Rock My Soul is an art exhibition that took its name from Bell Hooks 2003 book, where she inspects the position of black self-esteem in empowering people both in politics and in culture. Hooks speaks about the dangers of having no self-esteem, she says everyone loses their sense of meaning, purpose and power (GalleriesNow.net, 2020). The exhibition is a true testament to these exact thoughts, walking through I could tell it was set out to make people feel empowered and especially those people of colour. Its aim was to reflect on how the artists used their artwork to respond to conversations around self-representation in contemporary art, there was a strong sense of urgency within the exhibition, an urgency to evoke certain feelings from the audience and this is something that I want to include in my own final piece of work. The artwork aimed and succeeded in my opinion to capture the different dimensions of art and addressed social, political and cultural issues within the black community, and challenged stereotypes. One piece that stood out completely was an image of a black family, of all shades, sitting down at a dinner table all socialising and watching the news. It opened a door to the fact that there are many different shades of brown in one family and there was a sense of empowerment that came from this particular image.
