|
 |
EXHIBITIONS
|
PAST
EXHIBITIONS |
|
Provocations Selections from the Permanent Collection July 23 – December 31, 2004 Provocations features a selection of works from The Bronx Museum of the Arts’ permanent collection, addressing political themes and issues. The works represent both overt and subtle depictions of sociopolitical events and critiques. Through the work of five artists, this exhibition examines how provocative art can be, as the artists challenge viewers to come to terms with their own notions of the social and political as well as current policies and agendas in the widespread places in which these artists reside. Two of the artists in the exhibition, Graciela Sacco and Carlos Garaicoa, use the medium of photography to critique current political situations. The Argentinean artist Sacco uses newspaper images of urban crises as a point of departure. Sacco’s artistic process is an adaptation of the age-old heliographic technique of photosensitizing an object. In the work Ciudades del miedo I a person is poised and ready to throw a rock. It may not be obvious to the viewer where or when this event took place, but what is clear is the notion of political or social activity in general, which allows the viewer to speculate about what may have occurred during this particular event. Carlos Garaicoa is a Cuban artist also working with photography, among other mediums. Garaicoa often documents Havana’s decaying architectural spaces. By using photography, Garaicoa depicts city ruins to express and comment on a sociopolitical relationship between the city of Havana and its political administration. Garaicoa’s Untitled (Decapitated Angel) shows a building in ruins with a headless statue and the word “Fidel” in red where the head should be, referring to the leader of the Cuban government. The works of US artists Willie Cole, Adrian Piper, and Kara Walker are not limited to one medium and explore a range of concerns, from race and prejudice to the critique of existing cultural, social, and political issues. How Do You Spell America? is one in a series of works that investigates how powerful language can be. Read from left to right the words are phrases that comment on current sociopolitical agendas, issues and events such as AIDS, epidemics, abortion, currency, minorities, etc. The use of a chalkboard complicates this work, because Cole is undoubtedly referring to education in the US and perhaps commenting on how the issues he raises are taught with a bias or are overlooked altogether. Piper’s work tends to be autobiographical and is often concerned with the truth and consequences of race and gender. In the work Forget It!, Piper uses found images from newspapers, magazines, and a credit application to create a collage with four separate images juxtaposed. The words "Forget It" are printed over the images in red letters. The word "forget" is placed over a white male referencing many white Americans' attitudes of forgetting about the "other." The word "it" is positioned over a black female, referencing the objectification of women and blacks in society. Walker is known for her black paper cutouts that represent racial stereotypes from the antebellum South. Through her work, Walker is attempting to confront her audience’s prejudices, fears, and desires. In Keys to the Coop, Walker shows a small child eating the head of a chicken. This is an example of the “wild children” Walker includes in many of her large-scale installations, and a comment on how slave children are perceived. Walker’s artwork also tends to deal with explicitly sexual content as well as issues of miscegenation, incest, child abuse, and rape. ______________________________________________________________________ The Museum’s collection focuses on twentieth-century and contemporary works by artists of African, Asian, and Latin American ancestry. Additionally, the Museum collects works by artists with strong ties to the Bronx. |