Art and Change

During my visit to the Art Student’s League of New York, my Art, Politics, and Protest class took a look at the Art from Anxious Times exhibit. I have to admit that many of the works were incredibly striking, and thought provoking. They brought forth a collective message that resonated in my ears: “What is our world coming to?” Current issues, such political corruption, social inequality, war, climate change, technological dependency and the power of the media were coming at us from all directions.

One painting that still lingers in my mind is “The Defeat of Anthropy.”, by Jean-Pierre Roy. It was the first painting I saw upon entering the room and certainly one of the largest. It is definitely a masterpiece, and because it is done in oil it looks like a photograph. Roy’s technique is simply amazing. The image shows the ruins of a once mighty skyscraper being engulfed by a forest’s canopy. The painting is void of signs of human life, hence the title, and only serves as a memory of the greatness we once possessed. It captures the essence of a post-apocalyptic world; a world in which nature has reclaimed what is rightfully hers.

The destruction could have been caused by a nuclear attack, an earthquake, a hurricane, a tsunami, or something beyond our imagination. Overall, it seems that we are the ones that will lead to that demise because our pollution promotes climate change that cause these radical storms, and we ourselves continue to use war as a solution. I guess, this painting just makes me think about how this could one day be the reality, and how we could be wiped clean from the planet with only buildings to tell other life forms about our existence.

On a lighter note, there was the “Unity Puzzle” by David Opdyke that really made me think about our nations and how we have created these divisions between each other. Wars are fought over these borders, and over the territories. Bloodshed based on parameters! The puzzle itself has attachments to each individual piece as if to say the piece can be removed at any time, so basically nations can come together to form larger nations and cease to exist. The borders are drawn in pencil to signify the ability to break these barriers, and how we really are all part of continuous land masses, we are all one already. The only ones stopping the real integration is us.

In terms of political corruption, conspiracy theory, and media censorship there was “Impeachment off the table.”, by Robert Cenedella. What a find! There is a collage of images: Bush as a puppet, Abu Ghraib-victim shaped hole in the one of the towers, stock numbers running at the bottom, and emphasizes on big time corporations like Disney and themes of religion. The symbolism is quite extraordinary. It’s a dark and in-your-face portrayal of America today.

Then, one contraption that caught my eye as I made my way around the room, was “The Last Minute”, by Ligorano and Reese. It looks like an alarm clock but it has a television screen and as it ticks and keeps time, it shows images of a person’s everyday habits, like scratching your head, or tapping your foot. They try to show how we have become slave to time and that we seem function in accordance with the clocks hands. If you watch closely, the movements correspond with the seconds. Its kind of scary, I never realized. Apparently, as they also show, as the hands slow down, so do we.

The last piece that really called out its message was “Googlegram 7: Tsunami”, by Joan Fontcuberta. I have to say the title does not fit the image from far away, because it shows a calm beach sunset with two palm trees. But as you approach the image you see that it has been created from countless smaller images, which of course I tried to take in as much as possible. There were images of corpses, crying children, media figures like Mr. Bean, and obese women in bikinis. I have to say if you stood there long enough you could laugh, grimace, wince, and see repeat offenders, all in one work of art. It is amazing what you can to with photography, the internet, well, technology itself.

Overall, the exhibit was amazing and really captured the true essence of our protest art. I left with many new things to think about and paintings to reference. All I can say is that I truly recommend the exhibit, and if you cannot go definitely look up the works that were displayed there, because you definitely missed a good one.