In a literal sense, one’s identity is mainly made of one’s gender, race, social class and power. However, following our tour around the Montclair Art Museum and looking through the pictures I’ve taken, I found that artists have their own unique way of constructing identity in their artwork.

 For example, Charles Willson Peale’s portrait of president George Washington was placed right next to a portrait of Cindy Sherman. Even though the two portraits were done centuries apart from each other, they both represent a form of patriotism to the United States. George Washington being the first president and Cindy Sherman photographed in red white and blue outfit with stars. Additionally, Cindy Sherman ties into our class discussion when we analyzed Bell Hooks “Understanding Patriarchy” by challenging the idea of Patriarchy through Cindy Sherman’s outfit by being dressed in a suit traditionally worn by men, rather than a dress commonly worn by women.

Untitled #402 by Cindy Sherman and Portrait of President George Washington by Charles Wilson Peale

Following that, one of Nick Cave’s “Soundsuit” was on display. Nick Cave’s collection of soundsuit statues is created in response of different social issues. His first soundsuit was created in 1992 in response to the Rodney King incident and its connection to the LA riots that occurred in the 90’s. The one on display at the Montclair Art Museum shows an individual covered in colorful gems and fabrics, surrounded by an angel and countless toys. From my perspective, the angel and toys represent some form of armor or protection form the outside world. Just how toys tend to distract a child from any issue their family may be dealing with. (financial, Marriage, etc.)

SoundSuit By Nick Cave (2015) 

Next, Barbara Kruger’s Untitled “Seeing through you” is a large image of a woman behind a green film sprinkled with white dots and the green “Seeing though you” in Futura evenly spread across the large canvas and framed in a bright saturated red. According to the caption, her artwork is meant to “Question the viewer about Feminism, classicism, consumerism, desire, and individual autonomy.” Though the use of provocative images that were commonly found in Magazines of the time, Kruger shows the struggle women had with obtaining equal power. Just how we discussed in class when we analyzed Judith butler’s “Subject Sex Gender Desire” where we discussed the struggles that women still have about being treated equally in society.

Untitled “Seeing through you” by Barbara Kruger

After the tour, I found three mounted skateboard decks entitled “Apache Skateboards” by Douglas Miles. Each deck showed a different form of identity for the same person. From left to right, the first deck was an illustration of a Native American spirit dancer from the Apache Mountains. The second deck displays this Individual an Apache Warrior outfit. The last deck shows the individual in an American Army Uniform. This Artwork shows how the same individual can have multiple identities. In this case, this individual has multiple identities due to the changes of his environment and the different cultures that surrounded him. In a way, this ties into our class discussion when we talked about RuPaul and his transformations from a normal looking African American male to a full on drag queen.

Apache Skateboards by Douglas Miles