Selfie: Us and Them

This unique, female based art gallery was very eye-opening. A very independent theme was portrayed from all the female artists, proving they are strong women in this world of judgemental individuals. Many of these artists created something that showed how they view themselves, or how they believe others portray them. The individual artists address “identity” and “selfie” by portraying themselves in a way that shows who they are as an artist and person. It’s not a coincidence that the word “selfie” is made from “self.” These artists reflect on their own lives and issues, and show it to the world in such a unique, interesting way.

One of the artists, Mediha Sandhu created a piece called “static friction.” It was an image of a woman in a hijab, with scratches and moving static all over the image and screeching noises in the back. My interpretation of this piece of art is that Mediha is tired of hearing people talk about and stereotype her, or arguably any woman who wears a hijab and is in that culture. This piece represents the “static” she hears from anyone’s judgement. It’s static because it’s not important and it does not affect her as a person. In Mediha’s description of her art, she wrote, “ This video piece is a collage of experimentations and studies that try to give a glimpse of the mental “static or noise one constantly has to deal with in such a complex stressed life.” Only a daily basis, someone else will always have something to say about you, or judge you in some way or from. Mediha shows how this mentally affects people, hearing all these words being said about you, that may not necessarily be something positive. It’s up to us to realize that, that is the “static” in our life, and it’s not important.

My favorite pieces of the gallery were Mediha Sandhu’s, “Static Friction.” Hao Feng’s “#haolookup.” And, Stephanie Quispilaya’s, “Growing up”. Although all artists were very interesting, these three artists caught my attention the most, and it seemed as if the topics that they portrayed through their art, were very relatable. Artist Hao Feng caught my attention the most, because of the silly animation that she created. At first I read the description to the piece, the opening paragraph said, “Our generation is obsessed with selfies and they have narcissistic tendencies. People of all ages feel the need to document every waking moment of their lives in photo. These selfies are anti-selfie. The artist does not show herself but instead of her point of view.” After reading this I stared at the television screen watching the two minute animation on a loop for several minutes. At first I wasn’t quite aware of the reason behind this animation, it was just the cartoons that were attracting my attention. Until it dawned on me, I was only paying attention to the animations, not the beautiful photographs and scenery that were behind the dancing animations. The animations reflected the “narcissistic” qualities that said Feng said many people portrayed. The animations were a metaphor saying “pay attention to me,” not the actual beauty of the art. 

Another artist that really caught my attention was Stephanie Quispilaya and her piece “Growing up.” This art piece immediately caught my attention because the first thing I noticed was a child feeding on a mother’s breast; this automatically made me realize how powerful this piece is. The description in this piece said, “A mother has to know how to balance her own needs, goals, and desires with those of her own children. A mother also has to know how to balance the care and nurture she gives to each of her children.”......”For Stephanie, growing up means learning how to become a mother to herself; learning how to tend to each of her needs (her children) and learning how to take care of her whole self.” Being a mother is never an easy task. Once you have children you are no longer a priority, your child is. And that’s what Stephanie is reflecting from this piece. Through all the difficulties and struggles a mother has to go for to take care of her child in the best way that she can, her child will always know how hard she fought for her to have a good life. And I think many people can relate to this art piece.

Overall, I really enjoyed attending this art gallery. I haven’t been to many overall in my life, so it’s always interesting to learn and experience new things. I believe that this gallery overall was a collection of artists who had different approaches towards issues in their life. And what you can learn out if it is that something will always be difficult in your path, but with some strength, you will always get through.