Shirin Neshat, Faith Ringgold, and Zhang Hongtu are three of the many artists who capture the humanities of various societies and cultures in the world through their artwork. Those three artists had excellent pieces of art that all symbolized something different but connected them to the world and how society is portrayed: Neshat with her artwork called, “Rebellious Silence,” Ringgold with hers called, “God Bless America, 1964,” and finally, Hongtu’s work, “Bird’s Nest.” The three artworks all display a message of some sort to society, symbols, and even history behind it. Shirin Neshat is an iranian artist who lives in New York City. The artwork “Rebellious Silence” by Shirin Neshat portrayed a very strong message. The purpose of her work was to explain what the current …show more content…
problem that Muslim women may face in Middle Eastern countries.. Neshat wanted to bring awareness to the real reason why they wear it, which was to protect a woman's body from the evil and inappropriate man’s gaze. Her hidden message within the artwork was to raise awareness to the gender issues that the islamic society may have, which were unfair treatment, “oppression”, and justifying a woman’s day to day life. In the photo, there is a woman wearing a hijab, the islamic word for headscarf, and she has some sort of poem written on her face which looks like a veil. And within this photo, there is also a gun. The woman has a strong and powerful gaze. It seems like the woman in this artwork is fighting for her rights, besides the “gun” that may be facing her. Faith Ringgold was an African American artist who used her artwork to portray political statements and messages. When she created “God Bless America 1964,” she was influenced by the Civil Rights Movement because of the pain and physical and emotional damage that African American faced during that time. She wanted to show the struggles she and her community had to face to get the equal rights they deserved from white people. There is a star on the woman’s shirt in the art and this symbolizes a badge of some sort while the stripes symbolized a jail cell. The main purpose of the white woman in the image was to show her as prisoner because she wasn’t accepting that the black community was tired of being treated poorly. Zhang Hongtu displayed the “Bird’s Nest,” which displayed many hidden political messages that the government got mad about.
The government took away his painting because it was “too dull,” but really it was because Hongtu wanted to share what was really going in China that the government was not sharing. Two general themes displayed within the painting was human rights and to be yourself and not to believe whatever you see and hear. In China, they did not want to discuss anything remotely close to human rights and always shared information that wasn’t true and the people would fall for it. They would fall for the government’s propaganda. The hidden messages are also human rights because the government constantly tells the people what to believe and who to hate. Hongtu says in an interview with White Hot Magazine, “The deeper problem is that most people only have one source for all their information, the government...For me if I want to criticize you first I must get to know you, not just make accusations based on the government’s propaganda.” The purpose of his work was to raise awareness to the issue at hand: the government was overpowering the people’s human rights and no one seemed to
care. All three images created a message to society. It had many hidden messages and symbolizations. This shows how powerful art can be. Not only can it be pleasing to look at sometimes, but it can be informational, for example Bird’s Nest when it tried to hide messages about the government. All these images seemed to have a great powerful impact on society and humanity.
The idea that art can be a service to people- most importantly a service to poor and disenfranchised people is one that may be disputed by some. However, Elizabeth Catlett and other artists at the taller de Graffica Popular have proved that art could be made to service the poor. Catlett in particular is someone who has always used her art to advocate for the poor and fight injustices. While her activism and political views were very impactful, they were also very controversial. Catlett`s art and activism influenced African American and Latin American art by changing the narratives of Black and Brown working class women. In their books titled Gumbo Ya Ya, The Art of Elizabeth Catlett, African American Art: The Long Struggle, and Elizabeth Catlett: Works on Paper authors Leslie King-Hammond, Samella S. Lewis, Crystal Britton, Elizabeth Catlett, and Jeanne Zeidler speak of the work of Catlett. In a paper titled -----, ---- also speaks of the work of Elizabeth Catlett and her legacy as an activist.
Silence — the sound of quiet, the state of mind, the lack of meaning — all these pertain to its definition. Communication is expanding, noise is increasing, music is becoming more obtainable as people search desperately for a moment of peace or a breeze of silence. As the scarcity of physical silence increases, its value as a rare commodity increases as well. The idiom “Silence is golden” may perhaps only grow closer to reality as time passes, as exemplified by the white noise machines or silent fans entering the market and fictionalized in Kevin Brockmeier’s short story, “The Year of Silence.” In light of this, Brockmeier explores the value of silence and noise in his story without putting one above the other. Through strange clues and hidden
The short documentary video “Prisoners of Silence” focuses on neurodevelopmental disorders with a clear emphasis on autism. It further delves into the rather controversial method of treatment for autism known as facilitated communication, which was first developed in the early 1990s. The video follows the introduction and ultimately the downfall of such a treatment as controversy quickly ensues after a series of sexual abuse cases and ample scientific evidence are produced.
Courage to Dissent helps readers understanding of the Civil Rights movement. Brown-Nagin wrote about the issue that was going on during this time when it pertains to politics, housing, public accommodations, and schools. It highlighted major issue that was a problem in America but especially Atlanta, Georgia. Atlanta at this time became a huge stomping ground for African American leaders because of the massive wave of blacks that lived in the city as well as the issue that needed to be address to end segregation. The NAACP began to expand their leadership into smaller components. A lot of local black officials became extremely involved in Atlanta. The city wanted faster results, which focus on local activist and not head officials of the NAACP.
1. Write a thematic statement for the essay “Self-Reliance”. Explain how Emerson's idea of Self-Reliance is different from and similar to the common use of the term (take care of your own needs and don't depend on others outside yourself). Emerson’s idea of self- reliance is different from similar to the common use of the term (take care of your own needs and don’t depend on others outside yourself) Emerson’s idea is similar because the words “self- reliant” is saying take care of your own.
Every seven minutes a child is bullied. On average, 68 percent of students say that “other kids pick on them, make fun of them or bully them” (“Statistics”). This causes students to turn to violence. bullied or made fun of which cause them to become violent. How much longer are schools going to sit back and do nothing about bullies? Without punishing bullies, students’ will continue to harm themselves to massive extents. Schools are not doing enough to stop or prevent bullying, as demonstrated by the creation of the group Stand for the Silent.
In Maxine Hong Kingston’s essay, “The Misery of Silence,” the style is a mix of repetitive events and experiences the narrator goes through explained with descriptive adjectives written throughout a relatively fast paced essay. The author starts the introduction with an example of how hard it is for the narrator to speak English, “‘What did you say?’ says the cab driver, or ‘Speak up’, so I have to perform again, only weaker the second time.” Another example of a tragic experience is found later in the essay, “I hoped that she would not cry, fear breaking up her voice like twigs underfoot. She sounded as if she were trying to sing though weeping and strangling. She did not pause or stop to end the embarrassment. She kept going until she said
Machuca and Innocent Voices showed repression of free speech and heavy political influence. Everyday life in Latin America during political crisis was grim, there were food shortages and rationings as seen in Machuca. If the family was not financially stable, it would have been difficult to acquire the goods needed to survive. Many were fearful of being captured by the army for looking a certain way or doing anything that would be considered rebellious and in any way against the regime. The priest in Innocent Voices feared for Chava’s safety because he was playing a rebellious, prohibited song on his portable radio. He then turned on the intercoms and played it himself, so Chava would not be taken by the army. I think it would be very difficult
“Speechless” is a black and white photo. To me the choice of colors from the artist already shows the type of tone that they want to set. Typically black and white photos set a more dramatic serious tone to me. The photo appears to be very heavy. The photo has Farsi text written all over the woman 's face along with a gun to the side of her face. The setting in “Speechless” by Shirin Neshat is effective an plays a very important role in creating the atmosphere and theme of the artwork. Without knowing the background of the artwork the person viewing it from the outside perspective might be a little confused with whats going on. The artist however has incorporated cultural aspects and cues to make the audience more aware of what is going on. In the artwork there is a woman covered with a veil. You can see half of her face and see that she has distinct characteristics that can lead the audience to interfere she is of middle eastern descent. Dark hair, dark eyes, thick dark eyebrows. She is also covered in various amounts of Farsi/Arabic text that also give cultural cues to the overall message that the artist is trying to convey. Giving these cultural cues to the audience give the audience context to the overall message of the piece. The character of this piece is the woman portrayed in the piece. She is the main part of the artwork as everything else surrounds her. The symbols in the piece extend
In 1939, Meta Warrick Fuller created a piece called “The Talking Skull.”(Fuller, 1) This piece shows an African-American talking to a skull. The emotions of the man look regretful, and sorrow due to something he did wrong in his life. This artist expressed this inspiration from the desire of communication between the dead and the living African Americans are yearning for a connection. This artist was trying to convey this due to the fact that at the time African Americans needed to find a connection to past African Americans to find inspiration, which shows the effect the past could have on these artists. Another Artist that expressed his feelings through art to create social change is Thomas Wedgwood. He created a painting called “Am I Not a Man and A Brother.”(Wedgwood, 1) This painting shows a kneeling African American man, his hands chained together begging for mercy, while looking up. This painting shows the struggle of abolition and also viewed as the struggle for the ending of the slave trade in America. This painting was symbolic politically and artistically because the artist wanted the painting to give an emotion of inspiration towards the African American culture because they want to embrace the different thoughts and ideas. In addition, different type of artworks had different types of meaning to it because it’s
People have always expressed themselves through art, some people because they want to make their viewers think, some to protest current issues. Some gain support from the community that outweighs political controversy but some like Diego Rivera are censored due to their statements made through their art like in his piece, “Man at the Crossroads”. Diego Rivera is known for the mural he painted in Mexico City that was destroyed due to controversy. The art itself wasn’t the only protest involved in the situation, despite widespread protest throughout the current art community the mural was still destroyed due to the messages it sent.
Shirin Neshat is a filmmaker and photographer. She was born on march 26, 1957 in Qazvin, Iran. Because of the westernization in her family, her parents sent her to America for college. Shirin’s career of artist began after she came to America. She got her bachelor of arts and master of fine arts from University of California Berkeley. In 1990, she returned to Iran and was shocked by the change of society due to the Islamic revolution and the war between Iran and Iraq (Sheybani 1). The style and characteristics of her photographs and video installations also were inspired by her journey to Iran, which focus on contemporary Islamic cultures, women’s identity and women’s right in Islamic society (1).
The cliché saying, “Youth is wasted on the young” may apply to many people but not to all. Oskar Schell, a nine-year-old fictional character, can attest to that. In Jonathan Safran Foer’s novel Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close (2005), he implies that youth is defined by a person’s intellectuality, relationships, and experiences.
To understand the blue wall of silence we must understand the definition. The blue wall of silence is defined as: An unwritten code among police officers not to report on another officer’s errors, misconducts, and or crimes when questioned about an incident of misconduct involving another colleague, during a course of an inquiry. Even though the blue wall of silence originated from the understandable need for law enforcement to be able to trust and rely on each other, it is neither morally justifiable nor is it a legal act. The wall of silence hinders the relationship with the community by degrading the trust and compromising the integrity. It is generally understood that the code of silence breeds, supports and nourishes other forms of unethical
China is a communist country, whose citizens faced many difficult situations while trying to fight for their human rights. According to the “Freedom Rankings” from the database CountryWatch China is not a free country. Specifically the Political Rights and Civil Liberties are in their maximum numbers; this means that these rights are confiscated from the people. Therefore freedoms of press, expression, speech, religion, and movement are all severely limited in China. The government has also kept a close watch on art in China; Chinese art went through many different stages starting from the year 1842. But the massacre of Tiananmen Square in the year 1989 was a turning point in the political life of China and on the country's art. Until the year 1992 art in china was underground, but it kept expanding. As a result of that some Chinese artists started to do art works that rebel against their government and express their feelings towards China. One of these artist is the famous Chinese artist Ai Weiwei who expressed in each piece of art he did, his feelings that China should let its people break away from the rotten traditional, in order to express their thoughts freely.