Johnson_C_Public Art as Public Culture


Charles Gaines: Moving Chains


This is a public art display on the governor's island in New York. Made from trees located in West Africa called African Mahogany. This structure is supposed to mimic the hull of a ship with a chain that moves kinetically to mimic the waves of trade and commerce in New York. This is a nod to the African slave trade in colonial America which helped build the nation to what it is today. The chains on top are all pristine and fresh with one rusted chain in the middle and the rusted chain in the middle. The middle-rusted chain could be a nod to slavery or to a broken shackle. It is an impactful and creative public art display that puts you back in that time and makes you think. It also mimics the waves and the current of the trade which is cool. The fact remains that there is a call back to the legacy of slavery which still has an impact on some of the systems and structures in place today. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Blacksmiths of Modernity and Soviet-era Mosaics

Image
  Blacksmiths of Modernity and Soviet-era Mosaics Grace Campbell ARTH1132: Modern to Contemporary Art and Design Professor Joanne Kesten Oct 22, 2023 Figure 1. Zubchenko, Halyna. Pryshedko, Hryhorii. Blacksmiths of Modernity. 1974, Institute for Nuclear Research, Kyiv. Figure 2. Zubchenko, Halyna. Pryshedko, Hryhorii. Blacksmiths of Modernity. 1974, Institute for Nuclear Research, Kyiv. Blacksmiths of Modernity is a Soviet-era mosaic located outside of the Institute for Nuclear Research, Ukraine, Kyiv. Most Western audiences can identify this piece because of its appearance in HBO’s Chernobyl , a limited series that portrays the horrors of the Chernobyl nuclear accident. Like most mosaics from this period, the key component of the piece is the smalti. Smalti are tiny pieces of opaque glass in various shapes. The history of mosaics and smalti extends far before the Soviet Union. Mosaics themselves have been an art form found all the way back in Mesopotamia. However, most mosaics in...
Read more

Blacksmiths of Modernity

Image
  Zubchenko, Halyna. Pryshedko, Hryhorii. Blacksmiths of Modernity. 1974, Institute for Nuclear Research, Kyiv. Blacksmiths of Modernity is a Soviet-era mosaic located outside of the Institute for Nuclear Research, Ukraine, Kyiv. Like most mosaics from this period, it is made of smalto. When examined further, viewers can see the small pieces of glass populating the wall. Thus creating a 3D piece with multiple layers. The piece itself depicts two well-built men pushing rays of light into an orb that centers the pieces. The man on the right cups the orb with a free hand, studying it intently. In contrast, the man on the left focuses on the task at hand. Furthermore, while the color does vary from photo to photo it is supposed to be highly saturated. This goes back to the soviet area when those in power wanted to brighten up the bland and lifeless landscapes. So, this piece utilizes a mostly triadic color palette. A deep blood orange is used for the men and the orb, while blues, yello...
Read more

Mothers of Gynecology - Final Paper

Image
  Marra Thompson Modern & Contemporary Art Joanne Kesten 10/22/2023 Mothers of Gynecology Medical distrust for black people has always been there since the beginning of the myth that black people have bigger pain tolerance than their white counterparts. This all started with multiple false claims made by scientists and physicians in the 1800s stating that black people were biologically closer to apes while white people were evolving more. Branching off of here, this trickles down into the belief that black people were hypersexual and were less intelligent than white people and this belief was heavily pushed onto black women slaves. With that knowledge, an artist has made an impact with that history in mind.   Mothers of Gynecology by Michelle Browder. What is it exactly? Well, it is a monument made in 2021 that resides in Montgomery, Alabama that depicts three enslaved black women who were used in medical experimentation by Dr. James Marion Sims in the late 1840s in ...
Read more