When Art is Used for Making a Statement

When Art is Used for Making a Statement

A contemporary art exhibition titled The Visual as Political, Artist Statements was shown from 24th until 28th of April 2017 at the Laverne Krause Gallery. The display was organized and curated by Sloane Kochman and Mason Moorman with the support of the UO Art History Association. Together they have managed to gather the works of a group of young and talented artists who have their own vision of various socio-political issues and were not afraid to make bold political statements, embodied and expressed in the pieces of art.

Among the participants of the exhibition, there were yet little known, but undoubtedly endowed artists, namely Nathan Bergfelt, Taylor Bowden, Gaby Chadowitz, Izzy Cho, Lily Cox-Skall, Haley Duhaime, Shool Haddadi, Tracie Jackson, Grace Kwon, Jade Lazaris, Asha Logan, Jessy Webster, and Sam Wrigglesworth. In spite of the fact that the exhibition was not limited to a single art form, like displaying photographs, paintings, posters, hand-made items, embroidery, and even video files, the main idea behind all of the exhibits remained common and could be understood as a will to express political protest.

The whole exhibition was literally saturated with the spirit of a silent art rebellion. Even the greeting sign, which was made in the style of an elegant and plain on-the-wall inscription, lightly illuminated by the plain white light on the negative space of the dark wall, reflected the idea of the whole display. The way the name of the exhibition was presented to the public was very symbolic at root, as it perfectly reflected an idea of the whole show and emblematized the notion of the cultural protest. The atmosphere was accompanied by the silence, which was once in a while interrupted by someone’s astonished whispers. It helped the visitors to concentrate on the inner essence of the presented works, allowing them not only to contemplate the visual details but also to intake the message of the author.

Among the variety of works displayed at the Laverne Kraus Gallery, there were certain exhibit items that caught the most of visitor’s attention. Taylor Bowden’s graphic artwork called The Boat people was definitely one of them. The picture consisted of two separate graphical sketches portraying the two drowned lifeless human figures that go down to the bottom in the shade of the passing boat. This artwork tells us a story of many poor Vietnamese people, who, saving their lives and fleeing by boats from the horrors of war that overwhelmed the country in the second half of the XX century, were unlucky to meet their end in the sea. The author did not merely made a tribute to the past, but rather warned the society of the fact that the history may be repeated again, namely in the Middle East. Bowden had masterfully transferred his powerful message to the public. He used gloomy and dark shades of grey and black that helped to create the atmosphere of grief, sadness, and desperateness. The author managed to evoke an emotional response and arose a feeling of compassion in viewer’s hearts, which definitely indicates the high value of this work.

Another showpiece of the exhibition, which compared favorably with the others, was the embroidery of Asha Logan, named the Wage gap. It may never grasp a visitor’s attention if the latter looks at this work without any desire to find its hidden meaning. However, the real value of the four roughly embroidered women’s faces that look like child’s drawings rather that a piece of art, lies not in the performance technique, but in the idea of the author. None of the faces, embroidered by Logan, is finished. Every woman on this piece of art is represented as a half of the person, an incomplete human being, someone who is not worth enough to be regarded as an integral member of society. This is an incompletion that conveys the idea embedded in the artwork. According to the author, she tried to show that even in the XXI century a woman is usually underestimated. Her work expresses a feminist protest against the inequality, especially in terms of wages, as one can see from the name of the embroidery. The author managed to show the idea that our society is still far from being truly equal. Through her work, Logan seems to have called the viewers to complete the images of women by themselves, as well as encouraged them to make the society changes too.

Apart from the social problems, the exhibition raised some political views of the artists. They could be easily seen in such political satires, addressed against Donald Trump, as Grab America by Jessy Webster and Hyperbole by Gaby Chadowitz. Both of the artists tried to express their own political visions of the current U.S. President and criticized him of the rhetorical manipulations.

The visit to the exhibition did not only gave me the feeling of aesthetic pleasure, received from the visuals seen at the display, but also made me think over many important social problems. Moreover, I was glad to get acquainted with the works of the new artists, whom I didn’t know before.

To conclude, the exhibition has deeply struck me to the bottom of my heart and made an indelible impression on me. The statements made by the artists aroused a swirl of emotions in my soul, ranging from sympathy to laughter, but none of the works left me indifferent.

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