Museum Visit

Museum Receipt

For my museum visit I went to the San Jose Museum of Art. The exhibit was called "Roots in the Air, Branches Above," and displayed a variety of Indian artists. This exhibit was related to the concept of the mestizo, particularly of symbols being mixed. Also, the artists focused on how the colonization of India by Britain has increased the value of consumerism. One piece is called "Induced Epidemic," made in 2007 by Ashutosh Bhardwaj. This piece shows the unhealthy obsession to reduce the size of the nose, hence the clamp that the hands reach towards. The building in the background represents corporations that encourage this mutilation.
 

Another piece is "Lucky, Lucky, Lucky," a mixed media piece by Alexis Kersey in 2008. It combines symbols from both Indian and Western culture, and depicts a scene of a woman with two young children, all of which appear to have leucoderma.
  

I find it interesting and tragic that cultures that have been colonized tend to be wounded by this experience, and it changes their culture forever, and not necessarily for the better.

History and Identity

This week I read about the resistance to colonialism through paintings, sculpture, and collage. Many of these art pieces were very stirring and tragic. The World Promised to Juanito Laguna, a collage by Antonio Berni, depicts an apocalyptic picture. There are mushroom clouds sprouting from the earth, and the destitute stand in the foreground. The piece is meant to show the people who stand on the margins of all cities. I was interested to find out that the materials used for the piece were actual objects found on the outskirts of the city of Juanito. These objects, while discarded by the rich, were used by the poor for shelter. It shows the polarization of the rich and poor in South America, an issue that still is very prevalent today. It reminds me of my visit to Lima, which showed me the level of poverty that is not obvious in the U.S.. I think that pieces like Berni's are essential to our understanding of the world that we might turn away from.