Shaping public and professional understandings of law through fine art

Carey Young鈥檚 work gives fresh insights into the workings of the legal profession, enabling critique and understanding of law and legal methods for gallery visitors and art world professionals.

28 April 2022

Increasing conversation around immigration 听

Carey Young鈥檚 (果冻影院 Slade School of Fine Art) text installation 鈥楧eclared Void II鈥� (2013) was exhibited in the Walker Art Center (Minneapolis, Minnesota) as part of the exhibition 鈥業 Am You, You Are Too鈥�, from 7 September 2017-1 March 2020, seen by 309,965 people.

It inspired, and was the location of an innovative public events programme at the Walker, 鈥楥itizenship Series: Filling the Void鈥�, which aimed to engage artists and audiences on the topic of immigration. 听
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For the Walker, 鈥業t is a conversation that needs to be presented here鈥� given that Minnesota has the highest number of refugees per capita in the USA, including the largest Somali diaspora outside of East Africa.

In total, 400 people attended and 15 artists participated in four events. One participating artist, Peng Wu, sought to 鈥榙emonstrate love and unity across the borderline鈥� by having non-US citizens stand outside Ms Young鈥檚 artwork and US citizens inside it, hugging.

Wu said听these participants 鈥榗ollectively confronted and will continuously confront the power of the dividing borderline with our love and relationships鈥�. 听

A female perspective on law 听

Ms Young鈥檚 video installation 鈥楶alais de Justice鈥� (2017), which evokes a court or legal system run by women, was seen by 57,000 visitors to her exhibition at the Dallas Museum of Art, 42,763 visitors to her exhibition at Towner Art Gallery, Eastbourne, and 686 visitors to La Loge, Brussels. 听
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It was screened for two groups of legal professionals, once at La Loge and once at The Hague (February 2020), and was the subject of a series of papers in the journal 鈥楲aw and Humanities鈥�.

鈥楶alais de Justice鈥� enabled legal professionals to view their profession from new perspectives. Annick Mottet, the lawyer who advised Ms Young during the making of Palais de Justice, described the impacts on her professional practice: 鈥淧alais de Justice has made me, and other law professionals, see the courtroom differently. It has made me notice the things beside my work as a professional lawyer. I鈥檓 not just focusing on my paper and pencil 鈥� it鈥檚 opened my eyes to the environment around me.鈥澨�
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Annick Mottet organised two screenings of Palais de Justice in Brussels in 2019. At Centre Pompidou Brussels, on International Women鈥檚 Day, Ms Young gave an invitation-only talk and screening of Palais de Justice for 58 people: clients of Lydian (Mottet鈥檚 law firm) and several senior judges, including one from Belgium鈥檚 Supreme Court.

At La Loge, during Ms Young鈥檚 solo show there, Lydian sponsored a talk by her about Palais de Justice, attended by about 50 legal professionals including the chiefs of the French- and Dutch-speaking Bars. 听

Research synopsis

Shaping public and professional understandings of law through fine art practice

Carey Young鈥檚 works Declared Void II (2013) and Palais de Justice (2017) give fresh insights into the workings of legal contracts, immigration and citizenship law, law鈥檚 patriarchal structures, jurisprudence, the aesthetics of law and related discourses. Informed by collaboration with judges, lawyers, and academics, these artworks enabled critique and understanding of law, jurisprudence and legal methods for gallery visitors, art world professionals, e.g. curators, and museum staff. Declared Void II stimulated and shaped conversations about citizenship and immigration through an events programme at Walker Art Center (Minneapolis). Screening Palais de Justice to legal professionals in Belgium and Holland (2019-20) informed and changed the ways that judges and lawyers thought about their practice and the systems within which they work.

Image听

Image credit: Palais de Justice, Carey Young, 2017

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