Glen Hansen and Blue Ruthen have won the Visitors Choice and Virtual Choice awards, respectively for The Body Politic: Long Island Biennial 2024. More than 1,000 votes were cast in person and online. Congratulations to the artists on this achievement and thank you to all who voted. Don’t miss the last chance to see The Body Politic open through January 18, 2024.
Virtual Visitors Choice Award
Blue Ruthen (Plainview), For Your Own Good, 2023, Watercolor, colored pencil and gouache on paper. Lent by the artist.
This work is part of a series exploring trauma, specifically psychiatric institutions where trauma is meant to be treated but is often created instead. I translated memories from my personal experiences with these institutions into diaristic pieces that portray the dissociation and pain the psychiatric system perpetuates. Vibrant jewel tones reflect the disorientation and surreal feeling that comes with being heavily medicated in an unfamiliar, unsafe environment and provide an entry point to these images. Personal belongings, such as shoelaces, become contraband under the guise of protection and are replaced by hospital socks, contributing to the depersonalization and forced conformity of patients.
Visitor’s Choice Award
Glen Hansen (South Jamesport), World Trade Center, 2022, Oil on panel, Lent by the Artist.
This is from a body of work entitled Architectural Wonders of the World. It is inspired by the Panorama inside the Queens Museum which was built for the 1964 World’s Fair
