Click below to hear the visual description for Raisa Kabir’s NO PROTECTION, 2020:
Below is the visual description text for Raisa Kabir’s NO PROTECTION, 2020:
Raisa Kabir, NO PROTECTION, 2020, Yarn, wool, and cotton, 6 pieces at 20 x 24 x 4 in. each
NO PROTECTION is comprised of six tufted squares of bright yarn arranged in two rows of three. The words “NO PROTECTION” are spelled out in block capitals across the squares, two letters per square: “NO” “PR” “OT” “EC” “TI” “ON.” Many threads are left hanging loose and the surfaces are irregular, making the letters a bit blurry. The squares are different color combinations: black on orange and purple, red on yellow and blue, navy on pink and blue. The soft, colorful yarn gives the piece a sense of vibrant, playfulness as it beams out from the galleries’ black walls. This playfulness is contrasted with a two-folded difficulty: first, the difficulty of translation on the part of the visitor where a slow and deliberate reading is required in order to piece the letters together two at a time into the words “NO PROTECTION;” and then, the difficulty of processing and sitting with the provocation that some people – especially disabled, queer, trans, Black, Indigenous, and people of color – exist without the basic protections that a liberal democracy ostensibly promises.