Identity Construction

      From various perspectives, while building our personality, we take pieces from various individuals throughout our life. We discover qualities that we find alluring. The manner in which society encompasses us, impacts the manner in which we decide to introduce ourselves. At last, we look for delight and fascination. Finkelstein said, “To participate in society we cultivate a public persona, a manner of being in the world that works to sustain our engagements with others.” (Finkelstein). With regards to the identity of self, there are two significant things that ring a bell. One is how you see yourself and the second is how you need the world to see you. Identity is made through time and articulation. It requires some investment to make sense of who an individual needs to recognize as and time to figure out how to completely express their personality or to show the world who they are with certainty. Personality is an adventure of making sense of what your identity is and forming yourself into who you need to turn into. The spectacle is the result of capitalism since we are continually expending new items and taking a stab at the most recent trends. The spectacle is something that everyone is chasing to achieve which constructs their identity. 

            Some of the major themes I noticed in each art piece is that it consisted of the construction of personal identity, power, culture and, race. The idea/topic of construction of gender and gender issues is explored in these five pieces of artwork I chose at the Montclair exhibition. With each piece of work i'll be presenting, a story was being told to convey an idea that allowed us to think deeper than the surfaces presented. The art we saw were the artists own perspective on all of these issues we have in society today and back in the day as well. 

          This piece by Joyce J. Scott as Harriet Tubman as Buddha is so creative. I love that this figure combines to personas and that she incorporates her mothers necklace. This piece signifies "strength and desire for justice"indeed. She used the power of buddha and related it back to her roots and African American history. The overall recurring theme is the reclamation of black power and presenting it through art. The fact she put Harriet Tubman and related it to Buddha shows a woman of religious aspect that gives strength to the piece and overall image of black woman. 

          

This next piece of artwork by Alice Neel called Isabel Bishop is one that forces 

you to find the deeper meaning. This painting of a portrait of an old lady is more than what meets the eye. What we see is an old lady just resting on a couch and smirking. But what this portrait really depicts is Isabel in a honest way. Neel emphasizes her wrinkles especially around her eyes, neck and mainly hands. The hands on her really show how age she can be and the veins really make it feel realistic. This piece is supposed to show a dignified elderly woman who's an artist, still in command of her most valuable tools that being her hands, keen mind and her eyes. I love that Neel chooses not to hide her subject’s features such as her age. By doing this she is rejecting beauty standards that society pushes on women. This is important to the theme of contraction of identity. 

This artwork by Kehinde Wiley called Matar Mbaye was one of the first ones we went over and the main one that stuck with me throughout the entire exhibit. This piece difficulties issues with race and habits. Kehinde Wiley is significantly known for utilizing African American/African guys as his subjects. He paints them articulately, a glaring difference from how dark men are spoken to in the media. His subject, Matar MBaye, is highlighted holding his head high while being encompassed naturally. He portrays dark as excellent, paying little mind to how the media delineates us. He offers capacity to the individuals by painting them and introducing them in historical centers where dark isn't customarily seen as workmanship, in this manner giving African Americans/Africans opportunity in the craftsmanship world. This piece is supposed to be of someone he met along his trip but people may say it's a visual representation of how he identifies himself. All the colors and certain items to construct this person's identity. 

            This piece by Ben Jones called Juxtapositions was very interesting. I loved that it was more than one painting in one. This work reflects the theme African American spirituality and heritage. The first panel addresses the issue with power, the third a portrait of the artist’s face, the fourth a triangle representing the hierarchy, and the second an abstract piece. This artwork allows us to address power and how we choose express that power. These paintings allowed for me to construct my own deeper meaning for sure. Constructing our own idea of hierarchy, power and race is one element we get from this. 

The third exhibit I will discuss is Lorna Simpson’s Coiffure, 1991. The piece has a concepts of the construction of identity. Our hair represents more than something sitting on top of our head. It displays culture, strength, life, and love. The braiding of our hair has even more significance because it is a direct representation of our roots and tradition's within our culture. Something that's very interesting I found out after seeing this piece is slaves used braids to create maps to lead to freedom. Rice was also hidden within the braids of some slaves for food on their journey to freedom. As it shows, the exhibit shows three images of her subjects from a bird’s eye view of a head, inside a mask, and behind. It can be interpreted that Simpson is using an unconventional way to showcase her roots and how she identifies with them. She uses their hair to explore self identification especially for African American woman. This different perspective allows for the viewer to imagine a deeper meaning.