By Christina Philippides, news correspondent
The newest display in Northeastern’s Gallery 360, titled “Women’s Rights are Human Rights: International Posters on Gender-based Inequality, Violence and Discrimination,” combines graphic design and storytelling to promote women’s rights and challenge gender stereotypes.
Domestic violence, unequal pay, inequality, discrimination and voting rights are among these important aspects. Laurel Parker, a freshman graphic design major, hopes that these posters will continue to influence the world even when they’re taken down from Gallery 360.
“I think the messages the posters call attention to are important and all Northeastern students must understand them,” Parker said.
The exhibition was organized and curated by Elizabeth Resnick, professor of graphic design at the Massachusetts College of Art and Design. Resnick has dedicated a large sum of her time to championing social issues through posters. She organized six large-scale comprehensive design exhibitions, with the last three being a triad of socio-political poster designs. The exhibition consists of 44 posters and features work from domestic and international artists and designers.
Juwon Lee, a freshman graphic design major, said that graphic design makes the exhibition more personal and effective.
“Mapping out narratives via images allows viewers to better understand and conceptualize the degree of emotion rooted in each story,” Lee said. “This is where classic literature falls short – you can’t truly understand how problematic a situation in a novel is without actually seeing a photo of it yourself.”
Most of the posters, as Lee points out, visualize the problems embedded in societies across the world, such as violence, discrimination and underrepresentation of women and other minorities.
Although the main objective of the posters is to explore the gender discrimination that women from around the globe face, those involved hope it compels viewers to understand and acknowledge the importance of protecting everyone’s human rights.
“In collecting these materials, my thrust was to touch upon the most important – in my opinion – aspects of this discrimination and violence that many women face on a daily basis,” Resnick stated in an interview for Print Magazine.
Lining the hallway outside Gallery 360 is the Mandela Post Project, another poster exhibition that is supposed to work in concert with the “Women’s Rights are Human Rights” exhibition. Both of these exhibitions tackle political issues on a global scale.
“A lot of the issues brought up are already familiar to many people, but a lot are also completely unfamiliar, so it’s important to be able to educate people,” Parker said. “By doing this in an engaging way, it helps spread the word.”
The exhibition will remain on display through April 17. The opening reception will take place tonight from 4-6pm.
