For her exhibit “As I Sit Waiting,” conceptual artist Lydia Nobles collected video narratives of people’s experiences with abortion, a rare subject for artists. Viewers can listen to the narrative alongside the sculptures Nobles created to honor each story. The sculptures are versions of waiting room chairs at an abortion clinic. Noble notes that a patient who aborts her pregnancy sits in up to four waiting rooms before her appointment completion. The sculptures are as different as the individual stories that inspired them, reflecting both the unease of the situation as well as the resplendence of the individual in vivid floral, beaded and drapery like effects. The colors— from emerald green to violet to white tipped with gold — suggest the energy of each individual. And “the use of texture suggests passing a fetus, birth, and the magnificence of our bodies to support us in all its changes,” according to the artist.
The exhibit had a major 2022 showing at Ross-Sutton Gallery on the Bowery in New York, curated by Destinee Ross-Sutton. Nobles’ sculptures were then featured in a March 2023 show at an Idaho College within the scope of the Lewis-Clark State’s exhibition about health care. However, the small public college removed six works about abortion and birth control from the exhibit, citing a state anti-abortion law that prohibits the use of state funds to “promote abortion” and “counsel in favor of abortion,” according to a report in the New York Times.
The censorship leaves stories unheard and deprives viewers of understanding the complexity of emotions women experience and are forced to suppress when faced with an unexpected pregnancy. Nobles’ exhibit includes women forced to carry through an unwanted pregnancy, men and non-binary people. The viewer is asked to connect with the person and their story at an individual and human level, removing theoretical ideals and forcing us to see how one’s everyday life is completely altered by their choices.
Planned Parenthood of Southwest Ohio recently acquired the sculpture “Lymariz”, for their waiting room lobby at their Cincinnati location after Nobles showed her work and spoke on a panel for PP 3rd annual UNSTOPPABLE: an empowerment event series centered around education, wellness, culture, and change making, curated by Alexis Cox.
As I Sit Waiting is a fiscally sponsored project by the New York Foundation for the Arts. Select 2022 upcoming and current group shows include Lump, Border Project Space, Lyman Allyn Art Museum, Peep Space, and Conn College. The sculptures can now be viewed exclusively at https://www.artsy.net/show/ross-sutton-gallery-as-i-sit-waiting
The show was curated by 27 year old Destinee Ross-Sutton, curator, art advisor and gallerist, known for promoting especially underrepresented BIPOC and female artists. She has curated international exhibits such as the groundbreaking exhibition series “BLACK VOICES” and two years in a row the highly successful “Say it Loud” selling exhibitions benefitting the artists at Christie’s in NY, which broke major records in 2021 totaling $940k in sales.
Ross-Sutton is also empowering artists, to take control of their art by requiring purchasers to sign her eponymously named ‘Ross-Sutton agreement’, not to sell the work for at least 3 years, to give the artist first rights of refusal and share a percentage of the profit from a future sale with the artist. She has been registering the works on the blockchain via the Fine Art Ledger since 2021 for this purpose.
To see more of Lydia Noble’s artwork, please visit: https://www.lydianobles.com/
Follow Lydia Nobles @lydianobles , Destinee Ross-Sutton @desti.knee , @rosssuttongallery
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