Lisafotod
Before You Judge Me, Try Walking in My Shoes, 2023
Main material is gypsum, bronze
With this work, I raise the issues of national identity, democracy, and equal rights. In our contemporary “democratic society,” I cannot openly express what I truly think without fearing that I will be excluded, erased from the public sphere, or silenced. At the centre of the installation, mounted on the wall, is a screaming self-portrait. Yet my scream remains unheard: my mouth is sewn shut with a rusty nail and coarse threads. My sneakers appear to bleed, as they are filled with barbed wire stylised as a flower. On either side of the central figure, casts of my face are mounted on the walls. They are silent, stripped of the ability to speak or express themselves. Their repetition transforms an individual face into an anonymous image of a person forced into silence.
