Detroit Stockhom exchange

This year my artist group CLUSTER entered into an exchange with Detroit Stockholm in Stockholm, Sweden.

CLUSTER member Dawn Endean and I showed our work at their gallery in August.

My show was entitled “Words Matter”.

Using prints and clothing, Ellen Hochberg explores the potentially divisive effects of the words we choose to use when describing others. 

 These words repeated often enough become embroidered in the social fabric of our societies.  They become normalized.  Creating division and the “other-ing” of entire groups of people.

 But how do those people see themselves.  When asked to describe themselves, we didn’t see the same sorts of words used.  We saw words that describe the character of the individual.  Some sweet.  Some self critical.  Some introspective.  But did not see the same words that people outside the group used to describe them.

 Back in 2016 during the US Presidential race, then candidate Trump began to use words to describe groups of people that were inflammatory.  I began to see it become more common for people to use a word to describe someone that contained a lot of assumed subtext.  For example, a “Conservative” was assumed to be a religious, gun-toting, pro-life, racist.  A “Liberal” was a atheist, gun-control, pro-choice socialist who wanted

 But people are more complicated than that.  And those easy labels were normally not accurate.  People could not see themselves in those descriptions.  Sure.  Some of it may be true.  But seldom did that label fit the person.