Hierarchy

GearBox Gallery invites submissions to our 2021 juried exhibition, Hierarchy.

Hierarchy is a system that ranks people or things according to importance or power. (1) Social and racial hierarchies are systems of stratification based on the belief that some groups of people are superior to others based on a variety of attributes such as gender, identity, race, ethnicity, religion and social class. Movements such as Black Lives Matter and MeToo continue to draw attention to perceived racial and gender hierarchy, addressing systemic racism and gender discrimination. (2) Hierarchy may be applied to ecology and how the interaction of living things maintain a natural balance or how its imbalance may lead to the emergence of a pandemic and even global climate change. (3) Maslow's hierarchy of needs addresses psychological needs. On a personal level we generally prioritize our daily actions, relationships and decisions in some type of order or sequence, and prioritize the value of a wide array of materials and commodities based on strength, rarity or perceived desirability. (4) As artists our work reflects our values and how we respond to societal and personal systems. The work also speaks to our personal hierarchy with regard to the materials and moves that we make to best express those values and feelings.