Hilma af Klint was a Swedish artist who had kept much of her work private and would not let much of her artwork be seen until at least twenty years after she had passed. Only in recent decades has her collection of over one thousand paintings been exhibited and examined by the public. Her work is not only abstract and way advanced for her time but also explores spiritualism. The United States has collected her works and created the exhibition Hilma af Klint: Paintings for the Future.
For my own identity, I really related to her interpretation of religion. Although Klint was a practicing Lutheran, she still united all religions together and believed in a single worldview that shares moral and metaphysical beliefs. My relationship with religion has always been a struggle. As a child, I was brought to Sunday and grew up with practicing Muslim parents. A big issue I have with my parents is my disbelief in God. It is something that is unacceptable to my dad and he still tries to push religion onto me. For me, I see the values that get shared across all religions and believe in them too. These values are to have good morals and values. In my opinion, I do not need to label myself and follow a religion to be a good person. The shared belief and unity she has with all religions is comforting to know that we can relate and can empathize. She saw the same as I do with religion. She understands that there should not be a divide because of what you practice and that should come together. In addition, I also relate to her with other values she expressed through her work. Klint dives into very feminine qualities through her work, which at the time was not accepted by society because women were still oppressed. In Secret Séances and High Masters: The Making of Mystic Painter Hilma Af Klint, the article explains that her values were very controversial at the time “Perhaps because she represents values – female, spiritual, ecological, collectivist – eroded by the rise of industrial modernity, values we desperately need to reclaim”(Secret Séances and High Master). Growing up with a brother only one year younger than me, I always compare myself to boys and men. Why are men able to do this but I can’t? Why do women have to behave differently? Growing up I never really spoke out on the divide that society causes between women and men. Now that I am an adult I am not scared, ashamed, or feel bad about embracing my femininity. I show how I can do just as men can and choose to be bold as a woman. I do not hold back my opinions and speak loudly on topics that are controversial or not seen to be “proper” for a woman to talk about. I have called my parents out on stereotyping female and male characteristics and explained how I should not be treated differently. In Klint’s work, she has yellow representing the female and blue representing the male. She then combines them into green representing the unity of the two colors. This shows that she believed in the idea of equality between genders and to unify and not segregate people because of our differences.
One consistent motif that travels throughout Klint’s work is the spiral shape. Spirals were used to show ascending to something more than just earth. In all religions there is the idea of a bigger picture and that there is something more than the physical world we see around us. Even though I had recently identified as an atheist, I still believe that there is more to the world than just earth. I see a bigger picture and something more than us as humans. In Excerpt from You Are the Universe they say, “Ignoring for now whether the current universe was created from another universe, physics can’t actually trace the cosmos back to the absolute beginning”. This is where religion comes into play. Humans do not understand everything on earth let alone the rest of the universe. To try and grasp these ideas, humans created religions. All religions have the idea that we build ourselves to become better people and to try and reach a higher standing than the current one. The idea of a spiral can be used again. For many religions, there is the idea of that one's status in the afterlife is a reward or punishment for how they live their current life. Even though I do not believe in a god, I still believe that humans have morals and should always try to better themselves in their life to ascend to a higher level whether that be physically or mentally. Even though “the great mystery about the emergence of our universe is how something was created out of nothing, and no one can truly comprehend how this occurred” humans use religion to try and help with these unexplainable situations. For me, I see religion as a way to help humans understand the world and to pinpoint why there are problems. Religion gives a reason so humans do not live in a world of “whys”.
For my project, I will be talking about my life and how I was raised. I grew up with an older and a younger brother so I understand Klint’s work and trying to include men and women on an equal level. Acceptance is something I struggle with my family. My parents have different values than me with relationships, political views, and ideas. Because I do not feel a connection to God, my parents hold a grudge and I know I separate from them in their eyes. I connect with Klint and sheltering her work from the world because of society not ready to see her art. For me, I still hide and do not say my opinions on everything out of fear of unacceptance from my parents. For my project, I will be explaining my relationships and how I have grown from each of them. My relationships will be friendship, family, and love. The ideas of acceptance and equality that Klint had hoped to express in her work will be included through my final project.
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