I Thought the Streets Were Paved with Gold by Pacita Abad and Pleasure Pillars by Shahzia Sikander - Essay Example

The painting communicates an irony and disillusionment in the sense that it could have been illustrated based on a standard observation of a child who once had an innocent view of the world as heard or seen from stories vivified with objects of rich colors and meanings that it would be natural for youth in tender age to gain an instant picture of wonder. However, as the child-observer explores his society and comes in contact with the truth of the majority of occurrences around him, he may find himself arriving at the necessity to react contrary to the previous assumptions that essentially blind him from the real picture.

Having experienced life as it is in the real world, I feel that Abad’s creation of “I Thought the Streets Were Paved with Gold” is something that materializes out of an everyday discovery of life that struggles with a poor economic and social aspect of living that one, like a sensitive growing child, can draw rough sketches of events that are especially poignant to the senses. Abad’s work characterizes conflicts taking place within the working class, the minorities, the domestic sphere, as well as their relation to the prevailing foreign influence. It particularly drives me to the perspective of looking at women in these scenarios where oppression or violation of human rights possibly exist and the artist may be claimed to have a special regard for women of the streets or of places that are broadly affected by the suppression of progress due to imperialism.

On the other hand, Shahzia Sikander’s “Pleasure Pillars” seemingly attempts to focus on the art from a rather humanist point of view as it conveys the inner human strength derived from the significant capacity to preserve culture and religion. As a Pakistani-American artist born in Lahore, Punjab, I think I understand such inclination specifically since the painting occurs to pay worth to the essence of the middle eastern pagan tradition and beliefs. “Pleasure Pillars”, in effect, establishes an impression that calls for enlightening the mind and spirit with the goodness of religious or cultural enthusiasm through beauty and symmetry in art forms that, while it masks the truth about poverty or economic crisis, Sikander delivers through her work the underlying tone of hope toward enlightenment despite all the sufferings of the modern times.

Compared to the realistic theme of Abad’s piece of art, that of Sikander seeks to justify itself in the light of resolution to unpleasant feelings and mindfulness over sick images of reality by allowing freedom, and this freedom is sought from within. A human being is capable of higher intellect and spiritual potential to surpass anything unpleasant that may affect a person in critiquing the externals as long as he keeps track of the ability to perceive delight and celebrate the value of cultural creativity as in songs and dances of worship which the artist’s craft demonstrates. Nevertheless, just like Abad, Sikander presents angles of “Pleasure Pillars” with a woman as the chief object of beauty and pleasure and this exhibits a measure of power in which, even if the female gender is underrated at some dimensions, at others the same gender is treated with utmost importance.

"Traditional representation of the Virgin of Guadalupe’ is representative of the Virgin Mary as a Roman Catholic figure with physical characteristics of a Mexican so that the icon reflects Mexican traits in terms of skin complexion, clothing, and background shades typical of a native scenario in Mexico. This could mean that “Our Lady of Guadalupe” entails a movement that speaks of how Mexicans desire to come up with a religious identity that is more national and culture-specific. On the other hand, the “Portrait of the Artist as the Virgin of Guadalupe” in 1978 by Yolanda Lopez makes a revolutionary rendition of the Virgin of Guadalupe who, instead of a solemn countenance, bears a lively athletic feature in radiant colors as if Lopez longs to connect with the image in a completely different turn from religion, enabling Catholicism to be viewed with consideration to liberalism for conservative approach has long confined religion within the bounds of dull and sometimes dysfunctional tradition. “Our Lady” by Alma Lopez, however, projects a postmodern style that severely deviates from the sacred meaning of the Virgin Mary’s original character as the central figure is rendered to expose bare parts of the body that seem to manifest sexual controversy which most Latina are confronted with.    

Response 2:     Kara Walker has made an appropriation of imagery from Theodore Gericault's “The Raft of the Medusa” for this builds relevance around her work on “After the Deluge”. Gericault’s painting signifies the historical disaster of a French naval frigate ‘Meduse’ after wreckage that caused heavy losses upon the victims whose lives were either claimed or subjected to the curse of madness and starvation. Walker necessitates the incorporation of this event to the concept of her contemporary work on the aftermath in order for a critical viewer to be able to exhaust a large number of possibilities in judging the context of art via a device with silhouettes or shadows through which narratives are richly explored.