2/27 Reading and quotes

Justin McHugh

2/27/2019

Pg. 40

“I got my first construction job via an experimental theater buddy.  Started out as a laborer.  Hauling things.  In time, I became a taper… back in those days a lot of visual artists did construction.  “

I found this quote interesting because these artists are in a way building and working in construction which is in a way related to art.  An artist builds or creates from a material in most cases, and that’s exactly what builders do in construction.  In a way the piece of art is the design and layout of the house along with the material used and the worker the artist with different tools adding to the structure of the canvas, until a mural of a completed house is done. 

Pg. 50

“For Ortiz-Torres, who lives in southern California, yard work is emblematic of the everyday labor of Latin American immigrants in California.”

I like the art by Ortiz-Torres and how he related it to the Latin American culture in California.  He specifically states that Latin American men and women are found regularly in gardening or field jobs in California.  These are immigrants. 

Pg. 117

“In 1988, performance artist Andrea Fraser took on the persona of a museum guide named Jane Castleton and led a critical and entertaining tour of the collection of the Maryland Historical Society in order to represent the racist histories that remained entombed there.”

I like how she infiltrated the museum and really brought light out to the racist art.  The original guides probably ignored racist undertones within the museum. 

Pg. 122

“A street stencil of a young African American on a bicycle by the graffiti artist Swoon reads very different when placed on the walls of the Guggenheim museum than it does on a brick wall in Brooklyn.”

I love this quote.  A piece of art can take on a whole different light or perspective when it is taken and put in a location where it is not viewed normally such as an urban setting verse a museum in a privileged neighborhood or upper-class neighborhood. 

Mapping Black Europe

Christopher Pastor

The first thing that caught my eye was the short film, black magic at the white house. I really loved the dancing, it really captivated my attention. It really went with the theme, like despite being ignored she was still there, dancing. She is dancing, it seems like a cultural voodoo dance. Throughout most of the video she is barely visible with a slight vision of her motion, with her appearing a mere seconds a couple times.  Despite being colonized she keeps her culture and seems to refuse to let it go. She unapologetically dances in this "white house" that I think is her trying to say something about our president right now. How she feels towards him. I think its very inspirational, like she is being forgotten and actively ignored yet she persists because she refuses to let her culture die or let society define her. Its no longer about her but her culture and its history, its a form of resistance, how she is dancing in a house made by salves that she acknowledges and in this short film forces the audience to acknowledge. When being taught history, we talk about Europe and brush over that they did in fact have slaves but usually is more focused on American slaves. 

Girl dancing from the short film black magic at the white house.

It's important to know your history, and in this film she bares her emotion towards the slave owning in Denmark. She does not try to shy away or sugar coat it but instead full acknowledge it by dancing in this house from a slave owner. She's embracing the past of what was but also, showing while it may not being studied its not lost, that she and surely others still preserve her culture. Also dancing in the house of the slave owner is almost like giving it to "the man" in a way. 

She is making some type of picture for this dance she is doing in Black magic at the White house.

The next video that I saw was Nigra Videri when I typed it into google translate means, black thought, which is a really pretty name. Throughout the film she is just walking it seems like on the way to her house of some sort. It seems like she takes this route a lot. But it is only her, no one else is around, and she says "I'm there when I want to". Almost as if she can just become invisible on command. It seems like no one pays her any attention so I don't think its that no one is actually there on the train but instead she feels alone.  

a picture of this girl riding the train in Nigra Videri.

Than a particular scene interests me, she goes into this white screen and climbs on top of a crow. It reads to me as if she's going into her own little world flying above the world, which from her eyes is predominantly white, and the world says creation from it, almost as if its excluding her from it despite being part of it. Like white people founded and created the world and she just lives on top of it but does not feel necessarily part of it. She did not belong. I think both of these films did an amazing job of conveying emotion and depicted a very clear story.

Girl getting on top of a black crow in Nigra Videri.

 f

This is a picture from the short film Black 

s to be a voodoo cultural dance

27/2 readings and project details

Reading Quotes

"In a single maneuver, Haacke had displayed the political economy that lurked just behind the walls of the museum."

The art world is very shallow in the sense that people don't necessarily buy art because they like it, not at the highest level that is, they buy it because it's valuable. On a lower level, people like us will buy a picture or a piece that we enjoy looking at, but there's more nefarious purposes that the art world offers than simply flaunting money and pompous. It's known that some people will hire private estimators as a means of concealing finances to avoid tax. The modern art world is absolutely a machine, not fuelled by the love of art, but the love of money, power, and status.

"Haha is using the technology to visually broadcast messages with topical interest submitted by residents of a given city."

Any time you see an advertisement, there's such a high chance of it potentially being paid for by a big company trying to sell you something or somehow make a profit on whatever general interest you may have. These messages come from real people who live in that city, just sharing information, or non-information, just whatever they'd like to share with their fellow city-dwellers. In the same string of seeing yourself on the big screen in Times Square, people like to feel like they're part of something, people enjoy knowing other people will be exposed to their existence, even if it's in the form of "This is my second home" outside of a Holiday Inn. There's a connection regained by this simple ability to share thoughts so casually, taking no longer than the time it takes for a taxi to drive past you.

Research and Investigative ideas

There's plenty of blog posts and short lists of women within criminology, but I'm struggling to find sources dedicated specifically to devoting time to recognise unconventional women in criminology, women who use their fame and status, gained from something else, in such a way that criminology is changed by them. Kim Kardashian is a very recent, high-profile example which has sparked quite a few articles about the bizarre reality that we'll have the name of a women predominantly famous for her sex-tape on US criminal justice legislation. This is what I'm interested into researching, not simply powerful, influential women with criminology degrees that were the first brave researchers to reject Strain Theory as too focused on the male-perspective. This project isn't set out to diminish the efforts of male researchers, but to acknowledge and thank the women who added a new take on the way the world works with an outsider perspective that they simply wouldn't have the ability to offer. We all come with new information because we all experience things differently. The absence of a formal education in a specific related area isn't required to bring a new spin. We grow by hearing each other's stories, and I hope to share some from women who have gone under the radar throughout the history books.

dis/location: Mapping Black Europe

Quotes

Seeing Power

p. 4 “The intensification of advertising and the rise of television, radios, film, video games, affective labor, music, software, and other content-delivery mediums have slowly-yet radically-altered the entire spectrum through which we understand and perform our daily lives”

               All sorts of media have made a huge impact when it comes to advertising because people are exposed to television, radios, or software; which anybody is able to advertise their products through the media.

p. 24 “Many art activists began to move their causes form the periphery to the center-whether that meant television, radio, film, or electoral politics and policy”

               Activists are now able to express their ideas in the media because media is now everywhere; and this goes well for art activist because they are able to be known to the public.

The Interventionists

p. 119 “With over half the world population now living in urban environment”

               This is true because you see more people that live in urban environment or that go there because that’s where their job is located. This is why urban cities are very populated.

p. 123 “Cyberfeminism is a the heart of the often contradictory contemporary positions of women working with new digital technologies and feminist politics”

               Cyberfeminism are feminists that use technology and are able to use media to express their idea.

Mapping Black Europe 

               In dis/location: Mapping Black Europe we see many artists that are expressing their identity. One is the artist named Jeannette Ehlers her work was video called Black Magic at the White House. In the video she is performing a dance but she is invisible; the dance she is doing is something that has to do with her culture and within that dance she is telling a story. After research the video the house she is in Marienborg and that place has a strong connection on the Danish slave trade.

She is performing a dance in the house but she is invisible

               Another artist is Avantia Damberg she did a video called Nigra Videri in this video she walks around the city however everywhere she goes she is being ignore by people like in the stadium and the train station people do not seem to see her.

She is at  a train station  but she is the only one

2/20 quotes

From:Seeing Power

"By the 1950's, Ford's assembly line told another kind of story:  each car was now composed of parts from all parts of the world."
      I love this quote.   It shows that capitalism & ideologies for capitalism spread across the world through demand of goods and parts.  Global capitalism!


pg. 33

"But for numerous activists, the project wasn't activism either- it was vague & oblique.  Stirring up conversations about the war seemed a comfortable luxury in the face of political realities. "

     Neat quote, and today we can raise the same concerns.  Is activists really seeking an agenda of activism or some malicious purpose>   Here these wealthy people just talking about war, but just as gossip point, not activism. 

From:  Interventionists

pg. 115

"Tactical media is situational, ephemeral, & self-terminating."

     I like this quote it shows that tactic or the way an art or activist presents themselves or the art has  a huge effect on the influence of society and people as individuals.  An example, that we spoke about in class was the flag that Dred Scott hung on the Embassy building that said Lynch Blacks.  It was so shocking it was an immediate attention grabber to the cause. 


pg. 119

"With over half the worlds population ow living in urban environments, Spurse's binding interest is in this increasingly urban condition of existence. "

     I love this quote.  Most of us live or lived in an urban area,  half the world and can relate to this piece of art activism.  Not only presentation, but how we relate to art & activism, has a huge affect on how it is presented in a way we can see ourselves as one who must stand behind the issue of the activist.

Mapping Black Europe

One of the postcards from Negerhossen2000

After visiting the Lemmerman Gallery, the two pieces that stood out to me the most from the Dis/location: Mapping Black Europe exhibition are the Negerhossen2000 and the Black Magic at the white house.
                The Negerhossen2000 really caught my attention from its presentation and the way it was set up - Everything was old school even the postcard gave off a rich history essence. To understand this piece is to understand the person that made it. Jean-Ulrick is an artist with a mission in mind. His art is meant to attract attention and awareness to old fashion misconceptions of race - gender and sexuality inequalities. What is unique about him is that he reconstructs these misconceptions using very subtle historical metaphors. The piece Negerhossen2000 is actually a part of a much bigger concept/project that Ulrick is working on called the white lessons project. The whole theme behind this is to have an " investigation of whiteness" This is primarily to test out the difference in treatment that whites get opposed to people of color.
          In this specific piece, the Negerhosen2000, Jean-Ulrick goes to a primarily white country ( Germany ) and dresses in lederhosen that is white in color. This experiment is to find out how people will treat him. Now, in this society, we are supposed to be very equal and accept people of different color and ethnicity and Jean-Ulrick was putting that to the test. He walked around public places in that outfit and was basically treated as a " Spectacle". People stopped him to take pictures and pose with him .. because he's black? If it was a white person walking, it would not have been such a big deal. It was such a close-minded environment that people did not know how to deal with a black person around them.
Thompson Nato said " It is hard to think of art without also thinking closely about the museums, art schools, and galleries through which most of it finds its way to the world ( Thompson 2015)" With the Negerhossen2000 it was neither of those things yet it is very influential art that makes a statement. Art does not need to be the most amazingly produced work but it's really the meaning behind it. Jean-Ulrick was able to shine more light on an issue that has been around for centuries - racism. He showed us that even in this free and advanced of a society - black will still be treated abnormally than whites. To me, the beauty of this piece is that it was not a hateful or white-shaming vibe, it was very lightweight and Jean was even smiling in some of those pictures that connected to a bigger issue that millions face on a daily. This was an activism piece in the sense that it did bring attention to an issue that is so fixed and deeply rooted in our society.
 

One of Jean-Ulrick's other pieces addressing transgenders 

         The second piece, the Black Girl Magic at the White House, was also one of my favorites. This was the first to really catch my attention. It was well done and everything in the video complimented each other in an artistic yet cultural way. The artist behind this piece is Jeannette Ehlers. Jeannette focused her Art around a big issue in Denmark which is colonial Amnesia. Europe also played its fair share of slaves and slave trading but somehow it is never talked about. It is almost like the entire country just pretends it never happened but they are still reaping the products from when they had slaves. Jeannette saw an opportunity to shine a light to that issue because it does need to be addressed and not swept under the rug because History tends to repeat itself.

          In her video, she has an imitation of herself dancing to the traditional Vodou Drumming dance in a house that was built on the backs of slaves. That video was like a time capsule showing her emotions of the times where Danmark participated in owning slaves. The motion of her appearing and disappearing throughout the dance expressed how invisible she felt at the time because slaves were treated so inhumane. Her dance summed up how proud she was of her culture and how that culture is also what was abused during that time. At first, I thought it was a regular traditional dance but it actually has a deeper meaning to it. The Vodou dance is performed to ask the gods for help, health, and protection from any evil spirits. She performed this dance in the house of a rich slave owner - the root of evil. That dance was a symbol to help the people that were kidnapped - sold - killed etc...

      Thompson said," Time and again, I have seen the potent merger of Art and Activism transform people's understanding with politics and their relationship with the world around them ( Thompson 2015)" This was so true for this piece because this took a historical event and transformed it into an Art piece that people will learn from. It will help people from all over the world connect to this piece of history and understand it through her eyes and unique way of expression. Pieces of Art that draw attention to issues like this end up helping the community so much because they give so many different interpretations and emotions of a traumatic point of time for people to feel.

Black Bullets: Beautiful piece from Jeanette expressing the success of Haiti's Independence during slave periods.

Screen Capture from Black Magic at the White House


Works Cited
Thompson, N. (2015). Cultural Production Makes A World. In N. Thompson, Seeing Power: Art and Activism in the Twenty-first Century ( intro ). New York: Melville House.

       

Mapping Black Europe

Patriarchy, a system of society or government in which the father or eldest male is head of the family and descent is traced through the male line, however, any kind of dominance can relate to this system. In "Black Magic at the White House", invisible female performs Voodoo dance in Marienborg. The performer Jeannette Ehlers makes herself invisible most of the time and shows herself just for few seconds. I personally felt that invisible performance represented how minor race would be in the major race's society. They are easily get ignored and belittled by the major, however, they would try to keep their identity, which is shown as the voodoo dance, drawing and Ehlers showing up for a second in the video. Ehlers decided to perform in Marienborg, since Denmark was one of the country who colonized Caribbean "From 1672 to 1917 Denmark had a colony in the Caribbean called the Danish West Indies". According to Thompson, "Didactic, by definition, means the desire to teach and moralize". By Ehlers' "Black Magic at the White House" I was able to learn about Denmark also colonized Caribbean just like other European countries. 

Nigra Videri is created by Avantia Damberg and Ailsa Anastasia. They wanted to talk about visibility and invisibility in our society. According to the artist statement "You can be there, but no one sees you, Until you want to, then you let your colors be seen and your sound be heard. At your own time." Even the character is a person who are able to give a speech to group of people, she stays invisible because she is colored skin female.
Thompson indicates "Many art critics, on the other hand, found that even though conversations with our experts proved interesting, the project  lacked any grounding in art". These artists are trying to critic of the uneven society, also known as patriarchy with their own way of art performing.

Thompson, N. (2015). Cultural Production Makes A World. In N. Thompson, Seeing Power: Art and Activism in the Twenty-first Century (p. 31). New York: Melville House.

Thompson, N. (2015). Cultural Production Makes A World. In N. Thompson, Seeing Power: Art and Activism in the Twenty-first Century (p. 36). New York: Melville House.

mapping black europe

Vianca Horta

Dr. Doris Cacoil

Acts of Resistance

February 20, 2019

Nigra Videri is a coordinated effort between Curacao based specialists Avantia Damberg and Ailsa Anastasia. Here we can look at the idea of perceivability/intangibility. The character delights in the way that she can vanish in the Dutch urban space. Agreeing to the craftsman explanation "You can be there, however nobody sees you. Until you need to, at that point you give your hues a chance to be seen and your sound be heard. At your own time." The control has a place with the hero. The organization is in the hands of the craftsman. The show gives us a guide of Europe by method for her frontier chronicles and would like to grow the thought of what "Dark Europe" looks, as and which nations ring a bell first. Nigra Videri is a movement about getting a charge out of to be undetectable. Appreciating to vanish in the dim Dutch urban culture. You can be there, however nobody sees you. Until you need to, at that point you let your hues be seen and your sound be heard. At your own time. Amid her residency Anastatia made a few new compositions and teamed up with Avantia Damberg on the movement video Nigra Videri. The video was introduced amid the opening of the Black Magic Woman Festival. By this Anastatia and Damberg made a display together at the Center for Visual Arts Zuidoost (CBK Zuidoost) around the focal subject of Black Magic Woman Festival: Sharing Identities. In the display Anastatia demonstrated a few new works that she made amid the residency. The movement video Nigra Videri was likewise displayed inside the gathering show Amsterdam In Front Of You at the Pop-up Gallery Amsterdam.

Black Magic At The White House is a 2009 video piece by Jeannette Ehlers. She is rendered about undetectable by means of video control, plays out a vodoun move in Marienborg which has a solid association with the Danish slave exchange. Ehlers wishes to reveal insight into the frontier amnesia in Denmark. The craftsman's very own ethnic foundation, with a Danish mother and a Father from Trinidad, West Indies, adds additional solidarity to her works, which utilize carefully controlled photos and video to put the Transatlantic Slave Trade and it's effect on current society under the magnifying lens. The house was worked as a late spring living arrangement for the Commander Olfert Fischer in 1744. Who sold it to trader Peter Windt and additionally had made a lot of riches from the slave and sugar exchange.

“Based on my own Danish West Indian background, I examine and process themes related to the transatlantic slave trade that, despite the predominant collective repression, still play an important part in our society. My work is a personal taking history to task and a protest against the suppression of and often ignorant attitude towards these problems that I meet in this part of the world.”

Citations:

Black Magic at the White House – ArtoftheMOOC.org Artofthemooc.org http://artofthemooc.org/wiki/black-magic-at-the-white-house/

Dis/Locations- Karla Almonte

 Dis/Locations: Mapping Black Europe

Whilst wandering around the Harold B Lemmerman gallery at New Jersey City University in Jersey City, I stumbled upon an eye-grabbing exhibition from artists of African diaspora in Europe. The exhibition consisted of a series of work created from the early 2000s to the current date in which the artists portrayed their identity and experiences throughout the years in a culture that has tried to intentionally exclude them and erase their presence. The work was curated by the Professor Deborah Jack, whom describes the exhibition to be an “incomplete attempt to disrupt the notion of what it means to be European, and a look at how some artists are craving out a space for themselves and the ever evolving space of the European city”.

Jeanette Ehlers, artist based in Denmark.

Consisting in video montages, installations and paintings, the artists presented challenge cultural identity, nationality and space in activist ways. They represent the black and immigrant population that enriches Europe with their spiritual beliefs, traditions and authenticity. The way in which these pieces challenge cultural identity is palpable, especially in the visual components of the exhibition. In Black Magic at the White House, the artist Jeannette Ehlers assembles a video montage in which cultural identity is being erased from her. The audiovisual consists on her performing a Vodun dance in Marienborg, the video was digitally manipulated so one can only be aware of a silhouette performing in a white space, causing spectators to interpret it as an oppression from the whites. If one dissects the montage, one can become aware of the symbolism behind the artwork. For instance, the white house can symbolize the vast population of whites in Europe as well as it can symbolize authority if we connect it to American culture. By assuming its connection to the whites, we are affirming the oppression of identity since the overpowering presence of the whites is eliminating the presence of the folkloric cultures. However, Ehlers also brings into the conversation slavery. By selecting Marienborg as the location for the digital intervention, she connects it to an historic event that has eventually led to the subjugation of blacks in a contemporary moment, slave trade. As stated by Deborah Jack in the curator’s statement, Marienborg was a historical house previously owned by Peter Windt whom became a powerful man in results of trading slaves and the profits that surged from producing sugar. Windt transported slaves to Denmark, where this all takes place, and it is believed that Ehlers is performing this “Ghost Dance” in honor to their endurance.

Black Magic at the White House, Jeannette Ehlers

Remy Jungerman, artist based in Amsterdam.

            Another piece showcased in the exhibition was Horizontal Obeah GOLIO, this artwork was assembled by Remy Jungerman, a Surinamer artist based in Amsterdam. With this piece, Jungerman takes modernism and African culture and collides them seamlessly to address Eurocentric spatial systems and its omission of African migration. He merges African patterns, maroon culture and twentieth-century modernism to depict the condensation of time in his installations. Using grids, lines and primary colors is a repetitive pattern that can be found in his past work; he composes them in map-like forms and incorporates other objects that interact with the piece. The composition of this work is well-balanced, he effectively utilizes color to represent the influence of Mondrian and bathes those with colors and motifs of the Winti religion. By having that contrast of Western culture and African culture, Jungerman brings attention to the historic relation between the two, and looks to create a different center where western culture is not dominant anymore. In a way, he is challenging the imperialistic society that has dominated contemporary art and has pushes aside the influence of African culture towards the previous mentioned. Furthermore, the curator of the exhibition exalts an interesting rhetorical question in her statement, she asks if the map being formed is a city or a space of overlapping cultures, languages, and histories. Personally, I believe he is trying to redefine the space and convert it into a place with more cultural inclusion. A place in which you do not only know about western culture, but you know more about your own heritage. He is trying to step away from a constructed Eurocentric center that has been integrated in everybody’s culture, and create many centers where difference is welcomed.

Horizontal Obeah GOLIO, Remy Jungerman.

Both pieces mentioned above are challenging the system that has only favored the whites, meaning they are indeed intervening for a cause. Bell hooks mentions in her book Understanding Patriarchy, that if we engage in collective denial about a systems impact, we won’t be able to dismantle it, and Jungerman and Ehlers are very much aware of the western context and its impact in our perception of art and culture. We are used to seeing activist work being violent and vulgar, or at least some might categorize it as such; this leads us to believe that passiveness cannot be related to activism. However, I consider these pieces to be examples of an intervention and activism. These artists are addressing issues that affect a minority group in an elegant way per se, they are dismembering European culture by trying to insert themselves into a space that has not permitted them to enter. In the book Seeing Power, Nato Thompson says “the increasing privatization of space, culture, and time speaks to a powerful new system that artist and activists must reckon with- and work within” (Page 27) and that’s what these artists are doing, they are studying the Eurocentric system and working from the inside that way they can reconstruct it.

Works cited

Thompson, N. (2015). Cultural Production Makes A World. In N. Thompson, Seeing Power: Art and Activism in the Twenty-first Century (p. 27). New York: Melville House.

Hooks, B. (2004). The will to change : Men, masculinity, and love (p.24) (1st Atria books hardcover ed.). New York: Atria Books.

https://www.contemporaryand.com/fr/magazines/remy-jungerman-the-space-in-between/

https://remyjungerman.com/2012-2015/

dis/Locations: Mapping Black Europe Essay

Johanna Riera

Dr. Doris Cacoil

Acts of Resistance

February 20, 2019

Self-Identity in a Multicultural Society

Typically as humans we like to believe that our opinion matters based on our own experiences. Unfortunately, we live in a society in which individuals' opinions matters only relative to their identity along with where their identities rank in the hierarchy of intersectionality. Often, this leads to a significant gap between different people. Which in return leads to a lack of progression as a whole society due to intersectionality. In the gallery, "dis/locations: Mapping Black Europe" the importance of valuing self-identity is explored as  artists of African diaspora in Europe proudly voice their experiences through art.

dis/locations: Mapping Black Europe conveys this message via theme of invisibility
amongst people from different cultures. 

In the piece, Horizontal Obeah GOLIO, by Remy Jungerman, the cotton fabric, paint, and wood are used to intertwine different cultures into one art work.  In the article "Remy Jungerman: Based In", Jungerman states, "My research and work focuses on finding the running thread that links together the cultural esthetics of three continents: Africa, Europe and the Americas.” In addition to this, according to the curator's statement Jungerman is most interested in raising the question, "Is the city a grid or is it a space of overlapping cultures, languages, and histories?" Perhaps, this is the reasoning behind the black grid depicted in the piece. According to the curator this particular grid represents "many points of departure, multiple routes, and destinations". Take for example, in New York City, people barely interact with one another. Everyone is very busy walking to their own destination. With this information it can be analysed that the artist is trying to address the issue whether as a society, is culture embraced or is it treated like a legitimate city where not everyone pays attention to one another. As discussed in class, intersectionality is a form of identity politics by which the value of  people's opinions depends on how many victim groups they belong to. This relates back to treating cultural differences like cities where not everyone embraces unique people, rather they go on about their day and simply pay attention to what they want  to hear or what they believe is credible. Which in today's society is upper class, white, and straight people. Overall, Jungerman does an excellent job in forming his piece like a white ship and providing small cloth details in efforts to merge his own cultural backgrounds with the whiteness of the ship. The white within this piece goes on to represent the elite within society. Placing a grid on his work goes to question this whether cultures are really being merged together in a positive way.

Art piece: Horizontal Obeah GOLIO by Remy Jungerman. Remy Jungerman was born in Suriname however,
he lives in Amsterdam. The use of lines, grids, and materials are used to make a connection between the African
Maroon culture of Suriname and Dutch modernism. 

Another aspect that plays into the lack of integration within society is gender. In society, both males and females hold a different value. Men are known to be smarter with the ability to hold difficult  careers as opposed to women. Such a gender barrier is clearly shown in the book, The Will to Change  by Bell Hooks, the narrator states:

The recollection of this brutal whipping of a little-girl daughter by a big strong man, served as more than just a reminder to me of my gendered place, it was a reminder to everyone watching/remembering, to all my siblings, male and female, and to our grown-woman mother that our patriarchal father was the ruler in our household. (Hooke 21).

Society including our very own parents may go as far as to set this gender barrier. In this case, the little girl was punished simply because she liked to play marbles. Due to this she was looked down upon by her family. Unfortunately, this is this is still an ongoing mindset. Artists' Ailsa Anastatia and Avantia Damberg both depict gender barriers in the piece Nigra Videri. In the video clip, the dark-skinned woman has the ability to simply disappear in the Dutch urban space. She states, "I am there, but I am not". This introduces the notion of visibility and invisibility within a city. The fact that the main character in this clip is a black woman puts her existence in the lower rankings of the hierarchy of intersectionality. This is very much relevant to what goes on in a patriarchal society where the color and gender depicts whether you are heard/respected within society. The girl in the video is there but is not really there because her voice is not heard in the Dutch urban space especially, in an area that is highly populated by white people.

Nigra Videri by Ailsa Anastatia and Avantia Damberg denoting the theme of visibility/invisibility in a Dutch urban space.  

According to Laura Ingalls Wilder, "Persons appear to us according to the light we throw upon them from our own minds". Such a quote exemplifies what an ideal mindset should practice regardless of the opinions of society. If society did not form an invisible type of checklist to make someone eligible as worthy then perhaps the world would progress more rapidly. Given that different cultures consist of unique people and therefore, unique perspectives then such input could truly come to innovate the word. Pieces like the Horizontal Obeah GOLIO and the  Nigra Videri voice such unfairness within society. Author John Berger states in Ways of Seeing that “Publicity speaks in the future tense and yet the achievement of this future is endlessly deferred” (146). This relates to how the aforementioned pieces of art speaks about the possibilities of a more open society in the future however, it is important to seek manners by which we can influence society via activism through art in efforts to bring a more inclusive society.

Ultimately, it is important to understand that every person is distinct with unique qualities and abilities despite the generalization society tends to make. 

Work Cited

Berger , John. Ways of Seeing. waysofseeingwaysofseeing.com/ways-of-seeing-john-berger-5.7.pdf.

Hooke , Bell. The Will to Change. The Commission, 1967.

Mapping Black Europe

Luis Gonzalez

Acts of Resistance: Activist, Interlopers, and Pranksters SP 19

Professor Cacoilo

February 12, 2019

Mapping Black Europe

Remy Jungerman, a Dutch artist of Surinamese descent, explores parts of the spiritual culture from his country of origin and the visual culture of his adoptive homeland. Jungerman links these cultural signs and symbols into three-dimensional constructions using wood, cotton fabric, clay, nails and paint and two-dimensional structures in cotton fabric, clay and paint. His research and work are focused on finding the connection that links together the cultural principles of three continents, which are Africa, Europe and the Americas. The long, narrow 3-D grids of his sculptural work and the 2-D grids in his paintings refer to the patterns of Surinamese plantations as well as the geometry of fields and barriers of Holland. As per Thompson, “What proved most striking about capitalism’s ecstatic devotion to cultural production wasn’t its flattening ability, it was its potential to produce thousands of new identities” (Thompson 9). The horizontal appearance of the ocean is a comparison to the separation of land and cultures, but also explains the connection between the cultural and physical metaphors in Jungerman’s work. Jungerman’s mother’s family originally came from the Maroons. At that time African slaves who escaped custody would often settle with the native populations in the jungles of the Americas. This cultural heritage of customs and rituals was transported to Suriname from numerous parts of the African continent, specifically the Winti religion of Suriname. Winti is an Afro-Surinamese traditional religion that originated in South America and developed in the Dutch Empire. It carried the use of specific materials filled with symbolic meaning and can be seen in Jungerman’s use of geometric Afro-Surinamese textiles, clay and nails. Each fabric’s pattern and colors have specific meanings in the Winti religion. The clay was meant to rub on your face and body and acts like a charm to protect rituals from negative influences and, like African sculptures, each nail represents a wish or prayer. Jungerman also includes the visual of De Stijl, a Dutch movement in art and design founded in 1917 that began spiritual enlightenment and caused a decrease to the necessities of form and color, especially the use of the straight line. His sculptures and paintings thrived with references to Piet Mondrian’s grids and tablets and Gerrit Rietveld’s Red and Blue Chair, among others. Geometry is what brings together Jungerman’s cultural and artistic influences. The nature of the grid is a representation of Jungerman’s cultural and artistic identity, and it expresses a combination of individual feelings. The opposite horizontal and vertical lines that were involved with the craftsmanship are full of emotions and loaded with symbolic potential.   

Remy Jungerman - Horizontal Obeah GOLIO

Remy Jungerman - Pimba Cajana 

All of Jeannette Ehlers works are related to the Danish slave exchange in the provincial time. In her works she reveals an understanding of the frontier amnesia in Denmark. Atlantic went up against Denmark's quietness in regard to their presence with the Danish transatlantic oppression exchange, and through physical removal, the corporal figures are examples of annihilation of character, pioneer amnesia, and the refusal of slavery's presence inside Danish talk. Ehlers has a Danish mother and a Father from Trinidad, which adds additional solidarity to her works. Jeannette Ehlers’s work is better known as experimental nature. Ehlers 2009 video Black Magic at the White House is focused on a chapter in Danish history that was unrevealed. It was part of a severe participation in the slave trade and colonialism. Through her influence video, she puts under the microscope the Danish triangular trade across the Atlantic between Denmark, the Caribbean and the Gold Coast. In the video Ehlers performs a voodoo dance in a house in Marienborg, Copenhagen, which was built as a summer residence of Commander Olfert Fischer and later owned by several others of the era's trading men who created a great deal of wealth from the slave and sugar trade. Today Marienborg still plays an important role in Denmark, in terms of its position as the official residence of the country's prime minister. According to Thompson, “Technologies like film, television and radio were not just feature of the daily lives of a young generation, they had to become an integral part of how one understood the world” (Thompson 8). The video is described as a poetic performance that serves as a documentary and most importantly shows a reflection and memory of the Danish slave trade. Ehlers Black Magic at the White House studies the relationships between slave trade, economic wealth, and the ghostly value of artworks as possessions. The ceremony is therefore considered an exorcism of the artistic spirits of coloniality. 

Jeannette Ehlers 2009 video - Black Magic at the White House 

Jeannette Ehlers performs a voodoo dance in Marienborg  

Works Cited 

Thompson, N. (2015). Seeing power: Art and activism in the 21st century. Brooklyn, NY: Melville House.