ART @ WATSON: “IN THE NAME OF FREƎDOM”
by Azadeh Ghotbi ‘91
IN THE NAME OF FREƎDOM 35 (2025)
“In the Name of FREƎDOM” is a series composed of photography, installation, and multimedia works I’ve been working on since 15 years some of which will be displayed at the Watson Institute throughout Fall 2025. It aims to confront the unsettling realities of oppression, injustice, and inequality that persist in many corners of the world. The first visual cue is in the title itself. I created a visual antonym for the word “freedom” by rendering it with interlocking E’s to symbolize entrapment, encaged rights, and restrained voices.
My very name, Azadeh, means "free-spirited" in Persian, the language of a country I fled from at an early age. Keenly aware of the erosion of freedom around the world since my IR days at Brown, I’ve created a body of work with a deep sense of social responsibility. This series invites viewers to move beyond passive observation and engage with the emotional and political weight of those silenced, displaced, or marginalized in the name of a higher power.
“In the Name of FREƎDOM” is a call to consciousness. It confronts the systems and structures that deny basic freedoms, asking viewers to reflect on their roles in the global struggle for justice. How much freedom is there really around the world? Who is it limited to? Is the country or group I’m affiliated with somehow complicit in any way? The series aims to break through apathy, challenge the viewer not only to witness, but to reflect, to feel empathy, and to hopefully act. It seeks to offer a visual platform for reimagining a world where freedom is not the privilege of a few, but a true universal right for all.
IN THE NAME OF FREƎDOM 15 (left) and 18 (right), 2011
IN THE NAME OF FREƎDOM 14 (2010)
IN THE NAME OF FREƎDOM 10 to 13 (2010 - 25)
Notes on the visual elements used to compose these four collage-based works:
IN THE NAME OF FREƎDOM 11: I used English as a universal language of sorts to create a sign representing all that needs to STOP around the world. The letters are made up of photos representing dictatorships (i.e. Kim Jong Un, Mugabe, Omar al-Bashir, ayatollah Khamenei, etc.), various repressive security forces (i.e. Myanmar military, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, etc.) along with pictures of civilian victims (i.e. Afghan women, Palestinian in occupied territory, women burnt by acid attacks, Sudanese rape victim, etc.) as well as signs of bigotry.
IN THE NAME OF FREƎDOM 10: This Persian stop sign is mostly made up of imagery from the Green Movement that started following the rigged elections of June 2009 in Iran. Neda Agha-Soltan was killed during the demonstrations that were violently repressed, and she soon became the iconic image of the movement. It foreshadowed the Woman Life Freedom movement that took place a decade later.
IN THE NAME OF FREƎDOM 12: The Chinese stop sign features numerous signs of censorship and repression. It also includes two distinct dissidents, the artist Ai Wei Wei who suffered from brain hemorrhage at the hands of Chinese police), and the imprisoned human right activist Liu Xiaobo whose seat was symbolically left empty at the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony in Norway.
IN THE NAME OF FREƎDOM 13: I concocted a dual Arab-Israeli stop sign using the word “stop” in Arabic, the language spoken by Palestinians, sitting under the traffic sign used in Israel which appears as a raised hand. Both are in turn are filled with imagery of key players in the conflict between these two people from Meir Kahane, Yahya Sinwar, victimized Palestinian children, Daniella Weiss, targeted Palestinian press, settlers, Hamas and Islamic Jihad fighters, even destroyed Palestinian olive trees. An Israeli bus long destroyed in by a Palestinian suicide bomber sits next to a Palestinian ambulance more recently destroyed by the IDF. You will also find images of the separation wall, Israeli demolition of homes in the West Bank, settlements on occupied territory as well as posters of Israeli hostages abducted on October 7th, 2023.