregation and slavery in American culture, and the ability to understand and overcome injustice. It will inspire conversations about contemporary racial and ethnic diversity, migration and identity, the slave trade and the African diaspora.

Free as they want to be: Artists Committed to Memory is curated by Cheryl Finley, Ph.D. and Deborah Willis, Ph.D. and originated as a FotoFocus exhibition at the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center, Cincinnati, Ohio on the occasion of the 2022 FotoFocus Biennial. The traveling exhibition is organized by Curatorial Exhibitions, Pasadena, California.