The American identity is a what Americans revolve around. Image and identity are constantly brought up in casual conversations and everyday life. The word construct means to build or erect, which insinuates that something is "done" once you finish constructing it. However, when you construct an identity, it is a never-ending project. We constantly construct our own identities through feelings, experiences, etc. and as those factors change, so do we. Many artist choose to show their passion for fighting issues like patriarchy, racism, classism, power, manners and of course identity through their artwork. Artist Fahamu Pecou, an interdisciplinary artist who made a self portrait entitled, "Rock. Well: Radiant, Pop, Champ, 2010" challenging his self identity. Inside of the portrait is him looking in the mirror while painting himself on a canvas with Muhammed Ali, Jean-Michel Basquiat and Andy Warhol pictures in the corner of the canvas. The theme that is pointed out in this work is clearly identity and power. According to John Berger, author of book, "Ways of Seeing", "To colonize a land it was necessary to convert its people to Christianity and accounting, and this to prove to them that European civilization was the most advanced in the world. Its art included" (Berger 95). Though Pecou may use his art as a way to express himself freely, when it comes to a black man doing artwork, it has always been about power. When African people were first brought over to America and enslaved, they were basically told to wipe out any idea of what they had been accustomed to and jump on board with the "more advanced" way of art. And as Pecou shows readers, they did.
The spectacle according to "An Illustrated Guide to Guy Debord’s " by Tiernan Morgan & Lauren Purje, is defined as media instead of what it really is according to Guy Debord. They write, "Rather than talk of the spectacle, people often prefer to use the term ‘media,’” he writes, “and by this they mean to describe a mere instrument, a kind of public service" (Morgan & Purje 1). Instead of talking about what the spectacle actually is, its talked about as propaganda and used as a distraction. The spectacle is really the memorable events but it depends on the image one creates. No one person can have the same spectacle. For example, artist Jeffrey Gibson who has a beaded piece of artwork known as "Land, Spirit Power", shows his spectacle through his art. This specific artwork is contradicting the Native American view by putting power on it along with other words associated with the Native American culture. The word power is usually not associated with Native Americans however Gibson is taking that back. He makes a "traditional" indigenous craft.
The next artist has a grasp on the issue of patriarchy and race. Willie Cole is a Newark, New Jersey Native who grew up in ironbound which holds significance because in most of his works, he has iron prints on them. In a specific work of his known as the "Silex Man, Ritual", a man is covered in iron burns all over his entire body with an iron plate covering his eyes, head, and genitals. Besides this artwork just being a naked black man with burns the first part the audience sees is a black man though the image is in black and white. A black man will always be seen as black before you see the burns, or that the man is naked, he is black and that trumps all of the other things one sees. I believe that is one of the aspects Cole is trying to get the audience to notice. After we notice that the image is of a black male, we also see that he is naked. The black male body has been sexualized for centuries especially in America. I believe that Cole is trying to make a point that the viewers don't have a very large sense of empathy when the man is naked. Joanne Finkelstein, author of "The Art of Self Invention: Image and Identity in Popular Visual Culture" writes, "Fashion products and images deliberately manipulate the gaze to stimulate the pleasure of looking and infuse goods with a sexual charge" (Finkelstein 214). She is pointing out that because the media controls what we see most of the time, they try to use the male body as propaganda.
This next piece by Deanan Lawson entitled, "Wanda and Daughters" really resinated with me because it reminded me so much of my family dynamic. My mother is a single mother and everywhere we went, we would be known as Tahirah (my mothers name) and the girls (I have an older sister). Lawson captures a beautiful black mother with her two adolescent daughters with beads in their hair. Many may not notice the beads in the image but those are the first thing that stood out to me. Hair is such an important part of the experience of a black little girl, but that is not the only thing Lawson is trying to point out. Similar to Cole, she also points out race. She writes, "They [African Americans] are displaced kings and queens of the diaspora". This is completely true speaking as an African American woman and the fact that a viewer was able to capture this through an image speaks volumes. Also, one may get the impression that the trio in the picture is always a trio and that there is no male present in their everyday lives. bell hooks author of, "The Will to Change" writes, "The contemporary presence of female-headed households has led many people to assume that children in these households are not learning patriarchal values because no male is present... Yet many female-headed households endorse and promote patriarchal thinking with far greater passion than two-parent households" (hooks 23). hooks is explaining to readers that though there is a lack of a male presence that does not mean that the lack of male ideals are gone. Speaking from experience I can agree with her thinking. Single mothers feel the need to promote patriarchy because they don't have that balance in their household that a man actually fills when it comes to children. Also, often they upkeep the patriarchy ideals because they do not want their children to end up in the same position they're in and may think that it would be solved if they "have a man". That does not negate that they want their children to be independent.
This last piece of art is is by contemporary artist Whitfield Lovell. His piece titled, "Trap" features a black boy printed onto a piece of square wood with iron bits hanging from it attached to chains. The piece from the naked eye already looks complex, but once a viewer looks deeper into the art, they'll notice that the picture of the black boy is actually from an anonymous photograph from 1905. Though the picture was taken in 1905, this artwork bu Lovell was created in 2001, and I believe that Lovell is trying to capture the relevancy of slavery. The iron bit was used on slaves by their slave masters to stop the slaves from speaking their native language. As soon as the slaves tried to open their mouths with it on, the bit would cut their tongue because of the spikes it had inside. I think figuratively Lovell is trying to point out that though black people don't have to wear an iron bit to forget their native tongue, we are still silenced in other ways today.
No comments:
Post a Comment