Diany
Rodriguez
Activism
& History Writing Assignment
Professor
Cacoilo
November
21st, 2018
Racism has been an issue all around
the world. We seen it all in the media, work force, schools and/or even first-hand
experienced. In “Seeing Power” Nato Thompson stated that “If an atmosphere of
transversal mutual curiosity can be achieved, in which people are able to
express themselves-as well as appreciate each other’s expression-then magic can
happen. Without curiosity, magic dies” Page 143. Explaining how if people
actually communicate, express what they feel, making other’s understand the
importance of a situation, there can actually be a change. Society makes
believe that everyone has equal rights but in reality, they have pushed away
minorities, making them feel unwanted. In my project I want to be able to make
an online course for students to be able to understand racism and what happens
to those people who are being racially profiled. I want them to be able to
acknowledge that everyone is equal, does not matter class nor color of a
person. Everyone shall receive the same respect, as a White American does. Three
artists that I chose from the Persistence of History are Roger Shimomura, Gaku
Tsutaja and Jaune Quick-to-See Smith. Their art work has to deal with racism
and what they have dealt with in the past.
Roger Shimomura painting, print and
theater “pieces address sociopolitical issues related ethnicity. He was a
distinguished military graduate from the University of Washington. He served as
a field artillery officer with the First Cavalry Division in Korea. In this
artwork named American Guardian, shows a soldier pointing his weapon at the
little boy who will grow up to wear the same uniform. This work is one of the
incidents of racism that Shimomura experienced, while living in Kansas. As a “curator
of ethnic stereotypes, Shimomura is gleeful and sad, a poignantly moving
approach”.
This artwork shows how minorities
are being excluded. Proving that someone so innocent can be looked at as
useless, just because of their race. Not being able to live freely, can leave
you in fear, feeling worthless and depressed. Relating this to the political
and capitalist structure police brutality, being racial towards minorities, not
all but most tend to discriminate people of color. Making them feel like
criminals and not giving them their rights. This art work, by just looking at
it will catch one’s attention understanding that the problem here is racism. Relating
this to Thompson reading when he states “To put it plainly, when it is unclear
who holds the power in a room, the room becomes a space where anything is up
for a grab. When one feels free and empowered to act, one is able to change.”
In Shimomura’s art we notice that he tries to send a message about how racism
has never been an ending story.
“Gaku Tsutaja is a multimedia
artist whose work explores issues of national identity and the trauma of a
disaster. The parakeets are an invasive species in America and a metaphor for
immigration in Tsutaja’s work. Her research is influenced by living between two
cultures and translating experiences as Japanese immigrant to a generation unaware
of significant events.” This art work, the project to Dismantle the Enola Gay.
Showing reeds, branches, wire net, Spanish moss, wood, paper, clay and canvas
cloth. She tries to show with this art work how the important facts of the war
are not given, such as how many people the Enola Gay Killed. They try to hide
it with giving us information we already know.
Going into a political and
capitalist structure the “black lives matter movement”, where a police officer
shot an innocent armless African American boy. People began to protest and
speak up about being discriminated. But police officers are still right in
their system, no matter how cruel some are. Society are worried about police
officers mistreating minorities but why hasn’t the criminal justice system
helped? We hide the fact that police officers get more rights when it is crimes
relating to Trayvon Martin’s death. Going back to the artwork, this shows how
our culture is with putting things together between what is invented and what
is found. How disconnected but knowingly way society is within history.
Juane Quick-to-See Smith work explores Native American
identity and the destruction of their cultures, their oppression and
marginalization. She tries to deploy a wide range of media to address past and
present cultural appropriation. In this painting, Trade Canoe: The Dark Side
she puts a mustachioed army officer against a native warrior. The solar eclipse
focuses a rainbow beam of light on the Native American figure while the white
soldier is cast in the dark shadow. Between them there are bones and bodies of
victims of the planned genocide by the US government of native people. The canoe
is filled with decorative elements but when you look close you notices the
bones and picto-skeletons. It meant glorification of George Custer in American
history and very little truth about him and the U.S. military, the Cavalry and
the government. This is the dark side of our history as its stands today.
Custer is a symbol of all of it. This artwork was created to address the myths
of her ancestors in the context of current issues that Native Americans deal
with.
After
all, I believe these artwork relate to my project because they all some how
have to deal with racism. They send a message with their artwork of real life
problems and what they have dealt with. I believe these artist catches the
audience attention by mainly relating it to real life experience. In “The Interventionist”
Joseph Thompson stated that “However, political artists are
constantly concerned with, to use De Certeau’s term, strategies. They want
socially beneficial results. Frustrated with political irrelevance, many
interventionists have catered their projects to fit in numerous spheres and to
resonate across a wide-range of audiences. They operate in many different
social games from the “art world” to the “activist” world” This relates to the
art work because they try to send social beneficial results. They are
frustrated with how the real policital world is. Throughout these artworks you
are able to learn about the artist personal feelings and life.
Three other art works that caught my attention
in the art gallery
STACEY RENNE MORRISON
She
is an explorer of the past. She recreates in her photographs the lives of women
who died long ago. In her photographs she tends to develop a “bond with her alter
ego, who she sees as a akin to a spiritual sister.”
JOSHUA REIMA
“G. Washington implores
viewers to consider how notions of heroism, celebrity, and rebellion have
shaped the popular culture of two distinct epochs in American history: the
period of the Revolutionary War and the Hip-Hop era. Reima draws upon the
stylistic cues of contemporary Bling-Bling – a visually overt system of status
display – while also placing this culture in dialogue with popular
representations of this nation’s forefathers.”
Debra
Priestly
Debra Priestly is a visual artist exploring themes of memory,
ancestry, history and cultural preservation
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