No Weak and Ordinary Voice :: Britt Ransom

No Weak and Ordinary Voice links speeches by Reverdy C. Ransom, a pivotal civil rights activist and founding member of the Niagara Movement, to sites across America through sculptural forms. This exhibition presents the metaphorical act of putting a flower in the barrel of the continued assault on equal rights. By connecting plants to historical locations of activism and employing flowers as symbols of both celebration and mourning, this work is a signifier of an ongoing resistance and bridges historical struggles with those of the present.

Britt Ransom (she/her) is an artist based between New Orleans, Louisiana and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Ransom is currently an Associate Professor of Art in Sculpture, Installation, and Site work at Carnegie Mellon University. Her practice and teaching explore conflicts within our shared climate through digital fabrication and installation processes. As a half black queer artist, her work has recently shifted into focusing on restoring the Tawawa Chimney Corner House, a national historic site for civil rights activism, and former home of her great-great grandparents who were founding members of the Niagara Movement. Ransom is part of the New Media Caucus Board of Directors, is a former chair of the SIGGRAPH Art Gallery and Studio, and former ZERO1 American Arts Incubator lead artist.

Louisiana Solo Show 

Annually, Antenna Collective orchestrates the ‘Louisiana Call for Exhibitions’, which offers Louisiana artists the opportunity to have their artwork evaluated by a distinguished guest juror, who meticulously selects exhibiting artists from submissions sent in response to an open call for entries. This rigorous selection process yields two exhibitions annually, a Louisiana solo exhibition and Louisiana group exhibition. Both serve as prominent platforms for showcasing artists from the Gulf South region. Britt is the recipient of the solo exhibition for 2023 which was selected by Betsy Lohrer Hall.

“Simplicity is what stands out among the selected artists—simplicity in the sense that each artists’ work has a quality that is clarified, distilled, nuanced. It’s a powerful simplicity. Each artist finds a way to address truths directly… and with restraint. 

Britt Ransom closely studies our human impacts on the landscape. The work alludes to large-scale environmental distress while incorporating small and subtle phenomena from our daily lives: the buzz of cicadas, the beautiful ravages of bark beetles. The artist uses technology to create the forms, offering an unsettling oscillation between pure nature and fabricated simulation. Closeness and distance coexist. 

In the project Ransom has proposed for Antenna the artist will examine her familial history and its links to the Civil Rights movement. Through the project, she will examine the systems of oppression that perpetuate structural racism and violence. It will be an opportunity for all of us to contemplate our connections to this disturbing part of our past and our present.”

-Betsy Lohrer Hall