Series: Race by Aida Deleg

 

Title: Race by Aida Deleg

    I was inspired mostly by Mickalene Thomas, Ana Mendieta, and Carrie Mae Weems. Especially on their exploration  of self identity emphasizing on race. Ana Mendieta is more physical with her work like she lies naked on soil to reconnect with nature. Carrie Mae Weems recreates daily life scenes like a black mom and a child sitting at a table or a couple together at a table in her series which shows us a vulnerable side that we all have but tend to keep private. Michalene Thomas models black women in eye-catching clothes with interesting backgrounds to grab attention because black women in art were lacking representation. So I combined these main points and centered my series on the discovery of the idea of race and the tension that comes with it. The racial tension continues due to discriminations and lack of understanding.

    I was born in America to immigrants that came from Ecuador. However, this statement was presented to me at the age of 7 when my mother talked about how it was a good thing I could study here and she would not take me to her country which lacked education. Race became a topic of discussion in school soon after. I was not aware of the division race and the color of skin created. It wasn't that the color of skin was not noticeable to me its more about how the idea of other cultures and places existing was hard to understand at a young age where all you know is what is around you. As I got older I understood that my family, other Hispanics, immigrants and those who are mixed faced massive hate in this country. Those who spoke against immigrants spoke as if they were all criminals, who want to steal from Americans. When in reality most of this land was stolen from the natives long before and probably by the ancestors of those white Americans who speak against immigrants. I was and continue to hear racists remarks thrown at Hispanics which gets quite tiring and hurtful. The violence and inhumane acts against immigrants that I see on the news enrages me because of my impotence and fear of speaking my mind. 

There are a few who exoticize other races and with one visit to another country they try to wear traditional clothing or copy instead of learning about the country. The disrespect with that mentality is that they don't know identity and culture is not the same as putting or taking off clothing. The awareness of our racial and physical differences in this society does not allow integration. Also the fact that their is still discrimination and lack of respect for Hispanics, Asians, African Americans and everything in between in this country (even in other countries) will continue to further divide the human species. With this my series serves as reactions towards the idea of race and racial tension. 

“By selecting women of color, I am quite literally raising their visibility and inserting their presence into the conversation,” Thomas said in a recent interview. “By portraying real women with their own unique history, beauty and background, I’m working to diversify the representations of black women in art.” -quote from The Photographed, Collaged, and Painted Muses of Mickalene Thomas by Carey Dunne

The artist idea helped me realize how important is it to have representation and how there is still a lack of it especially in this digital age where most advertisements on Instagram feature white females or males. However, there have been multitudes of voices speaking for the inclusion of every race.

"As an immigrant, Mendieta felt a disconnect in the United States. The trauma of being uprooted from her Cuban homeland as a girl would leave her with questions about her identity and make her more conscious of being a woman of color." 

-quote from Overlooked No More: Ana Mendieta, a Cuban Artist Who Pushed Boundaries by Monica Castillo

I really connected with this artist when I read about her because my mother also an immigrant felt the same when she arrived here and even now their is still homesickness. I also experienced how emotionally hard it is to leave the land you have your family in and everything you love. I visited ecuador for about 3 months and loved ebery minute of it so when i was departing i cried all the way to the airport. I felt like I was losing a part of me by leaving. Life there was different from the city life here. I was more connected to the land in Ecuador, the air, atmosphere and people were as if I belonged. 

"Weems’s black-and-white photographs are like mirrors, each reflecting a collective experience: how selfhood shifts through passage of time; the sudden distance between people, both passable and impassable; the roles that women accumulate and oscillate between; how life emanates from the small space we occupy in the world."

=quote from Revisiting Carrie Mae Weems’s Landmark “Kitchen Table Series” by Jacqui Palumbo

I felt that sense of being a small speck in this world when I went to visit Ecuador and saw the tall mountains of the Andes. the open plains and the clouds ever so slightly touching the ground was an experience that still impacts me today. I am temporary but this world keeps going, this idea can be overwhelming and comforting.