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| Envision the Future |
Inspiration/ Influences:
My project draws inspiration from various artists and techniques, gathering elements from Dadaism, specifically the use of "quadrants" to convey contrast, coupled with collage art that addresses political issues involving immigration and land rights. I was also influenced by Marina Abramović. Because of her and the other performance artists we studied, I decided to incorporate interactive elements, using 3D glasses to physically engage the audience. Additionally, Wendy Red Star's impact on my work can be seen in my utilization of the Crow peace delegation picture, aiming to shed light on the erasure and cultural genocide of indigenous communities.
Objective (Content):
I aim to highlight the irony of history where the indigenous peoples faced land theft and cultural obliteration by the very immigrants who now are the ones who call themselves “Americans” and oppose immigration. My project sheds light in this paradoxical narrative, questioning societal perceptions and challenging the hypocrisy within historical narratives regarding the topic of who has the right to citizenship in the United States. In addition, the project also shows the positive sides of immigration along with the progress we have been making to address the issue (which can be seen in the blue pictures once you look through the lens of change). This content is deeply reflecting my own sense of self, as though I do not struggle with how I perceive myself physically, I struggle on how to perceive myself culturally.
The project has many subjects including historical issues/stories regarding immigrants (Japanese American camps during WW2) and Native Americans (American Indian boarding schools), immigrant identity, struggles with immigration (the southern border, immigration detention camps, boats of immigrants, separation of families), xenophobia (Asian hate during COVID), and islamophobia (Including the current Gaza situation).
3 of the quotes
"Even her earlier pieces often demanded the viewers’ participation and forced them to become involved with the artwork."
NYTimes | Being Marina Abromovic
This quote resonates on how both me and Marina wanted our art to be more interactive and involve the audience in an unique way.
“If we can see the present clearly enough, we shall ask the right questions of the past.”
John Berger, Ways of Seeing
This quote perfectly describes one of the messages I am trying to convey with my project. It is only by looking at the history as a whole, that we will understand the current issues happening. For example, it is necessary to observe the current issues and realize that history repeats itself, and that we must change the present if we want to diverge from repeating the same mistakes.
“Once we have learned how to see the world, we have taken only one of the required steps. The point is to change it.”
Nicholas Mirzoeff, How to See the World
I chose this quote because I do not want to only show and highlight the problems. I also want to show part of the solution, the “lens of change” that we can look through to begin addressing the issue. We must first see and learn the history and roots of an issue, but we cannot stop there.
Explain the process:
The process of making this project was divided into different parts: (1) research, (2) online editing, (3) assembling the materials.
Research of Images: For this part of the project I tried to find one image addressing different issues regarding immigration/right of land, along with an image showing the progress made in the area. I began researching and decided I would like to address the following topics in my project:
Trump vs. The Southern Border
Current Gaza situation vs. Islamophobia
Xenophobia (particularly to Asian Americans during Covid and WW2)
American Indian Boarding Schools (and their cultural genocide) vs. Wendy Red Star work on reclaiming the culture erasure
The current generation fight for diversity vs. the old generation fight for the end of immigration
Unsafe travels immigrants have to perform to escape their countries
How the country was built by immigrants
Family separation due to deportation
Migrant workers vs. “Stolen Jobs”
Immigrant IDENTITY
Remember, remember always, that all of us, and you and I especially, are descended from immigrants and revolutionists. -Franklin D. Roosevelt
"Perhaps we are all immigrants trading one home for another. First we leave the womb for air, then the suburbs for the filthy city in search of a better life. Some of us just happen to leave entire countries" -Rupi Kaur
"Do you know what a foreign accent is? It's a sign of bravery." - Amy Chua
"Immigrants, we get the job done." -Lin Manuel Miranda, Hamilton
"You have to understand, that no one puts their children in a boat unless the water is safer than the land" -Warsan Shire
"You broke the ocean in half to be here. Only to meet nothing that wants you" - Nayyirah Waheed
"So, here you are, too foreign for home, too foreign for here. Never enough for both." - ljeoma Umebinyuo
Online editing: after I chose my pictures for the project, I had to edit them into the right color scheme so the “Lens of Change” could be used. The way the editing works is based on the fact that the color red is turned into black and white when looked through a blue lens, as opposed to blue, which becomes more vivid when looked through a blue lens. By editing the pictures colors to match their assigned category (red being the bad things/issues, and blue being the positive sides and fights to solve the issue), I was able to create an optical illusion where my entire project would only show the positive images when the audience looks through the blue lens provided in the “Lens of Change” (3D glasses)
Assembling the materials: this project used a multitude of materials, where each different material signifies something of importance.
- 1- Shape of the medium: the Statue of Liberty was more than the perfect medium for me to execute my project. This is because the statue was the first thing immigrants saw while coming through Ellis Island, making it a great piece of immigration history, and a good medium for me to place such an elaborate discussion project.
- 2- Broken mirror: the mirror reflects the shattered identity of immigrants/Native Americans. Intentionally shattered to reflect a surrealist figure of the person observing, the mirror shows how having to adapt into a new culture can cause a loss of identity and an identity crisis. This topic is also addressed in some of the quotes, where it is stated that immigrants are “too foreign for here, too foreign for home”.
- 3- Painting with digitals: I chose to paint the project with digitals because I wanted to make a connection to how federal documents require biometrics, associating digitals with the right of citizenship. The entire statue is painted with blue and red digitals, corresponding to Americans (red) and Immigrants (blue). However, the constitution itself is deprived of the blue digitals, showing that the laws are still against facilitating immigration.
- 4- 3D glasses ("Lens of Change"): This material was a personal choice of mine because I knew I wanted to do something big and different for my final project. I did not want to do something that had been done before. The idea came to me after much thinking and I knew I had to execute it.
- 5- Images (Collage): The images are responsible for the contrast and duality of the issues and solutions of the topic being addressed. As mentioned, each image was picked based on different historical events.
- 6- Torch to place the “Lens of Change”: I did not want to have my project rely on a person distributing the glasses. I wanted my art to be interactive enough to where the observer would only need the art project to have the experience. The torch was made out of multiple aluminum cans and cardboard for support. The “Lens of Change” is located inside the torch because of a correlation with “shedding a light in the issue”, considering it is a literal torch, which emits light.
Extra Questions:
• What do you think this self portrait conveys to the audience/viewers
I believe this self portrait conveys reflection and an incentive to be more active and politics and to better understand political issues regarding immigration/right of land. In addition, it conveys empathy and shows a little insight in the identity issues faced by immigrants and Native Americans in the United States.
• What are the differences between your first self-portraits (3) and this self-portrait (final)?
The difference is that this work was way more elaborate, bigger (size), approached a different topic than my previous self-portraits which talked about the struggles of college students with time (Kitchen Table Series), roles of women in society (photo series), and my own identity of self when I moved from Brazil which reflected my past self and my current self (collage). This project approached identity in a larger, more sophisticated way in which I present not only my own self perception, but also the “shattered identity” of those who had an intense culture clash due to having to adapt into another culture.
• What influenced these changes? Have you pushed yourself and learned from the artists we discussed? How?
What influenced my changes was my artistic development as well as my wish to make something good and meaningful as my final project. I learned a lot from the artists we discussed in class and pushed myself to discover many more artists while working on my project. I used what I learned from multiple works and art styles to construct my project.
• How does the spectacle/media influence identity and self presentation?
The project influences identity and self presentation by showing how my own identity, and the identity of many other immigrants, is a fragile sense of self which was constructed with parts from our own country which often clash with our new place of living and different culture.
References:
1- John Berger, Ways of Seeing
2- Nicholas Mirzoeff, How to See the World
3- NYTimes | Being Marina Abromovic https://www.nytimes.com/2022/07/08/t-magazine/marina-abramovic.html
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