Artist: Ann C. Frank Lewis
Date: 2017
Museum: ArtsWestchester (White Plains, United States)
Technique: Paper
Lamone v. Benisek was a case before the Supreme Court that addressed partisan gerrymandering in the state of Maryland. The 6th District had historically favored Republicans but were redrawn in 2011 to shift the political majority to Democrats by diluting voting blocks. Both major parties have taken advantage of redistricting to shift power in their favor. Ann Lewis’s seductive abstract ink drawings appear fluid in material and random in form. Yet these not abstractions at all, but rather deliberate works on paper that depict actual voting districts in Michigan, Wisconsin, North Carolina and Maryland. Each district has either been deemed unconstitutionally drawn, or as in the case of “Gil v. Whitford” is awaiting a verdict on its constitutionality from the Supreme Court. The title of the series, “A Series of Unethical Acts” is drawn from professional discussions around the validity of Rorschach or inkblot tests. The visual method for evaluating someone’s psychological state was finally put to rest by the scientific community in 1999 after it was proven they were unreliable, invalid and unethical thus mimicking the gerrymandering systems of today.Lewis “calls attention to the manipulation and creativity of those working hard to disenfranchise voters...These obstacles to fair and free elections are not as obvious as Voter ID laws, but can dramatically change the way our country is governed -- a way which does not represent the true nature of its citizens.”
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