To correct the wrongs of the past, we do better by listening and learning from those history has left behind and excluded by raising the voices of women and other genders, people of color, LGBTQI people, people with low income, children, the homeless, people of intersecting identities, and countless others. Systematically however, these hegemonies have set up tables where marginalized people aren’t allowed to sit at, and it's those who make the sacrifices to pull up a seat to that table so that others can have a chance to as well.
All of our readings showcase the people who have historically done this, from the examples of artists in our textbook “Art in Activism” to our readings from primarily black women activists from Bell Hooks to Kimberly Drew. Bell Hooks, a black woman who grew up during the civil rights movement in the south, asks us to question the patriarchy we find ourselves in today. In order to fully understand it, we need to recognize the ways that it hurts everyone even including the people it’s trying to uphold. She discusses her brother, “to indoctrinate boys into the rules of patriarchy, we force them to feel pain and to deny their feelings.” (Hooks-22). In many ways, the harm that is caused to one another, in the effort to protect the few, only causes that pain to trickle down into society in other ways. Art enters the conversation because it strives to reflect the state of the world and mind of the artist creating it. But, how can the world be accurately represented when most aren’t even allowed to represent it?
Kimberly Drew a young black queer female art historian, curator and activist. Her readings offer insight into her experience studying art and art history as a person of color and the systematic exclusion she faced and challenged. In her writings, she described first getting into art because of the artists she related to and the work they created. However, upon entering the field she realized that the vast majority of research, conservation, and exhibition was not on the works of people of color or women or anyone who was not overwhelmingly white and male. “There have been black people since the beginning of time, but I was not seeing any of their art in any classes.” (Drew-20) This is a sentiment that everyone not white, male, straight, able-bodied or more have come across at some point or another. In this case, however, Drew alchemizes her emotions into a blog that seeks to correct the wrongs for the black artists she finds, studies and regards. She challenged the ignorance of the art world with her knowledge of African American history and used the tools she was surrounded with to take her further such as technology to not only educate herself more on black artists but to now educate others.
I think in many ways, this parallels the art seen in the exhibition The Universe of Ben Jones. As Dr. Jones grapples with his own identity as an African American, the erasure of black art and history of the past and even the present, and the future we head towards. We are taken back to the past with his 1970 mixed media piece Benin Images. Jones pays homage to the Benin Empire in this piece, displaying depictions of the kings that ruled over that land, and the place where many traditions we see today in other kingdoms, ideas that were taken from these people and then erased as their own. Jones employs a tool, his knowledge of ancient african history, to create this piece. In it are are the sculptors from fine artisans they would commission to stand the test of time, he depicts their elaborate jewelry and headpieces that display their fabulous wealth, their incredible wisdom and ties to the gods and ancestors through the symbols on their foreheads, as well as a king’s coronation forever cemented in screen printing. We are brought to the future with his 2022 piece, Connected. Featuring acrylic and digital print on canvas, Jones depicts the modern world through his eyes. How everything we have today and have always had is a collection and intersection of history–the sacrifices of the past, of live-giving nature in the fish and flora, of mothers and creation and how these old traditions still need to be regarded as we enter an age of information and technology. He highlights our best path to the future being to go back to pre-industrial values–the old ways, where spirituality, nature, and community are our priorities and the tools we have are to be used to continue to preserve and not erase.
However, Jones and Drew have a deeper understanding of the importance of history and preservation, one that is shared by many others in our textbook as well–which is anger. The Art of Activism begins with examples of people lacking aid, resources, and more in their communities using their anger to create something as a way of making a statement and drawing attention to the issue, “...fishing in rain-filled potholes,” for example (2). I felt this quote inspired a sense of urgency for me, as I realized that activism, especially artistically, has turned rather limited at the turn of the twentieth century due to a reliance on digital art, social media, and technology. As well as how while we have made huge strides to represent all kinds of people, I fall into intersectionalities of those different people, as well as perhaps even other more niche groups that are yet to take stand as well. Drew states, “...There was a point in my career in which I feared my anger. I feared that my anger would scare others. But, looking back, I know without a doubt that I have the right to be mad on these pages and out in the world,” (Drew-59). Drew, Jones, Hooks, and countless others have been able to alchemize their anger into something that could challenge the greater system. While, also being something that can be preserved, not nothing that disappears in a fit of anger, but is unmoveable to those it seeks to reckon with.
Duncombe, Steve, and Steve Lambert. The Art of Activism: Your All-Purpose Guide to Making The Impossible Possible. London : OR Books, 2021.
Drew, Kimberly. This Is What I Know about Art. Penguin Workshop, 2020.
Hooks, Bell. Understanding Patriarchy. Publisher Not Provided, 2022.
No comments:
Post a Comment