Freedom?

In the triptych series Freedom? by Blackson Afonso, the idea of freedom is called into question - deconstructed, interrogated, dismantled piece by piece like an unfinished puzzle. At first glance, the word “free” is inscribed across the chests of the figures, all kneeling, enveloped in intense tones of blue, green, and yellow. Yet the promise of that “freedom” is immediately suspended by the phrases written across their bodies and by a symbolic gesture of entrapment - each figure holds a green plastic chair over their head, transformed into an oppressive frame that limits the face, like a border defining what one can or cannot be. The phrases - “The state of not being imprisoned or enslaved,” “There’s something about freedom nowadays that doesn’t feel right,” “The power or right to act, speak, or think as one wants” - are classical definitions of freedom. But here, they ring ironically hollow, like slogans that can no longer sustain the weight of their own meaning. The fragmented visual composition, filled with puzzle pieces, suggests a freedom that is incomplete, unassembled, lost in a sea of inconclusive promises. Blackson Afonso crafts an aesthetic environment that merges political discourse with the raw visuality of the urban street. The choice of materials and colors recalls public spaces - marked by wear, by contradiction, by bold and broken signage. Freedom? is a call for vigilance, a provocative reminder that for freedom to be whole, it must be constantly questioned, built, and claimed.