The two nearly identical paintings—one featuring brown faces and the other white faces, both surrounded by the phrase “say less”—play with language, tone, and the weight of communication depending on who is speaking. The phrase, “say less” operates in two distinct ways: as a directive – a demand to be quiet, to withhold, to not speak too much—often something imposed on marginalized people, whose voices are policed, dismissed, or seen as “too much”; and as a pop culture idiom – a signal of immediate action, meaning I get it, no need to explain, I’m already moving on this.

The tension between these meanings is at the heart of this work. Who is expected to be quiet, and who is expected to take action? Who is silenced, and who is trusted to move with unspoken understanding? The orange background, a color often associated with urgency, caution, or even alarm, reinforces the tension—suggesting that language, even when minimal, carries weight, intention, and power depending on who is saying it and who is hearing it.

The work also taps into the ways language shifts over time, especially in digital spaces. “Say less” as a phrase evolved from a dismissive directive to a confident affirmation, much like how many words and phrases gain new cultural currency in Black vernacular before being absorbed into the mainstream. The paintings question how language is policed differently based on race. Black people often create linguistic trends, but when these words cross over, they can lose their original intent or be used in ways that flatten or erase their nuance. They also ask who gets to speak freely and who doesn’t? The paintings force viewers to confront whether “say less” feels like a command or an assurance depending on who is saying it and who it is directed at.

By presenting two identical compositions but changing the race of the faces, the paintings highlight how the same language can have vastly different implications depending on the identity of the speaker and the cultural context in which it’s used. Words are constantly reshaped, repurposed, and reinterpreted, sometimes as a means of empowerment and other times as a tool of suppression. The paintings challenge the viewer to think about who gets to claim language and who has the power to redefine words? Who is told to be quiet, and who is given the space to act without explanation? When language shifts, who benefits from those changes and who loses meaning in the process?