Analysis of the Art Exhibit of Ken Ellis Gathering - Report Example

Analysis of the art exhibit of ken Ellis “Gathering’ Analysis of the art exhibit of ken Ellis “Gathering”Introduction Visual arts which include paintings and drawings have a big role in the society (Galvin, 2011). They encourage people to look at the world through different perspectives. This way, people are able to describe, explore and manipulate ideas creatively. As an artist, it becomes one’s responsibility to ensure continued access to the world of arts. Exposure to art makes people able to form new ideas and explore more creative ideas. This goes a long way to help them define themselves. Arts also add depth to people’s cultural backgrounds. This essay seeks to analyze Ken Ellis “Gathering” and some of his other art works as portrayed in the Chicago cultural center exhibition. The event is to take place at Chicago and this suggests that it would be a successful one. Chicago is the third largest city in the United States, with a population of nearly three million people. It is a cultural city as most cultural events take place and this is proven by the number of facilities that promote the cultural scheme. The facilities range from dozens of cultural institutions, historical sites, and museums, more than 200 theaters, and nearly 200 art galleries. There are also some few factors which suggest and prove as to the fact where nearly 40 million people visit Chicago annually. Some of these factors are Chicago being the first and largest municipalities to require public art in various strategies and this led to passage of the Percentage-for-Arts Ordinance in 1978, and the Art Institute of Chicago which has one of the largest and most extensive collections of impressionist and post-impressionist paintings in the world. The building and street where the exhibition is to be held is accessible and convenient. The Chicago cultural center, 78 E. Washington St. Chicago, IL 60602, is quite spacious and one can easily locate the place from anywhere in the world. The street is not quite a busy one and there are direction signs to guide visitors thus allowing for a lot of people to easily access the exhibition location. A lot of cultural events also take place at the same respective place and thus provide a future scope of the event being a successful one (Galvin, 2011). According to Galvin, the programme can be experimental, intellectual, or innovative. An analysis of the event’s programme reveals that it is intellectual in nature. The event is meant to be a talk about Ken Ellis exhibition of “Gathering.” Ideas are exchanged between different people as they try to justify their opinions on their understanding of the painting. This allows for most of the people to think extensively and base their perspectives about the painting on a broader point of view. The content of the exhibition is shallow as it is based on the single painting of Ken Ellis and this narrows down the whole event content-wise. Therefore, most of the people at the exhibit are narrowed to a particular content of the exhibition and this discourages them to think from a wider perspective about the whole exhibition (Surin, 2009). Also the exhibition is held in the Chicago cultural center and thus the programme relates to the definition of the center as the Ken Ellis “Gathering “ points out on a cultural perspective as lots of people are seen to have gathered either for a function that involves the whole society. This also proves that the exhibition is based on a simple platform as the title is quite simple, understandable and relevant to the artistic painting. This eliminates the seriousness except for the fact that most people might come up with many questions regarding the painting as one has the freedom to think on a broader perspective about the painting. The exhibition also gives room for an international platform as the painting may be associated with most cultures all around the world since gatherings are the only ways to reach masses on any matters concerning the society regardless of the area and country (Galvin, 2011). The exhibition also invites all ages of different audiences as it does not specifically touch on a particular age group and this is proven by the fact that any type of persons yearns to associate the “gathering “ with an important matter concerning a particular group of persons in a particular society. However, with new experiments, the exhibition of Ken Ellis ‘Gathering” can be challenged since people send representatives when an issue arises and requires discussion compared to the mass gatherings. An analysis of Ken Ellis “Gathering” and other art works Ken Ellis is a talented artist. He makes use of quilted images to portray different American cultural perspectives in the history of America. For example the “blood passage” reveals the African American perspective of American history and culture. In the image quilted on a canvas features different African perspectives. There is an image of Africa with a female head wearing an African gear on it. With this image, Ellis is trying to show mother Africa where African Americans came from. In the same picture we see an African leader selling off young Africans to a slave merchant. In America, the slaves are mistreated as shown in the painting. They are also auctioned in open markets like other commodities. This shows how white plantation owners viewed African people as mere slave with no human value. They could be traded like any other beasts of burden. While the African slaves toiled whites enjoy the fruits of their labor as shown in the image where you see some white kids playing. The title of the image reflects what is happening in the picture. Slaves were mistreated in America and others killed. Most of them died of mistreatment from their masters and merchants. Also there are different messages pointed out by some art works of Ken Ellis which suggest oppression and slavery from a different point of view. For example, “Them Cotton Fields Back Home which points out the oneness with the slaves who are thought to be of African origin and they seem to be subjected to oppression as a white man on a horse is seen to be keeping watch. The conditions where the slaves are working in points out to the oppression they faced. They are seen to be working on bare sunlight and the housing seems to be in pathetic conditions. This also suggests that their children did not acquire education as they are seen to play along the fields where their parents worked. Africans believed in their own traditional way of worship and they were too much into idolatry and witchcraft. They based their beliefs on their way of worship and protected their culture against contamination by any other culture’s way of belief. This is evident as the image, Dambala Wedo, shows the contrasting picture of the African way of worship and that of the missionaries. Though, the painting, The Service, shows some Africans converted to the western way of worship and as a result they imitated their praise and worship styles as they were all vibrant and energetic during worship and mass servings. The exhibition also is found to be of great artistic value. The artist (Ken Ellis) is widely known as an experienced artist. He was born in Chicago; he was also raised and educated there. Most of his art work is based on several themes ranging from gangsters, Native Americans, musicians, freaks, and black western. Recently, some of his works show themes about slave migration, and Haitian witchcraft (Galvin, 2011). Art can be used as a channel of messaging and learning. This is well demonstrated by Ken Ellis "Gathering” and other art works of him. Currently, art is being used in novels by some writers. According to Evan (2006), use of the arts in novels shows the significance of art work and interpretation showing why arts, artists and consumers of these works should be looked at as subjects and not objects. Art is important in the society as it informs us about the past and shapes our imagination of the future. References Galvin, M. (2011). Making Connections: Readings in Relational Communication. New York: Oxford University Press. Anatomically Correct. (2013). Art in Alternative spaces. Retrieved on November 12, 2013: from http://www.anatomicallycorrect.org/KenEllis.htm. Art Stuff (2011). The Role of Visual Arts. Retrieved on November 12, 2013; from http://artstuff.net.au/the-role-of-visual-arts/ City of Chicago (2010) Chicago: Facts and Statistics. Retrieved on November 12, 2013: from http://www.cityofchicago.org/city/en/about/facts.html Evan, M. (2006). Painted Metaphors: the Use of Visual Arts in contemporary African novels. Retrieved on 12, November 2013: from http://quod.lib.umich.edu/g/gefame/4761563.0003.103/--painted-metaphors-the-use-of-visual-arts-in-contemporary?rgn=main;view=fulltext. Surin, M. (2009). External Analysis of Argos. Retrieved on November 12, 2013: from http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:UrFPjZZRHasJ:www.maximsurin.info/wp-content/uploads/pdf/external-analysis-argos-december-2009-maxim-surin.pdf+&cd=2&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=ke. Read More