Category: Blog 5

For the piece of art, I decided to choose Andrian Piper’s “Decide Who You Are, Anita Hill.” From that picture, I saw a little black girl sitting on the ground looking ahead, looking like she was thinking about something. The red letters may represent what she is thinking about. The rhetorical properties of this work represent its social significance; it reflects the author’s support and encouragement for the little girl and the way society’s words towards the victim can influence their thoughts and behavior. The red words bring a strong emotion, which means that those words represent what is happening to her now. The picture says, “I hate to do this,” “you are overreacting,” “you are oversensitive.” It makes me feel that she feels dislike for some things, but then someone accuses her of having a view on things. After searching, I found out that this girl had been sexually harassed and was a victim. This piece is related to the #MeToo and Black Lives Matter movements, and it reflects the attitudes of society towards victims at the time, but the point of this piece is to encourage people who have been hurt to have more courage to speak up. Society should give victims some tolerance and help them to get out of their phobia and have some positive impact. My conclusion from this article is that the voice of society should not put more pressure on victims and that they deserve to be encouraged rather than afraid to tell their stories.

Greg Bordowitz “Pandemic Haiku” is able to use its rhetorical properties to contribute to its meaning by using the haiku format to construct these small glimpses of time. Each haiku seems to highlight different moments of the pandemic, especially at the beginning of it, from mask-wearing to getting the vaccine. I thought this was really smart to do for a collection piece as it makes each haiku unique but cohesive to one another. There is a lack of any unnecessary flourishes as Bordowitz uses the haiku minimalistic poem design to highlight simple and realistic day-to-day life experiences and events during the pandemic. The text resonates with present social concerns as everyone has had any experience with dealing with the pandemic. That is also how this minimalist approach succeeds in connecting with people as many may relate to these events, or similar activities, or even simply the mood created of this moment in time where we stayed at home during a worldwide pandemic. Simply how art can connect people by their experiences, fears, and struggles about political or social concerns, can be a conclusion that one can draw from the text. The ongoing pandemic has made a continuous effect on all of us and it may be difficult to process everything that has occurred. Therefore, by using art, people may find it easier to process all that has occurred during the past years. This, in turn, can help the public collectively acknowledge their social and political concerns and they get to know how to move on together. 

I chose “Untitled” by David Wojnarowicz

1. I love how the author put this child in between the lines and made the child fit into the whole context. When I saw the artifact, the image of this child was forever stuck in my mind. It definitely helps to understand the context. The little boy in this picture doesn’t match the content at all. The text is all bloody, sad and miserable, but the little boy is smiling. There could be another purpose of placing this boy into the middle of the context is trying to break all the difficulties, be positive to life. The author writes down the background basically according to a timeline, from growing up to death. It mentions all the negative aspects of life, which also relates to the choice of color of art that the author makes – black and white, either alive or dead. 
2. When it comes to social issues, every day is actually a day to discover something new. Everyone has a process to grow up. Our whole life is unknown and we don’t know what will happen in the future. This society is not fair, they will judge everyone with colored, snobbish eyes. And those who are not seen by them will experience a lot of hardship.
3. It turns out that words are not the only way to express social issues, but also the details of artworks can express social issues to the fullest. Color, design, and element can all influence the issue that society existed. And art is a really powerful way to make an impact on people’s minds.

The artpiece I am choosing to discuss for this blog is David Wojnarowicz’s “Untitled.” I found the visual style of this piece to be the most interesting and appealing to me, which is why I chose it. Something about this art that immediately stood out to me was the repetition of the phrase “this kid.” I counted the number of appearances of this phrase to be around 20. The piece is obviously about a gay child and the persecution he will face as one, and Wojnarwicz seems to depict it as a “damned if you do, damned if you don’t” situation. On one hand, if the kid does not speak up and submits to the harassment, then he will either commit suicide or hope to be murdered. If he does speak up, however, then he will be subjected to the opposition people who do not want him to exist and brutal experiences such as shock therapy. This is quite a harrowing piece when it’s put this way. In a way, it’s very easy to relate this to modern-day LGBT movements, especially considering the recent wave of anti-transgender bills being proposed all over the country. While shock therapy and outright discrimination against gay people are illegal, it’s clear that the struggle for equality among LGBT groups still has a long way to go. All in all, this artpiece is important because it serves as a time capsule for gay rights throughout history.

David Wojnarowicz was an American artist who utilized many forms of art to advocate for civil rights and homosexual identification. His piece named Untitled (One Day, This Kid) was something that he had worked on towards the end of his life. At the center of the piece is an image of David Wojnarowicz during his days as an innocent youth. However, surrounding the picture are a slew of sentences that detail the child’s future experiences as he begins to discover his true identity. This combination of imagery and text evidently appeals to the audience’s sense of pathos and ethos. As the viewer identifies this innocent child in front of them, they are instantly forced to correlate such harsh experiences to a supposedly gleeful, innocent child. After reading intense phrases such as “One day this kid will experience all this activity … [that] will compel him to submit to silence or invisibility” or “when he begins to talk, men who develop a fear of this kid will attempt to silence him with strangling … and immolation of fire,” the audience will ultimately evoke emotions of sympathy and sadness for the grueling experiences he had to endure simply due to his sexual orientation. Wojnarowicz’s text can resonate with today’s political and social concerns by serving as a piece of art that exposes the harsh reality that society subjects to those that are considered “different.” As much as society has progressed since the creation of this piece (1988-89), there still exist countless individuals that have experienced a similar upbringing due to their sexual orientation or any form of strife related to being a “social oddity.” As seen with Wojnarowcz’s artwork, art can serve as the bridge connecting between the past and present. While artworks can depict the social and political atmosphere of that era, they can be cross-referenced and compared to modern times to see just how drastically different or similar the situation is. Furthermore, the perception of the artwork can serve as a learning lesson or a moment to feel empowered.

I believe Greg’s Bordowitz “ Pandemic Haiku: perfectly represents how the beginning of the pandemic felt. It was hours of not knowing what was coming next, blank thoughts, and barely to no interaction with people outside of your home. I believe this is all represented through the mainly blank pages with a minimal amount of written and the small font on what was written on the page. There was also what felt like a never-ending amount of pages for such a small amount of sentences when all put together. In general, it fits so well with the feeling of disconnect and loneliness. The font isn’t bright black it looks like a dull brown which feels almost muted which can also represent the vibe or feeling everyone was going through, a sense of disappearance or fade. 

Socially it resonates with celebrities or influences during the pandemic, it was almost like a sabbatical for everyone lol, forced to be present in the real world. I personally did not care what influencers or celebrities were doing and so did a lot of people but it makes you think about today and how even more obsessed people are with social media. There’s more pressure to be perfect and try new things as well as travel and experience new things. 

Art is a reflection of what of the type of people we are and the way we change as trauma hits us. It’s almost a mirror to reflect the way that we change and how much pressure we have on ourselves because of social media while also refreshing us with being able to reminisce on what having pressure off us felt. Concern socially humble us through art, what seemed like the end of the world because you don’t look airbrushed doesn’t seem that serious when you see the true vibes within the picture 

1.  I decided to do “Pandemic Haiku by Gregg Bordowitz while reading this, I definitely felt a massive connection because like so many other people we had to shift our lifestyles. When the pandemic first started we didn’t know what to do and how life would be the next day. So we needed to adjust and move on. The tone of this poem seems to be very serious but mellow as well because it had many emotions that went on during this pandemic. The rehtorical properties of this piece contributed to its meaning because we all have come across these feelings and thoughts while the pandemic first started. It is important to note that the audience include literally everyone who is alive as of right now since we all had to experience it.

2. This text resonates with social concerns of the present because many people have been truly hurt and even afraid of what could come next in their lives. It almost felt as if we were all living the same lives when the poet said “Food delivery Box left outside doorbell ring Privilege greets air”. The text resonates with political concerns because many people want to find who they were before the pandemic started and get back to their regular lives as well.

3. Art could have a bigger impact on these social and political concerns then many people actually think. Since there are so many ways to express and make art, it should be approached more often since it would gain more interest and attention from the people.

I decided to focus on Adrian Piper’s “Decide Who You Are, Anita Hill” because the words in red all over the artwork captured my attention. In the beginning, I didn’t think much of it, just thought of it as some of the girl’s thoughts she had. Upon research, I figured this artwork was created in 1992 during the #MeToo movement. Then my thoughts of the painting deepened in a way. I felt that the artist used red text to symbolize the pain and how hard it might have been to speak up against their abuser. The words “You’re overreacting,” “You’re just tired,” “You’ll get over it” made me think of how this sounds like as if you are not trying to listen to what the other person might have to say instead, you are just trying to shut them down and avoid the situation that can hurt you or someone. By silencing a victim of sexual abuse, you are isolating them physically and mentally to a point where they might blame themselves in some cases. This resonates today as some women are still afraid to speak up against some of their abusers due to fear of what might happen afterward. This artwork might bring light to this situation, giving courage to other young women who might have been abused to share their stories knowing that other people like them share similar thoughts—sometimes, knowing that someone like you with a similar story can give a sense of comfort and safety.

1. Greg Bordowitz’s “Pandemic Haiku” dives deep into the pandemic. The piece maintains a serious tone, and has a minimalistic design. These rhetorical properties contributes to the poem’s meaning because it shows how people felt during the beginning of the pandemic. The serious tone and grey color give gloomy and sad vibes. The poem overall discusses the affects of the pandemic on people, depicting what it would look like from day to day. Every day blended into the next, and the rhetorical properties emphasizes this point.
2. This text resonates with social concerns of the present because many people are still struggling to get back to normal life after the pandemic. This piece shows how everyone was living the same day over and over, and now everyone seems to be lost. Towards the end, Bordowitz talks about the long term affects of the pandemic saying, “Long haulers suffer Fatigue confusion short breaths For several months.” Many people find it difficult to get back to regular life because of both mental and physical reasons, and this poem shows that.
3. Through this text, we can see how art can make impacts on social or political concerns. This specific piece of art focused on the pandemic, which we’re still going through, and it made a statement on how we live our lives. This is an example of how art can be so relevant to social and political concerns because writers use their own voices to speak for the rest of the people. Artist’s also use their own experience, as well as others’, in order to send an accurate message.

I chose Adrian Piper “Decide Who You Are, Anita Hill”.

Just looking at the picture, the words are written in red. Red resonates with a feeling of anger and that was the first tone that was set in my head. There is a black little girl on the bottom center smiling and the poem is like a family figure or a close friend telling the little girl that her life is full of obstacles and that she needs to prepare for what will come to her, as well as how to become into what society wants her to become. The words also go on top of the little girl making it seem like she’s trapped behind these words.

The text can also be portrayed as a social concern. It can be seen as a rich and a poor person. A man and a woman and also race. It reminds me most of the Black Lives Matter movement where the line  “Whats the matter? You’ll get over it” applies to the racist mentality USA had on the movement.

This art piece is very visual, which catches my attention. The wording of this text is like being inside a persons head and reading their thoughts. A person feeling this way should already be a political and social concern because it is like they are chained up with no where to go. Art can also shed light to important times in history and reminds us why it is always better to move forward and never back.