Where Am I? (Part 2)
Today I ventured into The Museum of Modern Art, better known as MoMA. An idolized institution that is adored by many and yet causes equal confusion for others. To be completely candid modern art is generally not my preference. Also, as an artist I don’t agree that everything on display in the museum should inhabit that sacred space, however, I can’t speak for the 7.6 billion + people that inhabit the earth, so we won’t venture down that path. Overall, it’s a great space and I’d recommend the visit.
Once again, as I walked through gallery after gallery, the ever present question began to invade my mind of “Where Am I?”. Ironically, as much as I am baffled by modern art, I am just as captivated by it. Three unique works took my breath away and still leave me pondering at this very moment.
First things first, COWS…nothing to do with where I find myself in museums as a black woman, but I mean who doesn’t like pink cows!?!?! (my apologies to all the non omnivores out there).
Now, in all serious there is work by Tarsila do Amaral. Although a Brazilian woman, her brown skin matches my brown skin and therefore I felt an instant connection to her, and the subjects of her work.
Amaral did a work titled “A negra (The Black Woman) that speaks to the time where the results of slavery still penetrated Brazilian society. In fact, Amaral’s family plantation still had descendants of enslaved individuals living on the land before she died.
The history of slavery in Brazil is not one that I am fully educated on, but I imagine the lives of those in Brazil to some extent would mirror the lives of those enslaved in the United States. When I saw this painting I began to think of my own family history that is rooted in slavery, and the women that were so deeply affected by it. Only 4–5 generations away, the dark institution is not as far gone as some might think. It hits close to home in ways unimagined, and its repercussions still ripple through generations.
- Cool New York Times Article if you are interested in learning more!
A second image has left me puzzled and I’m still not sure I have sat with it enough to fully grasp hold of my emotions towards it.
Colescott has left me wondering if the monkeys are supposed to be representations of blacks, or why the white man is holding the head of a black man, or why the black man is holding a gun, or why white hands with no arms appear to be grasping for something while blood spews out from them. Like I said, I don’t know what this piece means to me. I see brown skin depicted in so many ways, and multiple roles being played that I can’t seem to decipher its true meaning. Maybe I’m reading too much into it? Maybe not. Would love to get some feedback from the world on what you think this piece is, but for now I sit with it.
I sit with “A negra” and feel as though I’m in an “Emergency Room” and try to find myself in it all.
