Games on Window Sills: The Wisdom Attempting on Innocence

Label

Set in a dark background, this photograph features three people playing with bubbles at a windowsill. They are not dressed in contemporary clothing. As is typical of his practice, Rauf Mamedov hired actors with Down syndrome to pose for this photograph. Individuals with Down syndrome have recently engaged in campaigns to increase visibility around the condition. These movements are part of a history of advocacy that helped end the practice of institutionalization. Nonetheless, people with Down syndrome are often still viewed as childlike, and some continue to question their ability to make difficult personal decisions. How might this work play into stereotypes about people with Down syndrome? In what ways does it break those stereotypes?

From the 2021 exhibition A Space for Dialogue 103, Images of Disability, curated by Maeve McBride '20, Conroy Intern

Exhibition History

A Space for Dialogue, Images of Disability, Maeve McBride, Dartmouth Class of 2020, Conroy Intern, Alvin P. Gutman Gallery, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, October 9–December 19, 2021.

Provenance

Anonymous gift; given to present collection, 2018.

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Subjects