Isabelle Armand, Levon and Jeremy at the plantation’s old office, 2013 - 2018 (detail). Courtesy of the Artist.
Galerie Marguo is pleased to present WRONGED, a group exhibition organized with Olivier Renaud-Clément, on view from 22 February to 30 March 2024. Gathering the works of Isabelle Armand, Winfred Rembert, and Yvonne Wells, WRONGED reflects on the failings of the American judicial system and the legacy of racial oppression in the carceral and penal practices of today.
Articulated across an array of media comprising carved and tooled leather, hand-stitched quilts, and analog photography, the figurative works in this exhibition testify to individual and collective histories of wrongful incarceration in the American South.
Through material and content, they insist on the bodily presence of their subjects, like retroactive writs of habeas corpus in the court of cultural memory. Habeas corpus (literally, “that you have the body”) is a constitutional right and legal recourse against unlawful and indefinite confinement. It demands that someone imprisoned be brought before a court for fair sentencing, or otherwise set free. It is easy, after all, to forget or ignore that which we can no longer see.
