April 14, 2022 Use Your Outside Voice. Willoughby Lucas Hastings Guided by the notion that we only critique the things we love; in Use Your Outside Voice., artist Willoughby Lucas Hastings presents a body of work influenced by growing up in and recently returning to Huntsville, AL. Informed and limited by her white subjectivity she analyzes Huntsville's connection to the period of enslavement and the ideologies and aesthetic traditions that as a result linger in our present. In this exhibition, Hastings flips a familiar phrase to implicate herself and the viewer in the responsibility of thinking critically about our beliefs and how we represent them to the public and at home. Through these artistic interventions in her hometown and personal ancestry, Hastings uses her outside voice to represent opportunities for historical reflection, accountability, and coalition building. As a result, Hastings asks her audience to reflect on how our biases and behaviors are part of a longer history of socialization and confirmed by our daily routines, our chosen communities, the environments we inhabit, and how we remember the past. By contrast, if we adopt a sense of social and situational awareness while confronting the darkest parts of our collective history we begin to make space for grievance, healing, accountability, and more honest relationships in the future. For those unable to view the gallery in person, here are a few pieces from the show.
