Impressions of Dissent is a printmaking exhibition that explores the current political climate through a medium historically tied to activism and public engagement. Printmaking’s power lies in its accessibility and reproducibility, qualities that have long made it a vital tool for political messaging, from early satirical engravings and revolutionary posters to Civil Rights screenprints and contemporary protest art. This exhibition draws on that lineage while showcasing how today’s artists use print to confront issues such as democratic instability, social inequality, climate justice, and the politics of information.
The installation is designed to evoke the familiarity and intimacy of a living room, transforming a domestic setting into a space for political reflection. At its centre, a TV-like diorama functions as both an object of everyday comfort and a focal point for critical engagement, broadcasting curated print elements that challenge viewers to reconsider the narratives they absorb at home. By blending the aesthetics of domesticity with politically charged imagery, the project invites audiences to confront how media, environment, and personal space intersect to shape their understanding of the world.
Public programming, including discussions and set-like installation, extend the exhibition’s focus on participation and democratic engagement that encapsulates the viewer in the piece. Ultimately, Impressions of Dissent aims to connect the rich history of activist printmaking with the urgent social and political challenges of today, using the dynamic interplay of print and light to illuminate the complexities of the moment.
Aisling Kernan Artist Bio
The Statue of Liberty is an immigrant in a country where that becomes less and less of a pretty thing to be. The people beg for justice in a system that doesn’t serve them, and never has. Privacy is extinct and the Constitution is being erased by the very people claiming to defend it. Everyday we are presented with a new reason to fight, be it another murder, another kidnapping, another occupation.
As the daughter of immigrants, I grow increasingly disappointed in this country I am supposed to be proud of as the Land of The Free continues to kidnap and imprison the people who most embody what America should be: united, diverse with pride, unashamed of humble beginnings and striving for more.
This body of screen prints explores the idea of Liberty, and Justice for all in a country where kindness seems to dissipate. No longer the fictitious unchanging symbol of freedom and patriotism, to be American is, in reality, the daily negotiation with those in power to please be treated as a person, not a commodity. Liberty is seemingly only achieved through struggle, fighting those who have it to bestow it on them too. If it can be so freely given and taken away, was it ever really freedom? These works sit in the tension between promise, practice, and the ever-growing American emotions: fear, anger, revulsion.
Mostly, these works depict America for what it is: a nation where capitalism markets freedom as a product while systematically exploiting the people it claims to empower, a country that teaches me to praise freedom while grinding my body, labor, and silence into profit, then dares to call my survival a privilege. To be American is to pay for your safety with your privacy in a country that uses your information to track you and kill you when you don’t conform. America is the land of watching from your living room as your government imprisons immigrants, builds walls, discriminates, and fosters hate, led by a 34-count convicted felon.
The Statue of Liberty was a gift from the French to symbolize hope. A gift they requested be returned to France due to America’s denial and destruction of that hope. She too is imprisoned here.
