Activism & History Writing Assignment

Anthony Gomez

Activism & History Writing Assignment

Professor Cacoilo

Modern art is not always given the same value or considered on the same spectrum with "history painting." In the Persistence of history exhibition many artist think of themselves as teaching aspects of history through their art. Creating art might seem fun and all but the real truth about it is that it's expensive. Many modern day artist that are trying to make a name for themselves often take lots of risks in order to pursue their dreams and make a living. A couple of artist that intrigued me during the exhibition tour by Dr. Yoshimoto are Debra Priestly, Gaku Tsutaja, and Roger Shimomura.

Debra Priestly's display (Mattoon 5) is very fascinating in the way she uses canning jars to preserve history. According to Dr. Yoshimoto, Debra actually created a couple of the jars seen in the image below while using pictures of her own family members. Priestly's display offers close stories about her personal and collective African American history through the metaphorical use of images kept in a bunch of canning jars. Mattoon 5 is displayed in a acrylic, photo transfer, ink, resin on wood at 80 by 24 inches. 

The sculpture The Project to Dismantle the Enola Gay by Gaku Tsutaja also caught my attention as soon as I walked into the exhibit because the sculpture had these tree branch like things sticking out with a humongous spider hanging from the bottom. I became even more fascinated once I learned the true meaning behind this fine piece of art. The Enola Gay is the Boeing B- 29 airplane that dropped the horrific atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan, in 1945. This sculpture shows the side of two worlds. When Gaku Tsutaja went to the Smithsonian museum and saw the bomber displayed she was in shock that the label didn't have much information on how many people died in Hiroshima. She was also upset that the airplane was displayed as everything but negative. Ever since her visit to the museum she was inspired to make the piece of art below in which a group of parakeets are dismantling the Enola Gay. This piece of art is very significant because it speaks out loud for a lot of people who fell victim to this tragic airplane. I can relate this to my final project this semester because even though student loans isn't as bad as the tragedies caused by the Boeing B-29 it still has an affect on people for them and future generations. Student loans debt is the worst type of debt to get yourself into. Most people don't realize this but it is almost impossible to make student debt disappear even if you go bankrupt. Student debt is a different type of debt that can pass on to others and if you miss nine payments after graduation the federal government can confiscate wages, tax refunds, and even social security checks until the loan is repaid. 

 Roger Shimomuras, The Guardian illustrates a group of images created based on his family's detention during World War II. Shimomura utilizes notes from his grandmothers diary along with his own as an inspiration. Most of Shimomuras paintings, prints, and theater pieces target sociopolitical issues based on ethnicity. The Guardian shows a soldier patrolling an interment camp, during and after World War II many Japanese American citizens lost their constitutional rights. The picture below conveys that nobody is really safe in the internment camp portrayed, not even if you're a kid riding a bike minding your own business. This picture also includes irony since it was named "American Guardian". Shimomura uses irony to hint what it felt like to be a Japanese American in an interment camp while constantly being "Guarded" by American soldiers. I can relate the art work below to my project of student loan debt because many people when they graduate college feel trapped due to all the amount of money they owe. Most people take out thousands of dollars in loans in order to attend the university of their choice and end up regretting when they don't nearly make as much money than what they took out. It almost feels like you're in a "camp" constantly being monitored and the only way of escaping this camp is by paying everything you owe back. One quote from the interventionist that I can relate to my project is "The state of having time at one's own disposal. Opportunity funded by freedom from occupations." (Chapter 4) because many college students don't have time at their disposal. Many college students have jobs apart from taking out thousands in loans in order to afford paying for school. This gives many people a disadvantage because it doesn't allow them to excel in school. I remember in the spring semester of 2018 I was taking 19 credits as a freshman and working about 50 hours a week in order to pay for school. I noticed this affected me a lot because I wasn't able to really focus on school compared to my other classmates who didn't have to work at all. My second quote from Seeing Power is "No conversation about social capital is complete with a reckoning with money. We live after all in a world that out the possibility of making money in exchange for cultural production." This quote is very important because nowadays in order to be successful you have to have some type of money which is many people take out loans. For example, the average person doesn't have enough money to start a business by themselves, buy a house, or even pay for college. My third quote from seeing power is "Social capital is extraordinarily seductive, allowing, as it does, a person to climb the rungs of hipness, importance, and status." This quote is basically implying that anyone who goes to college and receives an education will be able to succeed in life. What people don't realize is that the real world is very competitive and you are not always guaranteed a job. This then forces people to reinvest in school and get a second degree in order to stand out. Social capital can be very tempting which is why its very easy to end up lost and confused.