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.
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