Steeven Espinoza
Art-263-1108
Professor. Cacoilo
October 21, 2023
This Is What I Know About Art
Kimberly Drew's autobiography helps illustrate some of the themes and issues we have been discussing throughout the class, one of them relates with memes, in her book she describes how she uses social media (Facebook) to communicate an issue with white guilt. According to her book she posted a quote by the scholar bell hooks that explained: “Throughout African American history, performance has been crucial in the struggle for liberation, precisely because it has not required the material resources demanded by other art forms.” In a way her purpose for posting her statement is similar to memes, since both can potentially raise awareness on a topic, and can contribute for further discussion. Kimberly Drew can be considered as an activist artist due to her interaction with black art history. In her story “This is what I know about Art”, she encourages readers to participate in this movement by simply just suggesting the following:“ If you read the name of an artist or other person that you don’t know, I hope you’ll take frequent pauses to research them.” This motivates readers and welcomes them to take the time to investigate more about the artist, and have a better understanding about them. This also helps her to further interact with her audience since now as a group we’re participating towards her act, and expanding our knowledge with new artist members. Kimberly Drew’s act of simply just suggesting something, can be interpreted as a snowball movement that slowly started off with spreading awareness towards unfamiliar artists, all the way up to sharing the need to always remember black art history origins and how till this day many of those stories are manipulated, and improperly informative. The reason for her motivation was caused during her college journey by experiencing how unaware she was with black art history, and oblivious about artists who contributed.
One of Kimberly’s quotes that I personally felt related with was when she stated; “ Simply, I want to share my stories with the hope that you may find your own journey and make the changes that you want to see in the world.” Meaning that although Kimberly started off with mathematical studies she ended up wanting to explore more about the art industry, and become a huge inspiration towards others. I’m able to connect with her journey because sometimes we may start with something that we might think we want, but along the way we may encounter something else that might’ve caught our interest and can probably be a new goal to achieve. This has previously happened to me, and at first glance it may seem that we might’ve given up on our dream, but I think that we have simply just evolved and our focus is no longer on something we thought was important but rather now on something that we may be passionate about. Therefore making us creatures that are constantly changing and finding new interest everyday, as long as we keep on improving and contributing to something positive towards society the journey can be endless.
Art can be distinguished in many ways, and can have several interpretations based form a person's point of view, for this comparison an art piece called An Authentic Brazilian Experience wasn’t the exception. I personally felt a close comparison within Kimberly's objective and Joao Zago message, since both wanted to express their message to the world about their differences and uniqueness that will set them apart from society. Kimberly’s goal was to showcase her perspective and reminder that black artist, and history should be explored and told more often. On the other hand Jao Zago also wanted to share a bit of his culture by displaying his used shoes in a more traditional style that typically is known by Brazilian people. His two major reasons for using his shoes for the art gallery, was first to showcase his most precious item that was personally delivered to him from Brazil by a family member, and second to demonstrate how a simple item can represent an emotional attachment to his culture by counting off every steps he took, making him feel closer to home.
The artwork Let The Children Play by Alexandra Alvarez is a huge inspiration to follow and can be relatable with the book The Art Of Activism within the story of The Undocubus. A brief summary of the meaning behind Undocupus was technically a bus that carried a message in support for immigrants that constantly lived in fear of being deported to their country. This unfortunate event has also impacted infants that go through the danger of risking their lives to cross the U.S border for a better life. This also leads to kids getting lost or trapped by human trafficking predators. There are many factors that can negatively affect a child's life, and one of them is by causing trauma that kids should not be going through, instead they should freely have the opportunity to enjoy their childhood. Within this artwork it displays an infant how peaceful and happy they're life can be given the opportunity, but with constant wars and corruption it will be in possible for them to reach that dream, therefore it's only a matter of courage to change that and make that dream possible.
Alexandra Álvarez
Let The Children Play, 2021
Description of this work:
“The art series "Let the Children Play" employs acrylics and a soothing blue color palette to raise a poignant protest against child abuse, advocating for a world where innocence and freedom thrive unburdened.”
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