ENOUGH Considered

Anne Wolf’s ENOUGH Considered is a project that explores the multiple ways we define and embody ENOUGH. Through a series of artistic collaborations, Wolf invites deep reflection into our perceptions of wholeness, abundance, boundaries and sufficiency. 

As a point of departure, Wolf presents her series of hand stitched alphabet samplers through which a cryptic system of “speaking” emerges. In these samplers, the word ENOUGH at first appears as a visual whisper buried within the cross-stitched alphabet. Gradually, it grows into a louder and more expansive affirmation as the series evolves. 

Wolf’s samplers are accompanied by a collection of striking yet intimate photographs, each conveying a personal embodied gesture of ENOUGH.  Created in collaboration with photographer Lisa Levine, these portraits are the result of a process in which participants reflected on and wrote their thoughts about ENOUGH then chose how to locate and mark it  directly on their body. These portraits reveal the body as a site that holds stories which have been unspoken, ignored, unaddressed, unconsidered. This somatic exploration becomes a means of healing an old wound or violation, a message of boundaries and protection or a means of sanctifying one’s own sense of abundance. 

In a gallery mural titled ENOUGH EVERYONE TOGETHER/ !BASTA! TODOS JUNTOS, designer Ana Llorente brings together written pieces from the portrait sessions highlighting the depth and breadth of personal experiences, perspectives, understandings and assertions of ENOUGH. 

As a participatory project, gallery visitors will find multiple opportunities to contribute to ENOUGH Considered. Letterpress cards created by The Aesthetic Union will be available as tactile objects to inscribe thoughts, feelings or stories about ENOUGH. A large-scale banner will offer an opportunity to collectively stitch ENOUGH in many languages spoken in our community; the banner becomes a declaration with each stitch manifesting what Audre Lorde referred to as “…the transformation of silence into language and action.”*

In written words, individual and collective samplers and photographic portraits, ENOUGH can become embodied and encrypted, benign or rebellious, leaving open-ended questions about language, privilege and power. 

*Audre Lorde, Dream of Europe: Selected Seminars and Interviews: 1984-1992, p40

Top image: Anne Wolf, ENOUGH if we Share, 2020, Hand stitched cotton on linen