The 2022 exhibition Voices Made Visual brought more than 40 artistic responses to American democracy to the Aiken Center for the Arts.
The exhibition accompanied the Smithsonian travelling display Voices and Votes: Democracy in America at the Aiken County Historical Museum and translated its national questions into a local juried show.
National symbols reconsidered
Several artists worked with familiar images such as the bald eagle, the flag and the Statue of Liberty.
Marie Thomasson’s stitched-felt eagle, Always a Symbol of…, suggested the vigilance required to protect democracy. Josef Vincent Hathaway’s acrylic painting Eagle’s Cry paired a flying eagle with the flag and moon, linking freedom with the ambition of the American space programme.
Noble Diller’s O Say Can You See reconstructed the 15-star flag associated with the defence of Fort McHenry through 100 canvas squares. Karen Santos’s mixed-media work Liberty Speaks connected the Statue of Liberty with motherhood, migration and the language of Emma Lazarus.
Voting and protest as visible action
Other works addressed the continuing struggle to make democratic rights effective. Emily McBurness’s pop-art image Your Voice, Your Vote, Women’s Rights showed a Black woman casting a ballot.
June Clement’s Stand Up referred to large public demonstrations, while Patrick Krohn’s photograph Too Much Noise observed children shielding their ears as protesters gathered behind them.
The exhibition did not present democracy as a completed national achievement. Its works moved between pride in shared symbols and recognition of the exclusions, disputes and public action through which citizenship continues to be negotiated.
Juror Keith Tolen argued that bringing work into the dialogue was itself a contribution. Voices Made Visual made that idea literal by turning political participation into a diverse field of images.