Postcards to end gun violence
Exhibition History
My Dear Americans, it’s not enough, Danforth Museum, Framingham, MA, 2024
Picturing the Constitution, Old Stone House, Brooklyn, NY, curated by Katherine Gressel, 2023-2024
Current Seen: Seeing Change, Small Venue Biennial, Visual Studies Workshop, Rochester, NY, 2019
Point of Contact, MFA in Photography and Related Media Thesis Show, William Harris Gallery, Rochester Institute of Technology, Rochester, NY, 2019
Installation Information
This installation consists on providing postcards to gallery visitors that they can use to mail elected officials to advocate for gun control. The front of the postcard shows “Mommy, what is this?” (2018). The back of the postcard contains a short letter with the phrase “No more children should die from gun violence. I support gun control.”, along with fill-in-the-blank spaces for the names and contact information of them and of the elected official they would like to mail the postcard to.
A mailbox and the mail addresses of the senators and the representative where the exhibition is taking place have been provided for reference. The postcards are mailed when the exhibition ends. I’m using fill in the blanks as in Template (96 die each day from gun violence in the U.S.), but in a hopeful way, by inviting the audience to join me in my activist efforts and prevent more children’s deaths.
Feature at The Clarke Forum for Contemporary Issues
Curator Katherine Gressel presented the works in the exhibition Picturing the Constitution during the Winfield C. Cook Constitution Day Conversation at Clarke Forum, including the installation Postcards to end gun violence.
In the words of Gressel, "…we also included several works by the artist IIeana Doble Hernandez focused on the second amendment, including a mailbox and instructions for visitors to write to their local representatives with their thoughts on gun legislation, using postcards with this powerful image with the artist's own son holding a toy bullet making a peace sign. This project serves as an example of how artists can not only inspire but provide direct tools to help with political participation".
Watch the entire conversation here.
