Museum Visit - Kehnide Wiley's "Smile" by David Shum

Wiley's hour and a half looped video of four smiling faces at first seemed humorous if anything. However, understanding the background of why he had four individuals strain their faces in order to smile drew out the creativity behind Wiley's work. This piece was creative in several ways. First, it was a different approach to allow the participants to truly understand what it was to be one of those blackface minstrels that smiled through everything. Those participants must have had an experience that they have never gone through before. From some of the participants' reactions, it was clear that the strain on their cheeks was bearing down on them, and that this was a very unique ordeal. Second, it was a creative way to allow viewers to see firsthand a forced smile for an extended period of time. Day to day we encounter smile after smile, but hardly to we witness forced smiles that are dragged out for excruciating lengths of time. Therefore creating a very unique creative experience for the participant and viewer Lastly, despite reflecting the experiences of blackface minstrels from the past, it also reflected today's society of forced happiness. In today's world, many put on their smiles in front of everyone else whether in person or in various forms of media. Comparing to Wiley's piece, we see how this forced happiness becomes more painful than enjoyable. Perhaps this piece also reflects how this seemingly great life that each individual seems to share through Facebook posts, "tweets" or Instagram photos are actually done through a lot more deliberate effort than we expect. In creating this piece of work, Wiley considered how a blackface minstrel must have felt and attempted to recreate this experience through his participants. Then he considered what the audience of those blackface minstrels saw, and therefore created a video of those participants in their experiences. In the end, he creates a piece of work that inspires an impression to reflect on the past "smiling" experiences of others and even the self.