Rut 1 - Brittan Weber
The advertisement for the MOA display was up on the BYU homepage a while ago showing the piece, "House Games" by Elzbieta Sablonska. The mom dressed up as super-woman, looking pensively away from the viewer, with the child sitting on her lap.
"We could be Heroes"
I was interested in seeing what the exhibit was all about. We definitely could all be heroes...or could we?
I feel like there are an over-abundance of superhero movies being released lately. Superheroes, the comic strip kind, have been in our society for a while now. Why are there heros and monsters? It is fascinating for me to think about why we need to create heros and why there are monsters or enemies. One of the displays talked about how monsters represent that 'other', the other who we do not want to be, but who exists within each of us. The hero becomes that ideal who we long to be like. I believe the authors were inspired by ideas like these, what makes a hero? who or what can be a hero? is there a such thing as a real hero? are there monsters inside each of us?
One of the pieces I thought displayed the idea of 'hero' in a creative way was Male Baseball #1. The familiar plastic baseball player from the top of a little trophy young boys or girls receive from participating in a baseball league, blown up to life-size proportions. Athletes are heros to many people, especially to the little people who idealize those guys who play the best at the sport that they themselves play. Receiving that plastic trophy encourages the little boy to believe he is becoming the hero, he can someday play professionally and be the best. There was a quote from Charles Barkley next to the piece where he says, " I'm not paid to be a role model, I am paid to wreak havoc on the basketball courts." Who are our real-life heros? Who should be a child's hero?
The piece with Opera and the Pharaoh as the IRA was disturbing and awesome all at the same time. It made the powerful and rich look clownish.
Overall, the exhibit contained many different themes, really each piece spoke differently to me, although they all were ultimately intertwined. The title "We could be Heroes" sums up the feeling I got from my experience there, we could be heros, but are we embodying the characteristics that define hero or do we let the monster within us take over and kick back like the father in the piece 'snowy' ? Who are our heroes? Do the characteristics of our heroes aline with those of ideal heroes or are some heroes just worshipped by society because society says they should be?
A lot of the time in the exhibit, I felt like the authors of the different pieces were asking us to reassess who our true heroes are and who is really worthy of being called a hero. It's something interesting to think about.
ReplyDeleteI thought the quote by Charles Barkley was one of the most powerful parts of the exhibit. Especially when you combine that with the idea that we "could" be hero's, but only if we choose to be. Charles Barkley was making a choice not to be.
ReplyDeleteI like what you said about the Baseball player piece. One thing that I found myself thinking a lot about while I was at this exhibit was the idea of sports figures being heros. Besides actual superheroes (i.e. Batman, Superman, etc.), I think that sports figures are at the top of the "hero" list, especially among boys. It is so interesting to me how people idolize these athletes when most do not life a lifestyle that makes them great role models.
ReplyDeleteI agree we have had so many superhero movies lately! I came home from my mission and there are at least 5 to 7 new ones! And they are even re-doing the Superman movie, everyone thinks they can do a better job depicting a hero I guess, even the same hero! I liked how one of the pieces said that we like heroes and create monsters to demonstrate our own weaknesses.
ReplyDeleteI'm interested in going back to the exhibit and taking a second look. There are a lot of ideas in "We Could Be Heroes" that are hard to all take in all at once—I had completely forgotten the idea that a monster is the "other" that exists inside us.
ReplyDeletevery interesting thoughts. its very strange in our world today i feel like the definition of "hero" is changing and our idols are becoming less and less heroic and more and more human. i think the epitome of that point is the growing popularity of Youtube and youtube stars. everyone is getting their 15 minutes of fame and i think that is having a huge effect on what we consider a hero to be.
ReplyDeleteI like what you said about how it is fascinating about why we need to create heroes and even villains...that really got me thinking!
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