When I first entered the exhibition, walked into that tiny room in the back of the Art gallery, I was hit with pure, raw, intense talent. I was not only amazed by the originality and thought that was put into the artwork, but I loved how in-depth and how much honesty, pain, intensity and so many other emotions were put into their masterpieces. (173) I was absolutely floored by the raw beauty in each and every piece. I had the honor of speaking to the extremely talented women who created and put together this exhibition, and felt honored to be able to gain a deeper grasp and better understanding of how they created these objects of pure beauty.
All of the artists were so amazing in so many different ways.
As soon as i walked into the art show, I was absolutely taken aback with the pure talent in all of the artworks that were being presented, but there were two artist who stood out to me the most. It is not because their artwork or skills were any better than the others, it was because there was so much mystery, yet familiarity in the pieces of artwork. The two exhibitions which stood out the most to me, were the video piece by Mediha Sandhu and the statue of an upper torso, which was located on the lower right hand corner, when entering the exhibition (I am not sure of the artist's name).
Upon entering the "Selfie: Us and Them" exhibition, the first piece of artwork that instantly caught my attention was (374) an exquisite and emotional video being displayed on the right hand side of the gallery. It was the artwork by Mediha Sandhu. The video was full of pain, anger, loneliness, vulnerability, confliction, and most of all, frustration. Her video showed different images of herself expressing so many complex emotions. As I stood there, and watched the images changing on the television screen in front of me a whole bunch of different emotions ran through me. I actually felt the urge to cry, because the artist was clearly at a crossroads, and the pure frustration jumped out from the exhibit and touched me. In the piece, Mediha wore her Hijab. The video had static and image noise, as you see the young lady in the pulling at her Hijab, holding her face while screaming, holding her head while looking down, and at one point her face is blanked out. Words cannot begin to explain how much this artwork touched me.
I have many friends who are Muslim and who have struggled with the abuse of society. They've told me how utterly painful and frustrating it is to be abused on a daily basis just because of their Religion. I had the pleasure of actually meeting and speaking with Mediha, which gain a better understanding of what she endures from society. She explained tome that this piece was based on the emotions that she feels when she is faced with bigotry and pure hate from people who take one look at her Hijab and assume that she is an evil terrorist.
Mediha and I spoke about politics and how this presidential election is making it even worse for Muslims. We spoke about how Trump being so vocal when being racist and hateful, allows people who were racist to feel justified and now they are acting out towards certain groups of people worse than they did before. We spoke of how apparently now a days is totally okay and acceptable to be a huge racist. We spoke of how this happened to Jewish people, Japanese people, Italian and Irish people, and so many other groups in the past.
This piece of artwork allows the viewer to momentarily feel what Mediha feels on a daily basis. By putting herself out there the way that she did was an act of resistance in itself. She is bringing awareness and importance to her cause by exposing her raw emotion the way that she did. Both Mediha and her fascinating art piece opened my eyes in so many ways. The point of an activist piece of artwork is to bring and spread awareness to others about a certain cause or problem, and that is exactly what Media did through her inspiring artwork. With such an influential art piece, it allows people to feel and gain a deep understanding for what the artist is feeling, and then the audience is so moved and inspired that they talk about the problem on hand with others and possibly even looking into additional ways to bring awareness. Mediha's Artwork has done that for me. I have been talking to many, many people about her work and about how badly Muslim people are treated and how they are even ignored by society due to Racism and fear. My daughter and I (yes, my 10 year old daughter) have been brainstorming on different ways we can bring awareness to this huge issue. For now, we are just being very vocal and putting the topic out there in conversations with different people. One person can make a difference, just my touching and getting through to just 1 person, and Mediha has done that!
The other piece of artwork which I loved, though at first I didn't even notice it was there, was the statue that was placed on the floor in front of a mirror. Once I noticed it, I was confused as to what the meaning of this piece of artwork. I stared at it for a while in awe, there was something about it that engaged me, it was intriguing and drew me in. The statue is not the most beautiful thing at first glance, but once one really looks at it, the beauty is found in its imperfections. After speaking to the artist ,i learned more about the piece and found it even more beautiful.
The artist used her own mother for this spectacular piece of artwork. She gave her mother art plaster and had her mother incase her entire upper torso in it, including her head and face. She explained to me that the reason that she did this is for people to realize their imperfections, but yet there is beauty in every imperfection. I just looked at her as she spoke and realized how true that is, yet we tend not to see the beauty in our own imperfections because everyone is concerned about fitting into society's mold of what's "beautiful".
The statue was lumpy, one breast was larger than the other, one arm was larger than the other, the head was a bit misshaped, and yet its was absolutely stunning. What made this statue even more meaningful to me, was that it was made of and by the artist's mother with the supervision and direction of the artist. I fell in love with everything this piece stood for.
What made this piece an act of resistance is that the artist is forcing us to look at all of our "imperfections" and embrace them. Everything that way hate about ourselves and find "ugly", are actually beautiful. Our uniqueness is what's beautiful. As a society we must love ourselves and all of our "imperfections", and stop judging ourselves and others on beauty and ugliness. This piece really touched and inspired me because I have such low self esteem and always find fault in my imperfections ,I hated even looking in the mirror. Now, I look in the mirror and I can find beauty in what I see, because its my imperfect body, and I love myself!
The whole exhibit and all of the Artists opened my eyes in so many ways. The "Selfie" exhibit forced me to look at myself, love myself, and appreciate my whole self, not just certain things about myself like I did before. The whole experience was so amazing and I felt truly blessed to be able to experience such a powerful movement. All of the people involved in this exhibition are incredibly talented and true leaders. Thanks you all for inspiring me and helping me to grow to be a better person. I will diffidently keep all of their lessons alive through my daily routines and experiences.
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