a eulogy for who we could have been if we were free

A .PNG print-ready digital download of 'a eulogy for who we could have been if we were free' by Mercy Thokozane Minah.

Additional context for the piece:

A pervasive reality about living under an oppressive world order is perpetual grief. We are constantly grieving from the trauma of being marginalized, state neglect, and violence, from the scarcity and loss of safety and freedom and even life. A form of grief I wanted to give space to in my ongoing series exploring intimacy in the absence of liberation is the grief of all the possibilities we lose to oppressive realities. The selves we don’t get to become because so much of our lives are spent in survivorship, survival mode, and resistance. In ‘a eulogy for who we could have been if we were free’ I wanted to convey the dissonance of experiencing leisure while holding deep grief. I wanted to convey this by depicting a couple seated on some rocks on a beach, in dazzling metallic swimsuits, with their heads covered in black lace scarves usually worn in funerals. In the artwork, the couple are shown sitting with their legs pulled up and arms bent over their bellies and their hands gently placed over one another, offering comfort. They are also looking out into the water, where the reflection of the sun can be seen in the distance. Their posture and closeness, and the direction they are facing all point toward a moment of solemnity about the loss of who they feel they could have been if they were free.