Settle for Nothing Less

About

‘[An] important way in which the erotic connection functions for me is the open and fearless underlining of my capacity for joy… whether it is dancing, building a bookcase, writing a poem, making love or examining an idea. That self-connection shared is a measure of the joy that I know myself capable of feeling. And that deep and irreplaceable knowledge of my capacity for joy comes to demand from all my life, that it be lived within the knowledge that such satisfaction is possible.’ - Audre Lorde

In Lorde’s 1978 text Uses of the Erotic: The Erotics as Power she defines our experience of enjoyment as a powerful tool to battle a growing sense of disenfranchisement felt living under patriarchal and neoliberal systems of control. Still relevant today, the exhibition Settle for Nothing Less hopes to explore Lorde’s ideas and find new grounds for resistance based upon what brings us joy - be it through art making, reflection, embodied actions or having shared experiences with others.