By Leslie Do, Hoang Phuong Vy Nguyen, Miggy
Cruz, and Jingyi Dong
Our
animation shows that the rewriting of history can create false images of race
traitors and taint the prestigious familial reputation of Native American women
as cultural translators and diplomats. The book Malinche, Pocahontas and Sacagawea inspired our animation and compilation of many photographs. We created a GIF file consisting of puzzle pieces that transform a portrait of the three mothers into their sons. The silhouette of the transformation symbolizes the converging narratives of the sons as the evolved forms of race traitors.
American colonial powers can use the rewritten history of Malinche, Pocahontas, and Sacagewea as "race traitors" to weaken their powerful socioeconomic statuses and legacies as cultural translators and First Nations diplomats. Consequently, the three Native American diplomats' perceived status as race traitor also renders the future generation of their mixed race descendants (such as their sons) as powerless race sell-outs who married colonizers.
As artists, our overall mission is to expose the current conditions of the institutionalization and co-optation of Asian American studies at UC Davis -- especially since ASA has shifted from fighting for equality to being predominantly focused on racial, ethnic labels only. Our artwork will bring back insurgency and fighting for equality in the next generation of ethnic studies. For instance, we challenge the idea that activism is not just about taking a photograph of yourself in solidarity with an oppressed group’s fight against structural, social injustice and then ending your call to action after you submit the photographs, because narratives and photographs alone are not enough to fight against violations of fundamental, legal rights in the US courts.
It's definitely unique that this is a GIF and not traditional photography! There's a strong narrative here but without the statement I would not have understood/recognized the imagery completely. I don't see how the image itself relates to the ASA department at UC Davis exactly but I get the politically/socially charged message behind it. Overall the artist statement is very well written, no improvements needed.
ReplyDeleteThis is a straight-forward piece on Native American women, who helped the Europeans, as race traitors. Without the artist statement, I would not have understood the depth of the rapid-paced gif. I feel that an elaboration on the Native American women's point of view would make the artist statement stronger. For instance, writing that these women may have fallen in love, were under working under threat, had something to gain, etc.
ReplyDeleteThis was a great twist in creating a photo, love it! The statement showed a lot of explanation of the issues and the history of being equal for Native Americans. The only improvement I think would be to have a more specific explanation of Colorism of the Native Americans as we talked in class.
ReplyDeleteThis piece is very unique and interesting to look at. The artist statement matches well with the photo and it also relates back to this week readings. I wish the statement would elaborate a little bit more on how Native American women are seen as race traitors for helping the Europeans.
ReplyDeleteThis is incredible, I love it. I like that you went with animated photography instead of the usual photograph -- it definitely sets you aside from the others. The message behind the photo is clear and the artist statement is concise. Good job.
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ReplyDeleteI thought that your group's take on this week's art project was very interesting! However, the GIF was a bit fast-paced making it a bit difficult to see the actual pictures. Something that I felt that could have been included in your statement was why your group chose to break the pictures up into puzzle pieces and why your group chose to merge the pictures of the three mothers and sons together. Moreover, while I did agree with the last paragraph of your artist statement, I wasn't really sure if it complements well with your artwork.
ReplyDeleteWow this art project is pretty cool. I like it because it does portray about the themes of a race traitor and those race traitors helping the Europeans. Doing a gif than a picture is very creative. The gif does go with the artists statement.
ReplyDeleteThis art projects looks like it took so much time to put together. Your art piece clearly talks about certain topics and readings that we discussed in class. Although it is an interesting piece, I would say it is a little too fast for the audience to clearly identify each image and understand the meaning as a whole.
ReplyDeleteI like the art piece a lot, it is very beautiful. I am also impressed you were able to incorporate the readings of Malinche and the others into your piece, I know I couldn't figure out a way to do for this weeks project. Your artist statement is clear and easy to follow.
ReplyDeleteThe approach to provide photo image is interesting turning into .gif. I like the concept of puzzles, piecing different narratives of race traitors and heroism. I feel that the artist statement is clear that putting race traitor in the .gif only takes away from me exploring the puzzle images clearly.
ReplyDeleteWow! I enjoyed this piece very much. The puzzles demonstrates how these women from different times can intersect with their narratives. It took me a few tries to be able to see the picture of the sons. The point you made about transforming the sons narratives into one is awesome. I wish you had gone more in depth into what circumstances these women are tied to the men they were with.
ReplyDeleteI think this is an incredible animation to reflect this week's teachings. It offers a very creative and clever way to portray the idea of a "race traitor." It reflects the artist's statement really well and I think the message is well portrayed.
ReplyDeleteThis particular art piece had a twist in comparison to a simple photograph, and I liked it. The concept of it was beautiful as it showed a Native American woman who is/was claimed a race traitor then her silhouette shows the next generation to come. Many would have looked down upon when a Native American woman would betray her people and marry into the American/European bloodlines, creating new mixed blood within the offsprings that had to deal with issues rooting from possibly their skin tone and being able to find a new, hopefully positive, socioeconomic stance. I believe the artist statement did well with describing their artwork without delving too deep into the issues.
ReplyDeleteSuch a thoughtful project that takes some seriously grievance with how Malinche, Pocahontas, and Sacagawea and their sons have been portrayed. Clearly a lot of work was put into this provocative piece. I think it could have been improved upon if the images of the women could have been clearly shown as individuals that morphed into one another and with clear labels. Same with the son's image. Like, "Malinche, Pocahontas, and Sacagawea...(with morphing but seeing each face clearly first)..and their children...). Then add the Race Traitors after each major morphed image. A consideration/suggestion only.
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