To answer the question of “what does it mean to construct an identity?”,
forming an identity involves with a person’s background, culture, social class,
and just who they are as a person. Our society is one of the factors on how
others may view on another person’s identity. Looking at their race and ethnicity,
the things that person has achieved and what their views are on such as gender
norms, politics, and etc. This connects to our class discussions on Friday, February
8th on Race, Gender, and Power because identity is based on who that
person is. Whether is a male or female, they are automatically placed into categories,
it is how our society works.
Matar Mbaye (Study 1), 2007
Kehinde Wiley
oil on wash paper
At the Montclair Museum, there is an exhibition called “Constructing
American Identity”, there is artworks that have elements to forming an identity.
There was an art piece called, “Matar Mbaye (Study 1)”, by Kehinde Wiley. He is
a portrait painter who is known for creating realism paintings of African
Americans. The painting was made in 2007, it deals with ethnic and cultural
identity. Wiley created this painting because he was on a West Africa, Senegal to
be influenced by his ethnic roots with young men and native tribal clothing. He
was taken with their proud looks on their faces and colors of their robes. In
the painting, Wiley creates a portrait of himself, he is covered in shades of
grey and black. Everything around him is colorful, the patterns he surrounds himself
are symbols that were used in West Africa, Senegal. It involves that ancestral
background, it has the birds, the leaves, the scroll work. The artist wanted to
reach his roots in order to put that influence through that work because during
his time period, there weren’t many dark-skinned paintings included in art
galleries. Wiley wanted to have this type of art included in museums throughout
the world. This deals with different races, in our society, others may feel superior than the others
when we know it should not be like that. We should embrace our cultures, ethnicity,
and be equal overall. This somewhat relates to the article, “RuPaul: ‘Drag is a
big f-you to male dominated culture’” because it dealt with discrimination with
men dressing up as a woman as an act of entertainment and joy yet other TV producers did not want work with idea of having that but look at how popular it
has become. It has become normalized or trying to be. Such as having darker
colored skin to be painted and be called as art because it is art.
Bernabe Mendez (Spiderman), 2007
Dulce Pinzon
C-print on sintra
Another artwork that deals with ethnic and cultural identity is by a
Mexican artist named Dulce Pinzon. It is titled as, “Bernabe Mendez
(Spiderman), it was created in 2007. The purpose of this artwork is showcasing
a man dressed in a Spiderman costume who is doing a very dangerous job which is
being a professional window cleaner at unsafe heights. The costume represents
his heroicness in doing such a dangerous job. In the description, it states
that the man who hanging on the wall sends $500 to his family back in Mexico. The
artist took this photograph to show how this person is doing such a unsafe job
just to make sure his family back in Mexico is being taken care of financially.Looking at the right side, where the main figure that is hanging against
the wall has warm tones. On the left side everything is cool tone with the
blues and grays involved. The figure has some sort of glow, as if what he is doing
is powerful which it is. It represents his strength and how fearless the male
is showcasing his action by cleaning the window. It deals with how Donald Trump discriminates on ‘Mexicans’ for taking over
other Americans ‘jobs’ when we all know Trump’s views, such as this, is not okay.
Stereotyping race and ethnicity is something we deal with our society.
One could still dream to devise an optimistic antidote against the defeatist and cynical claims of the Return to Order, 2008
Wardell Milan
Digital C-print
This art piece deals with identity and personal spaces, it is made by an artist named, Wardell Milan. It is a digital c-print and it's titled as, "One could still dream to devise an optimistic antidote against the defeatist and cynical claims of the Return to Order". The artwork was created in 2008, it relates to hurricane Katrina. It displays the aftermath of those who has lost their homes. Valuable
items were lost as well, such as, family photographs, magazines, and other resources.
The photograph has that violent feel to it since you can what the hurricane has
caused. All of these items that are being shown in the image feels a sense of loss
of identity since everything that was important from those families were taken
away in a rapid time. The artist took some of these shots at different angles and digitally edited some items into the overlapped scene. All of the items are piled up as if it was some junk yard and it gives off a very sad feel to it, knowing what the purpose of the digital c-print was made for. It raises awareness of understanding why this is such a bad thing to think about for those families that lost their goods. It is like their sense of identity has been stripped away.
Family Totem, 2003-4
Tom Nussabaum
Cast resin and acrylic paint
An artist named, Tom Nussabum has created an artwork titled as, "Family Totem", it is made out of cast resin and acrylic paint. It
relates to group and community identity; the sculpture showcases a group of people
overlapping each other by standing on their shoulders. At the bottom is starts
off with a large and tall figure and as it ranges from the top, each figure
gets smaller and smaller. At the top, it appears to be a child and underneath
it gets older. What holds all the figures together is that it has a pedestal.
They are all reaching for the top and it could possibly mean that they are
reaching for a goal. Nussabum mentions that this piece involves groups of
families that support each other and rely one another. I have noticed that each
figure is holding one’s leg, it has that feel of attachment.
Envision Empower Embrace
Ben Jones
digital image
Finally,
an artwork titled as, “Envision Empower Embrace”, by Ben Jones, deals with identity,
race, and power. It was finished in somewhere in the 2000’s and it displays on
many issues in our society. It mentions climate change, social justice, and environmental
disasters. On the left side of the panel, there is an image of Donald Trump’s
face being showcased upside down. It is located at the bottom where there is an
chaotic scene going on in the background. There is a couple of gas station
companies included and a large fish being shown at the focal point of the
middle panel. It involves crime cases that deal with unfair justice in the
system and large error signs in red. The artist wants the audience to know that
he knows what is going on in our society and generation, Jones knows that we
need to spread awareness and we need to change how our system works.
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