Rubin Museum Response

The art piece that I chose is called “Cave Painting” by Isca Greenfield-Sanders. The piece is basically a an image from the inside of a cave which is completely black and has four men who you can make out because the light reflecting into the cave draws out their shadows. I gravitated towards this piece because it reminded me of Plato’s “Analogy of the Cave.” The Analogy of the Cave is a story of a group of prisoners who live in a cave where they are chained by their necks and feet to only face a wall. Behind them is a fire and behind the fire is a wall. On top of this wall are statues that are being controlled by another group of people behind them. These statues are casting shadows on the wall of the cave and the group of prisoners who see them try to make sense of what is going on in the images. One of the prisoners though is released and gets to go out and discover the real world, everything outside the cave. The Analogy of the Cave is interpreted to be the lesson that one’s knowledge is based on the world around them and it is part of their responsibility to venture outside and discover the greater and unknown aspects of the world.