Bless Daniel- " The looks they give mother"
This piece is inspired by Juane Qiuck-To-See work as depicted as above. Instead of the United states being used as a bases, I used Africa as a way expressing my art. As an African American, I know that my ancestors came from this continent and albeit all textbooks depicts my history as so. Although I call America as my home, I know that deep down my real roots stem from Africa. The eye crying blood is meant to represent the people of Africa and how they are crying so hard that they are bleeding. They are doing so due to the many years of destruction and oppressing brung upon the land. The Ankh is there to represent god and how he watches over the land in protection. The sun represents the light of the land and one of the symbols used for Africa. In terms of the symbols within the hand drawn continent, they are to represent the ignorant showing of Africa as well as the its destruction. The Xs stand for land taken and conquered while the animals and gold are what other view Africa as. The "Motha-land" is the name us people in America or melanated people estranged from Africa may call Africa.
John Berger quotes :
"Publicity images also belong to the moment in the sense that they must be continually renewed and made up-to-date."
"Publicity is not merely an assembly of competing messages: it is a language in itself which is always being used to make the same general proposal. "
From the two chosen quotes in Berger's writing, I love the idea of how he paints the idea of the public shifting the views of media. Information in today's world are easily assessable and the attention spans of many have been shorten due to the overload of information being spread. A few years ago, the Trump scandals were a huge topic during the present moment but in today's present moment, it seems as a distance memory. It the masses is not reminded than who will keep the unimportant topics within the main discussion. I do also agree with the idea that publicity is its own language that many people do not truly understand. I do believe that many gives in to this language but yet do not understand the relationship between themselves and the language itself. Due to this fast past society, many people would go from problem to problem addressing serious matters but never truly commiting to it unless it is made a popular move. It is a sad reality but is something that should be accepted as fact and acknowledge as its a own problem to be solved.
Mirzeoff Quotes:
"It is also the case that the expectations she might have had had when freedom came in 1994 have not been met."
"Visually she refuses to be a victim"
I chose these quotes from the Mizeoff text as I can relate it to my people and how we have bee oppressed over the course of history. Just as the woman in the text, blacks have recently gained their freedom albeit close to 60 years ago, but fairly recent compared to other historical events. Although by law we have received freedom, racism still persists as a system of oppression to negate these laws. Just as the woman in the photo, we stood against this system, refusing to be shown as weak or victims by showcasing our greatness whether it'd be through sports or using guns to help our people feel protected in a world built against us. Although we have been disrespected and discredited over the years, we chose to expose this injustice and move beyond it through persistence and standing tall through adversity.
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