Sunday, January 10, 2016
Museum Visit - Maddy Thompson
Before reading the description of the exhibit, I looked into the room and obviously didn't understand what the purpose was. Upon reading the it, I was struck by how something so profound could be portrayed in such a simple, yet powerful way. I personally think the idea for the piece must have come from personal experience. Kahinde Wiley is black and, i'm sure, has been subject to racial discrimination of some kind in his life. Living as a minority, I think you often must feel like you have to "put on a good face" in order to succeed - like standing up for yourself is going to be more difficult than just putting up with what comes your way. The piece shows in a very creative way the emotional stress of smiling through the pain. It was not easy for the men to hold a smile for an hour. Often times they were smiling but their mouths were twitching, or their eyes seemed dead. The smile is a metaphor for tolerating the discrimination that presents itself to them. It hit me how unfair it is for anyone to have to "smile" when they don't want to or feel like they can't, and how common it must be for the black community.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Loved your thoughts - I had many of the same. Such a simple and powerful piece of work. Thanks for your input!
ReplyDeleteMaddy - I really liked what you said about the smile being the metaphor for the tolerance of discrimination or really the tolerance of any type of pain. I think that's spot on and I basically wrote that same thing without reading your blog post. Great minds think alike!
ReplyDeleteI think as a personal experience piece, it is fair that only blacks are portrayed in this video. Perhaps in effect we might forget there are many other non-white minority groups which have been the victim of racism, segregation and even brutality. Certainly blacks have seen this the longest in the United States, but Asian groups have even been victim. Maybe the longest standing tradition within the United States along with the pursuit of life, liberty and happiness is discrimination and xenophobia when you consider that which the Irish faced in New York upon arrival.
ReplyDelete