By Miggy Cruz
ASA 115 Mixed Race Experiences: Race Traitors re-opened the
discussion on the experiences of mixed race individuals. They had a history
that gave them advantage and privilege (Smallwood). However, that history has
been distorted due to a shift in power and mindset of the dominant group, the
White European-Anglo. Non-whites, began to be idealized as minorities, and
those who did not follow the laws of society were deviants. Minorities were
labeled as such, what more are mixed race individuals. From the Eugenics
Movement, to the black and white binary, to the One-drop Rule, these made-up
scientific, or seemingly intelligent jargon placed a group of people into a
cell to which they think they can never escape. Dividing mixed race into two,
or more depending on if they were multiracial (Valverde).
In an attempt to begin seeing myself as the subject of my
own work, I first decided to take a photo of myself. This photo was later
polished and enhanced to reveal the details of my features. Next, I used
various applications on my phone in order to change the gradient of the image
by changing the effects into a type of sketch. The sketches then had different
levels of light and dark shading. These levels of black and white shading is
supposed to represent the previously mentioned black-white binary and One-drop
Rule that has so driven society in the past by dividing a group of people, or
simply Colorism. No matter the amount of black, white, brown, yellow, red, an
individual has in the blood the image of that individual remains the same and
equal to all other mixed persons or non-mixed persons. Moreover, to tackle the Eugenics Movement I
decided to sketch half of my face, but tear the skin off the other half to show
the muscular and skeletal structure. Using science to divide a people only
propelled them to break down such a claim that the mixing of race will bring
about the fall of the human race (Teo). Guest speaker Cindy Nakashima pointed
out that the majority of the Japanese population will be comprised of mixed
race individuals; otherwise, the Japanese population will become endangered.
The mixing of races has now become a necessity.
Sources:
Nakashima, Cindy.
“Eugenics and Curating.” ASA 115 Mixed Race Experiences: Race Traitors.
University of California, Davis, 11 May 2016. Lecture.
Smallwood, Arwin
D. “Race Mixing: A Brief History with Maps.” Mixed Race is a Black Box: Asian American Literary Review. 4.2 :
2013. Print
Teo, Thomas. “The
Historical Problematization of “Mixed Race” in Psychological and
Human-scientific Discourses.” (2004). PDF.
Valverde, Kieu
Linh. “Doing Mixed Race Dance: A Multicultural Vietnamese American Class
Typology.” (2001). PDF.
I really like your portrait, Miggy! I like how you did the half-n-half thing but wasn't quite sure what it was about until I read your artist statement. Speaking of the artist statement, I like how you touched on different topics to represent the many things you've learned from this class. However, I felt as though your artist statement was more like an extract of some research paper. Maybe by including what makes you an artist and removing the citation will make it less research-paper-like. Apart from that, great job!
ReplyDeleteI really like the concept in your artist statement, Miggy. However I feel like there is some disconnection between your artist statement and your artwork and between the four panels of your self-portrait and your pencil drawing. I recommend that you add words that reflect cultural preservation of ethnic identities; for instance, how can we reexamine and reunderstand the body as a vehicle, vessel, or material, preservation jar for keeping cultural ideas and cultural, intellectual theories for protecting one's ethnic group and developing one's nation-state alive throughout future generations? Think of your artist statement and ideas in the bigger picture, in the meta-context, and in applicable terms that can change the world.
ReplyDeleteI like how you use different types of art to create the portrait. I also enjoyed how you talked about various readings and having resources attached with the meaning of your piece. I like how you incorporated muscles structure within the face to show that everyone under the skin are all the same. I wish you can talk more about why you use the media and what it means for you to be an artist. Good job!
ReplyDeleteI liked how you used the four black and white pictures to draw an idea of your self portrait. It's interesting to see how that came about. Your artist statement was very well connected to the course readings and discussions. My only comment would be that by doing, it takes away from the enjoyment of the art itself because it's so textbook focus.
ReplyDelete