Reflection 2
There is a gallery called Faith Art Gallery near my apartment in downtown Brooklyn which is also very close to Tandon. This gallery offers custom picture framing and most of their artworks are base on black arts. Specifically, black arts focus on the historical and cultural significance of the art and visual culture of the Black Arts Movement of the 1960s and 1970s. These visual artifacts, known collectively as Black Art, are directly linked to the Black Power concept and the Black Liberation Struggle.
I choose this artwork as my reflections 2 because I really like this picture and I think there is a deep thinking in this artwork. There are 2 hands both with chains on the top and the bottom, and at the bottom, there are lots of cotton which meaning the slavery in the 17th and 18th centuries. People were kidnapped from the continent of Africa, forced into slavery in the American colonies and exploited to work as indentured servants and labor in the production of crops such as tobacco and cotton. There is a number, 1863, on the bottom hand’s wrist. This is a very important year in the American history because in this year Abraham Lincoln decreed that all persons held in bondage within the Confederacy were free. The Emancipation Proclamation cracked open the institution of slavery, changing the course of the Civil War and the nation. In the middle, there is a Harriet Tubman 20 dollars currency. Harriet Tubman was an escaped enslaved woman who became a “conductor” on the Underground Railroad, leading enslaved people to freedom before the Civil War. In addition, the artist put irreplaceable value instead of Twenty Dollars the on the currency. I think what the artist wants to say is that Harriet Tubman’s contribution is more than 20 dollars and cannot be replaced.
It is very interesting to analysis a black art because there are lots of things we can discover. I think I could learn more if I am more familiar with the history.
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-currency-idUSKCN0XH21W
