Post 2

AM AND AW

Ana Mendieta who was a Cuban American artist, devoted herself to art in good earnest. Most of her work inspired by the early stage of her childhood, when she has to separate from her family with her sister for the sake of avoiding the chaos caused by war. However, Ana Mendieta was at such a young age, and she felt like an uprooted seedling from her “family tree”, also the obstacle of language and unfamiliar environment torture Mendieta throughout that period of time. However, these experiences become an essential part of Ana Mendieta’s work in the future. Later on, Ana Mendieta has discovered the best way to express her emotion through her artwork, which is back to nature and discovering the origin of life by communicating directly to nature mother. In accordance with Joanne Finkelstein “The body is the first visible sign we use to make judgments of one another. Its size and shape, smell and feel are instructive”. One theme that Ana Mendieta deployed is “Earth body art”(Finkelstein). Ana Mendieta combined herself with the object of the picture that she constructed, with nature more precisely, and the utilization of her own physical body allows the viewer feel more connected as saying how much she eager to bond back to her family just like how well she attempts to merge into nature. Additionally, Ana Mendieta was naked in most of her work, because that vision creates in that way was able to convey more powerful visual effects. This is part of the reason why Ana Mendieta decided to use herself as a reference rather than a model. The purely naked body symbolizes the immature uterus of mother nature, and it will be extremely painful to split up her body with nature, just like how she got separated from her family by compulsory. Furthermore, employing the naked body also permit the audience to truly understand the aspiration of leaving her own imprint of the mother nature. As claimed by John Berger “To be on display is to have the surface of one’s own skin, the hairs of one’s own body, turned into a disguise which, in that situation, can never be discarded”(Berger). The displaced of life in her early stage of life certainly result in a permanent psychic trauma to her. The work of exhibiting the connection with the works of god manifest the bond that Ana Mendieta attempt to rebuild with the universe, identical to the searching for the origin of maternal love. This applies to what Berger has stated, how one’s own body should never be discarded, just like the relation between her and mother nature, therefore Mendieta created such artwork in order to sympathize with those who had a similar experience. Moreover, the land is eternal, thus the employment of nature represents that she doesn’t have to worried about the loss of her family, the loss of love. Nevertheless, Ana Mendieta also makes use of blood in her work, the operation of blood is not only for the purpose of creating a shocking visual experience, but to bring a profound consideration to the audience by the mix of blood and the incident itself. Just like one of her work “Untitled (Rape Scene), in which, naked with her hands and feet bound and tied to one another, she struggled on the floor in a series of poses”(TATE). This is more like a response to the brutal rape and murder incident as the identity of feminist, she recreated the scene for the sake of reminding the audiences what happened at that time, and how cruel the criminal was. Overall, it may be said Ana Mendieta is a Cuban artist who pushes the boundary of art and conveys her feeling in her own unique way.

Andy Warhol, an American artist and also a pusher of Pop arts. Warhol is those kind of person who likes to break through the boundaries and innovation. A kid who born in the working class, Warhol grew a significant interest on money throughout his entire life, and he realized the opportunity of making money from arts. Since one of his favorite subjects is money, therefore the money is one of the theme of his artworks. Like “The dollar sign”, he combined his interest in art and the interest of money, thus “The dollar sign” comes out. Furthermore, Warhol also has an interest in collecting autographs from magazine, this actually was a path that Warhol used to escape from the ordinary working class. As a consequence, Marilyn Monroe 1962 became one of his iconic works, and his work reflects his personal interest, like a mirror of Andy Warhol. Based on Joanne Finkelstein, “ We are in an era where impressions matter, and where reputation is both an assent and a liability”(Finkelstein). Andy Warhol will be the people who sympathize with what Finkelstein stated, apply to what Andy Warhol claimed, “People want to see you. Your looks are responsible for a certain part of your fame, they feed the imagination.”(Warhol).He certainly understood the important impact of celebrities, and how they make money by the image of themselves, thus this became an inspiration of his “self-portrait with Fright wing”, in which he successfully design an influential public figure for himself. Then, he became a master of portraying himself as his become more and more famous. According to Finkelstein, “Fashion provides a short cut by which we adopt an identity and join a subculture that in turn can variously insulate us from others or promote our social stakes”( Finkelstein). The work of Andy Warhol just fully support what Finkelstein has declared, in Warhol work “Tongue in Ear”, he deployed art as a way to explore his identity -which is homosexual. And people can perceive the image of the fascination of MEN in his work, which makes him connect with what Finkelstein has said. Finally, Warhol also keens on using a symbol to reflect modern life, like the gun and the soup box, many of his works convey information about the emptiness of modern life. Not only symbol, but Warhol also good at utilizing colors to tell something about his feeling, like the colorful guns tell people that death will still be there even with colorful life, and the series with Fright Wig exhibits his understanding of the impact of an influential figure.

Reference

1. Finkelstein, J. (2007). The art of self-invention: image and identity in popular visual culture. London: Tauris.

2. Tate. (1973, January 1). 'Untitled (Rape Scene)', Ana Mendieta, 1973. Retrieved from https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/mendieta-untitled-rape-scene-t13355.

3. Tate. (n.d.). What Was Andy Warhol Thinking? – Look Closer. Retrieved from https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/andy-warhol-2121/what-was-andy-warhol-thinking.

4. Berger, J. (2008). Ways of seeing. London: British Broadcasting Corporation.