Picture of the dirty water in Flint Michigan coming out of a sink.
From the WW11: Eye of the Storm exhibit I had chosen three pieces that really pique my interest and emersed me into what the exhibit is trying to get across. To start off I thought that The Ark Project by Deborah Sperry was one of my favorites in the exhibit, though I thought all of them were interesting. The subject of this project is climate change going along with the environmental theme of the exhibit. The project itself is a wooden arch with texts dealing with climate change put around the perimeter of the Ark. For some reason, it reminds me of a tribal hut but in fact, its the represents the biblical Noah's ark. The message is that the probability of things like the Amazon Rainforest or the Great Barrier Reef or even species of animals and plant life is subjected to be gone due in part to climate change which is done through human action. It begs the question, what would you save and bring on the Ark in case the world heads towards destruction. So what the piece does that's interesting is how it interacts with the audience. The piece tells them to write on a sheet of paper, something they would like to have saved. Then after you write it you put it in a spot on the Ark. Then take a pellet that is supposed to grow in the soil and go out to plant one. I find that a brilliant way to get people to interact with the project as well as take in part to take action themselves. The second piece I chose was Underground by Linda Streicher. This piece is an acrylic on canvas mixed media which just means that they mixed unnatural objects like plastics with the regular canvas painting. The subject matter is the importance of groundwater and how that gets polluted. Alongside, the piece is nutrition chart like those on the back of food but instead, it shows the test results of whats in the artist's well water. The particular awareness the piece is trying to raise is how the above ground of earth is abused which ripples down to below ground. Also how the pollution of chemicals goes into the ground poisoning the water people use every day. The last piece I choose is Re-appropriating Nature by Olga Mercedes Bautista. This piece is plastic wood sheets piled on top each other. Along with the piece is a photograph of the now mix of organic debris with plastic that lies on the shoreline. Reminds me of if you were to go down the Jersey Shore where you can see how there are shells which are normal for a beach and waste products from us consumers who buy things and just litter on the shore. This photograph is trying to critique the consumerism and materialism of today's society. As well as show how plastic is becoming apart of nature. To most this photograph seems like a norm but what it is trying to show is that the shoreline was not always like this. It was full of natural things before humans started to crazy consume and throw trash on the ground. These pieces work in a capitalist society while also critiquing its ills by being set up in a gallery in an institution that also has its ills. Also, it paves the way to give an opportunity for those to take action that maybe could not have before and I admire that. Nato Thompson, author of Seeing Power Art and Activism in the 21st Century, states," Time and again, I have seen the potent merger of art and activism transform people's understanding of politics- and their relationship with the world around them."(VII) I see that within this exhibit the artists give a different perspective that both people that are knowledgeable and not knowledgeable have not seen. They also in the case of some pieces give the audience something to literally take home with so they may also take action on the issue. Another quote from Thompson that I think relates to the exhibit is "This was post-Fordism- the industrial revolution had finally gone global."(6) It more so describes this new modern world that we all live in and how that event caused the mass increase in pollution and environmental destruction than ever before. And the solution is not to go cold turkey since a lot hinders on this globalized world, instead, it is the work of an artist and activist to skim their way through that while also criticizing this new world. This next quote from Thompson also plays a role in the exhibit, "More than just making claims about change, artist and activist can use institutions as forms that need to be manipulated."(81) So yes it is obvious that the artists within the exhibit are advocating for changes in how humans interact with the environment at large and this lesson could easily be taught in some history class. But with it being in an exhibit within a college campus that partakes in the environmental damage are also a usage of the institution. If this place is supposed to be of higher education and there is an understanding that climate change is a big issue then why has not the school cut down on these wastes or use alternatives to cut down their environmental footprint. Also with the ability to hit students who are the upcoming generation of consumers, it pushes them to become mindful starting now than for them to keep wasting.
Picture of The Ark Project by Deborah Sperry
Picture inside The Ark Project
The other exhibit that the class was supposed to look at is the in the VA Gallery was the State of Disunion by artist and New Jersey City University professor Joyce Yu-Jean Lee. This exhibit was full of mixed media with both physical and video pieces put together to really make an experience. The first piece that is seen when you walk in is this circle video wall with little-sitting pillows in the circle. The video is projected at the wall by three different projectors. It shows a mix of popular news articles, distorted video footage of a drone shot of a women's march, a rotating ball that circles the whole wall installation and many other distorted video footage. In the background of the piece is this moody or somber piece of orchestral music. The meaning of the piece is to show how media or news shapes peoples points of view and change the landscape of the conversation. It is the people's responsibility to take ownership of the news and the information that they take in. The second piece is one that is sand pilled together to make this vortex or volcano with a video projected onto it. The video is different cut out pieces of headlines from newspapers or magazines. These cutouts projected onto the sand swirl around it and then dip into middle hole of the sand to disappear. The meaning of this piece is to take a closer look at the insanity of these headlines that people take in every day. The third and last piece is this hung ball that has a video projected onto it. Once again the video is cut-outs of newspaper put together. The meaning of this piece is also to show how media mixes into the minds of people and change on the daily. She is not per say a political artist but this whole exhibit is indeed political. She wants to use the exhibit to not only show her point of view on this whole topic but also to try and inform her audience. She states if there is something wrong with the system then how do you notice, well this exhibit is pushing for the audience to notice all these things they could have missed or not cared about. Here are some other quotes I think can relate to this from Nato Thompson, "But often there is a vast universe of people caught somewhere in the middle, without community, searching in vain for some sort of legitimation somewhere, anywhere."(92) Not everyone is open to going a see politics within their daily life. In fact, it has become taboo for some since all it leads to is unnecessary headaches over who is better than who. What I think both exhibits have made effective is how approachable the pieces were even if on the surface it could seem or not seem political. Once the audience is captured to the piece, what else can they do but take in the message without it being spoon fed to them. Another quote from Thompson is, "Everyday people are beginning to understand at a very intuitive level that power uses culture to manipulate them and, conversely, that moments that are free of that coercion are uniquely special."(115) With this information age where the internet makes thing easily accessible to anyone with an internet connection, people have more of an inkling that there is corruption with power-hungry institutions such as corporations and sometimes the government. But sometimes with this vast access of information people can be lead astray or do not spend as much time to think about these issues that are very important. These exhibits as well as art in general splash the audience with some reality and bring them back to thinking and hopefully take action on these things.
Picture of the project UnderGround by Linda Streicher
Picture of a photograph called Re-appropriating Nature by Olga Mercedes Bautista
Citations:
Thompson, Nato. Seeing Power: Art and Activism in the 21st Century. Melville House, 2015.
Seeing Power Art and Activism in the 21st Century:
1. Intro Pg. VII, Paragraph 2 Sentence 1
2. Chapter 1 Pg. 6, Paragraph 2 Sentences 2
3. Chapter 3 Pg. 81, Paragraph 1 Sentences 2
4. Chapter 4 Pg. 92, Paragraph 1 Sentences 5
5. Chapter 5 Pg. 115, Paragraph 1 Sentence 7
Links:
Article on Thomas Fire in California: https://www.cnn.com/2018/01/12/us/thomas-fire-california-contained/index.html
Article on Flint Michigan Water Crisis: https://www.cnn.com/2016/03/04/us/flint-water-crisis-fast-facts/index.html
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