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Importance of arts and culture as a means of identity
Importance of arts and culture as a means of identity
How does culture affect art
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Artists communicate their identity through their work in different ways. Identity can be influenced by culture, community, and diversity, it can be represented and communicated in many different ways as well. The two artists I will be comparing are Ah Xian and Kerry James Marshall. Both artists represent culture identity in their works but in different ways as well as have different views on the subject of cultural identities.
Ah Xian born in Beijing in 1960 left china following the Tiananmen Square incident in 1989, also known as tank man incident, and moved to Sydney Australia. Having moved from his native country, Ah Xian wanted his work to represent that “cultural identity is permanent and no matter what other places and influences one
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His work included many cultural motifs such as flowers, dragons and landscapes. His china china series, a set of sculpted busts that had relief carvings of his cultural heritage, resembled traditional Chinese tattoos. His art isn’t considered pop culture but the series china china reminds me of art made by Dr. Lakara a Mexican artist. Both artists utilize their cultures in their art work Ah Xian use of traditional stylized Chinese landscapes carved into the porcelain bust is an example of how he uses his cultural identity in his work. He also uses the relief carvings similarity to tattoos as symbol of how permanent ones cultural identity is.
Kerry James Marshall was born in Birmingham Alabama in 1955 and work is influenced by the popular culture and activities of African Americans. His view of cultural identity differed from An Xian’s in a few distinct ways. His art works general statements of using terms such as black allowed his work to fall under the category of essentialism because he used over generalized and stereotypical notions of
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Marshall uses many historical events that involved African American culture and conveyed his message of blackness and what it means to be an African American through his art work. Ah Xian uses the traditions of his culture and heritage to express where he came from and how heavily integrated it is into his identity. However these two artist differ in their ideas about cultural identity. Ah Xian believes that your culture doesn’t change simply because the times or your location have changed. Marshall has a different view he believes that a person culture will change with the location and events they experience. I agree with Marshall that our cultural identity can change because of the influences around us. We are constantly being influenced by politics, news, current events, media and changes in society; Art in general and art forms such Popular culture and new media is constantly changing and inspiring people connecting with them and influencing us every day. Allowing us to identify with Art and experience it in new
The Cultural Revolution in China was led by Mao Zedong, due to this Liang and many others faced overwhelming obstacles in many aspects of their life such as work, family and everyday encounters, if affected everyone’s families life and education, Liang lets us experience his everyday struggles during this era, where the government determined almost every aspect of life.
The exhibition is not too large as it only contains around eighty artworks. These works all have African Americans as the main subject since Marshall believes that African Americans deserve more attention in art because they are almost “invisible” in a way. Mastry is arranged chronologically, starting with Marshall’s earlier works and then leading to galleries with themes such as beauty or the civil-rights struggle. Mastry should be visited because it allows a person to learn about African American art which is underrepresented and underappreciated. The general idea or thesis of this exhibition is that African Americans have been looked down on throughout history and viewed as subhumans, or even invisible. Marshall’s exhibition is about appreciating African Americans and viewing them as what they are: humans.
George Schuyler’s article “The Negro Art Hokum” argues that the notion of African-American culture as separate from national American culture is nonsense. To Schuyler, all seemingly distinct elements of African-American culture and artistic endeavors from such are influenced by the dominant white American culture, and therefore, only American. The merit of Schuyler’s argument stems from the fact that it is practically impossible for one culture to exist within the confines of another without absorbing certain characteristics. The problem with Schuyler’s argument that Langston Hughes notes in his response article, “The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain,” is that it assumes complete assimilation of African-Americans by a singular national culture. Fundamental to Hughes’ rebuttal is the allowance of a unique African-American culture extant of the standards of a singular American cultural identity. For Hughes, this unique culture lies within the working-class, out of sight of the American national culture. This culture, while neither completely African nor American, maintains the vibrant and unique roots of the African-American experience. Schuyler advocates cultural assimilation, while Hughes promotes cultural pluralism, in which minority cultures maintain their distinctive qualities in the face of a dominant national identity.
In fact, it is clear to the reader that Huggins makes a concerted effort to bring light to both ethnicities’ perspectives. Huggins even argues that their culture is one and the same, “such a seamless web that it is impossible to calibrate the Negro within it or to ravel him from it” (Huggins, 309). Huggins argument is really brought to life through his use of historical evidence found in influential poetry from the time period. When analyzing why African Americans were having an identity crisis he looked to a common place that African American looked to. Africa was a common identifier among the black community for obvious reasons and was where Authors and Artists looked for inspiration. African American artists adopted the simple black silhouette and angular art found in original African pieces. Authors looked to Africa in their poetry. In The Negro Speaks of Rivers by Langston Hughes, the names of rivers in Africa such as the Euphrates, the Congo and the Nile were all used and then the scene switches to the Mississippi river found in America showing that blacks have “seen”, or experienced both. Huggins looks deeply into Countee Cullen’s Heritage discussing “what is Africa to me?” a common identifier that united black artistry in the Harlem Renaissance, “Africa? A book one thumbs listlessly, till slumber comes” (Countee). The black community craved to be a separate society from white Americans so they were forced to go back to the past to find their heritage, before America and white oppression. Huggins finds an amazing variety of evidence within literature of this time period, exposing the raw feelings and emotion behind this intellectual movement. The connections he makes within these pieces of poetry are accurate and strong, supporting his initial thesis
Much of Ai Weiwei’s activism and artwork has been influenced by his experiences growing up. Ai Weiwei lived through a tumultuous time in Chinese history, with the Cultural Revolution, the Tiananmen Square Massacre and the Opening Up of China by Deng Xiaoping. Ai Weiwei’s father, Ai Qing was a famous poet during the Cultural Revolution. However, he was targeted in the Anti-Rightist campaig...
As an artist, I always want to find out who I am and what my uniqueness is. In the same time I am concerned about the disappearance of my unique identity due to various reasons like the technological developments. The pair of artists I choose to write about are both dedicated to question or break the boundaries of identity. However, this question is still not solved yet. Are we losing our identities while searching for answers? More questions are aroused and we just need to keep
The author mentions that another beginning factor that assisted in forming Thurgood Marshall’s perspectives involve...
Ever since Christopher Columbus arrived in America in 1492, white people have constantly oppressed and discriminated against minority races. In my original essay, I addressed how leaders of the Black Arts Movement believed that the establishment of a separate Black culture provided the best opportunity for change to occur. During the time period of the Black Arts Movement, many thought that two separate spirits divided American society—a Black spirit and a White spirit. In the minds of African-Americans, the White spirit unfairly dominated and controlled America, leaving the Black spirit with little impact or voice in society. According to Larry Neal, “Western aesthetic has run its course: it is impossible to construct anything meaningful within
Cultural identity is a person’s background and how it refers to that person or groups culture, what you eat, think, and the actions that you take are all parts of the cultural aspect of culture identity. If you was to ask someone what the culture identity of the African Americans were no matter the race of the person you asked they nine times out of ten would mention the importance of black history month, but while the races around us are able to recognize the importance of this historic month why is it that today’s generation of young African Americans don’t realize the importance of this month? The race of people it celebrates, has placed it on the back burner. Due to the rise of technology and social media in today’s age has taken the youth’s eyes off of what is culturally vital in the black community opposed to the generations that came before.
When asked to define ones cultural identity people usually take the path that leads to their country of origin. They describe their beliefs and tradition which mirrors the values of people within that geographic location. But what about the people who are torn between two cultures? How would they define their cultural identity? This is the problem faced by Henry Park, the protagonist of the book Native Speaker by Chang-Rae Lee. Originally from Korea, he immigrated to the United States with his parents when he was little. However, his struggle of trying to find his acceptance into the American culture still continues. The book outlines his endless uncertainty of trying to define his cultural identity and his feelings as an outsider to the American Culture. Not being able to commit to either of the cultures leaves Henry confused regarding his true Cultural identity which Chang very artfully presents as a fuzzy line between the American and Korean Culture.
One of the main issues that has been a result of representing the under-represented in children’s literature is essentialism. Essentialism is the idea that members of a specific ethnic group should be the only ones to represent their culture in literature because they will give an accurate portrayal of their culture. Essentialism is a very sensitive issue because whole cultures are being represented and those cultures do not want their ethnic group to be portrayed in a negative manner. Furthermore, while essentialism is a matter of opinion and personal beliefs there is one novel that gives a good account as to why essentialism may be preferable to most audiences. American Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yang is a novel that displays stereotypical images of Asians and shows how three main characters
Appiah, Kwame Anthony. “Race, Culture, Identity: Misunderstood Connections.” Ways of Reading: An Anthology for Writers. Ed. David Bartholomae and Anthony Petrosky. 9th ed. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2011. 101-131. Print.
Neal, Larry. “The Black Arts Movement.” The Black Aesthetic. Ed. Addison Gayle, Jr.New York: Doubleday &Company, Inc., 1971. 272 - 290.
Artists associated with the Black Arts Movement promoted the notion that art should serve the needs of the African American community, while challenging white hegemony and the oppression of African Americans (Wofford). Despite having similar, yet thoughtful views on black supremacy, much like that of authors from the New Negro Movement, the “Black Power Concept” of the Black Arts Movement had ...
Identity is a state of mind in which someone recognizes/identifies their character traits that leads to finding out who they are and what they do and not that of someone else. In other words it's basically who you are and what you define yourself as being. The theme of identity is often expressed in books/novels or basically any other piece of literature so that the reader can intrigue themselves and relate to the characters and their emotions. It's useful in helping readers understand that a person's state of mind is full of arduous thoughts about who they are and what they want to be. People can try to modify their identity as much as they want but that can never change. The theme of identity is a very strenuous topic to understand but yet very interesting if understood. How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents by Julia Alvarez and Farewell to Manzanar by Jeanne Wakatsuki are two remarkable books that depict the identity theme. They both have to deal with people that have an identity that they've tried to alter in order to become more at ease in the society they belong to. The families in these books are from a certain country from which they're forced to immigrate into the United States due to certain circumstances. This causes young people in the family trauma and they must try to sometimes change in order to maintain a comfortable life. Both authors: Alvarez and Houston have written their novels Is such an exemplifying matter that identity can be clearly depicted within characters as a way in adjusting to their new lives.