This week's blog was supposed to focus on our thoughts on visiting the Haitian art exhibition at the waterloo center for the arts. Well...upon arriving at the art center myself along with several other students came to discover that the gallery was closed because of veterans day. So excuse my lack of references in this blog.
On Tuesday, a major part of what we talked about dealt with stereotyping and and the fact that much of our opinions on certain stereotypes will never change because of who we are and how we are raised. I'm not saying that everyone who is "white" and attends a university is racist or anything like that but more along the lines that we cannot help but feel a certain way because of the uncontrollable circumstances that we were born into. Rotimi's article brought up the idea that certain issues are purposefully brought up in order to make a statement. He makes his artwork homosexual intentionally because he hopes to make a specific statement to his audience. In addition not only is he a homosexual man breaking barriers with his art content but he is also a black man battling racial stereotypes that no matter what will continue to exist.
One really interesting thing that we talked about in class was the new type of racism that we have in America. We may claim to be over the controversial issues that occurred in this country but the new type of racism that we are facing is pretending or acting like we do not acknowledge it at all. Many people act as if it does not exist but in its own strange sense, it is its own form of racism/stereotyping that continues to exist. We did an exercise in class that asked us to consider if overcoming/facing some kind of adversity encouraged or discouraged art making. While a majority of us felt that not having to deal with some sort of barrier would encourage art making for the "right" reasons I can see the point that someone would make by adversity promotes interesting art as well.
Overall the discussions we had in class this week along with the articles assigned really opened my eyes to a lot of things that I take for granted and overlook on a daily basis. I really wish I could have seen the Haitian art exhibit but I think that what I got out of Tuesday's class was enough to get me seriously thinking about the society that we live in today.
I'm glad Tuesday's discussion and the readings have gotten you thinking. Keep pushing yourself (and others around you) because I don't think "stereotypes will never change"--but the only way they can be eradicated is through awareness and addressing them directly.
ReplyDeleteI wish that I was able to attend Tuesday's lecture because stereotypes and the ideas/thoughts behind them are very interesting to me. I'm glad you touched on how even though people are "ignoring" differences today that it, essentially, is a form of racism. I've heard before that lying by omission is still lying. I think that can somewhat relate: racism by omission can still be racism. Not that it's an active form of racism BUT it's important that we are aware of the differences and experiences others bring to the table. We can then grow from others and learn from them.
ReplyDeleteI think that your blog hit a lot of points that my exerpt was lacking from. Like said in the above pointed, my attention was brought to the sentence of you saying how people "ignore" differences, and how that is a form of racism/stereotyping. I agree that especially before this class, the way we thought about certain things, objects, and people, was because we were programmed too. However, I think that after taking this class my opinions and the way that I and others in the class will look at not only art, but the world in a different light.
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