The Ideology of Post-colonialism - Essay Example

Ideological Analysis Essay By Student’s Name Code + Course Name Professor’s Name University Name City, State Date Introduction This essay focuses on the ideology of postcolonialism, in which case it involves some discipline that characterizes the ways of intellectual discourse that examine, elucidate and also respond to the social legacies of imperialism and of colonialism to the man’s consequences of having control of a country and beginning settlers for the exploitation economically of the local people and their land. In addition, the essay focuses on some artists that demonstrate the ideology of post-colonialism. The artist centered in the essay involves Masami Teraoka, who is the Japanese American contemporary artist. His works mostly centered on paintings. The artist incorporates the various values touching on postcolonialism. The essay also discusses the concept of postcolonialism through the tools of semiotics, which involves the signs, the signifier and the signified, connotations among others. Therefore, the essay discusses on the ideology of postcolonialism, the artist, and the various issues related to the ideology. Artist and His Artworks Masami Teraoka was some Japanese-American contemporary artists, and he used to work at some paintings and influced woodcuts. His early works involved the watercolor paintings and also prints, in which case it mimicked the flat and bold qualities of ukiyo-e woodblock paints. Most of the Teraoka paintings were done when he arrived in the US, and it often characterized by the collision of some two cultures. There was some series that includes the 31 flavors invading Japan, in which case their themes feature in the current work. Such pieces had to blend with some issues such as the history at present, humor with commentary and it blended reality with fantasy. Teraoka also shifted some scale and palette to show AIDs as some subject, and this transformed the ukiyo-e derived paintings into some darker realm. The artist has been producing the large-scale narrative paintings, in which case they mostly addressed the political and social matters, and which mostly stresses the abuse in the Catholic Church. The large-scale paintings have the inspiration of the popular renaissance paintings instead of the Japanese woodblock prints. This essay, hence, will focus on the paintings of Teraoka in bring up some ideologies (Teraoka, Et al, 2006). Teraoka’s ideologies involve the fact that he wants to bring up the issues at hand and blend them, for instance, Teraoke blends fantasy with reality, history with the present and humor with contemporary. He also brings about the concerns that are in the word, for instance he shifts into some scale in order to bring about the matter of AIDs as a topic that transforms the ukiyo-e paintings into some darker monarchy. In addition, Teraoka brings about the production of some large scale narrative paintings, for instance the social and political issues, and this is because of the fact that he has been observing the abuses in the Catholic Church. This essay will also focus on all these post-colonialism ideologies that Teraoke brings up in his artwork (Teraoka & Ulak, 1996). In image 1 and 2, the ideology of post-colonialism is quite evident. The artists integrate the fantasy with reality, commentary with humor and also history with the present. In essence, all these were the challenge that Teraoka had. From the paintings, it is evident that it centered on some clash of the cultures of west and eats and the series features the topics of the time period. The image concerns about the food homogenizing tastes. In essence, one would not that the image pinpoints the cultural globalization, and this was the early 1970s, in which case it was prior to the existence of such language and concept. Therefore, the images deal with the various issues that are related to the ideology that Teraoka presents in his art. This can be observed by the description of the images or series in various terms noting quite clearly the primary signs (Teraoka, Et al, 2006). Image 1 contains various signs. The most depictable sign involves the painting of some woman who protrudes her tongue, and most probably she must be aiming to kiss something. The women in the paintings are also covered with some sheet, and this mostly shows that she must have been sleeping and she is the process of waking up. The sheet that covers her is painted with flowers. The other signs that are quite depicted involve the various writings, in which case it is written in Japanese. The other sign is something like the skull that the woman holds in her hands. The woman puts some light face on the skull, and this might be the depiction of the post-colonialism (Teraoka & Ulak, 1996). The other image involves paintings of two women. One woman is taking some food and the other woman is looking at the other. The paintings also involve some decoration using flowers. One woman has her tongue protruding, and the other woman shows some seriousness and this might be because she is not taking any food. There is also some signs of writings on the wall, and the texts might be having some meaning related to post-colonialism. Therefore, the two images of Teraoke are almost similar, and they portray almost the same signs, and this is because they use women as the central images. They also use texts, and these are quite evident on the walls of the images. The signs of women being used in the images contain some metaphor in it. Women were suppressed during the colonial period and Teraoka brings about the issue in the post-modern by showing the image of women (Teraoka & Ulak, 1996). The modern women are quite happy, and they demonstrate some kind of kissing whenever they are happy. This is quite evident in the first image. The post-colonialism is also evident by the lifestyle, in which case this is demonstrated by the woman sleeping in the fine bed, to say so, because of the sheets that the women covers herself. During the colonial period, the women used to cover themselves with skins and some other traditional clothes. The texts that are used also have some symbol of displaying some meaning concerning the post-colonialism. There is the painting of the women holding the skull, and this also has some metaphor meaning, that the colonial period was full of oppressions to women and they could often come across with the danger or challenges. The issue, hence, made Teraoka bring about in the post-colonialism (Fortun & Bernstein, 1998). And this is also evident in the fact that, Teraoka had raised the subject of AIDs and the tongue that the woman protrudes implies that in the post-colonial period, women can easily “kiss” the danger of AIDs. In the second image, the two women have some metaphor meaning. It means there are two distinct lifestyles in the post-colonialism and the colonialism period. In the colonial period, the women lived some life full of challenges, and they could go without food and shelter in order to survive. On the other hand, the post-colonial women have a better lifestyle, and they could live a happy life. This is evident in the image as one woman is eating comfortably food while the other is left in the cold side. The text sign displays some meaning of the post-colonialisms period and also the colonialism period. The rhetoric tropes, metonym and metaphor, communicates the meanings of the signs by the process of making the unfamiliar more familiar. Usually, the rhetoric tropes are quite defined, and the conventions of the figurative language make up some rhetorical codes. Therefore, understanding such codes implies that one has to be a member of the culture in which the sign is quite employed. Just like other codes, the figurative language makes the reality sustenance system of sub-culture or some culture. People come across the various unusual metaphors and metonyms without even noticing them, and hence, they need to focus on the transparency. This will anaesthetize to the method that the culturally available stock of tropes acts as some anchor that links persons to some dominant methods of thinking within the society. In such a case, the metonym and the metaphor communicate the meanings of signs by figurative language and also by rendering the unfamiliar to be quite familiar (Chandler, 1997). The two images contain various signifiers and their signified connotations. The use of the women in the images signifies the challenges that women had to undergo while in the colonial period. The signified is the fact that they have to leave a lifestyle that makes them happy in the postcolonial period. Women signify the weaker in the society, and the use of such a sign signifies the difficulties that the weaker gender endured in the colonial and the post-colonial period. There is the signifier of rose flowers used in the paintings, and their signified connotation is the passion. The other signifier is the text used in the images, and its signified connotations are the meaning that it passed to the public the challenges that women experienced in the colonial and post-colonial period. The woman in the first image is quite happy and protrudes some tongue, and this is a signifier that has the signified connotation of the women in the post-colonial that have a happy lifestyle, but they can be dangerous in the modern world. This is because of the presence of AIDs, and it is clear even as Teraoka used such an ideology (Chandler, 1997). The primary signs of the two images do relate to each other in order to portray some meaning of the image. The two images use the signs of women with some deeds and also use the texts to pass the meanings. There are some other signs that the two images have, and this involves the tongue that both women protrude. This is to pass the ideology of the concept of AIDs among other issues. Conclusion In conclusion, the two images discuss and also integrate various issues such as fantasy with the reality, history with the present and commentary with the humor. All these issues are quite evident in the post-colonialism. In essence, the two image paintings centers on two cultures, the east and the west and these also are the features that make up the ideologies that Teraoka demonstrates. In relation to the ideologies at hand, the power relations and binary oppositions are related to the key meaning and the ideological issues in question. The major concepts are the sociological and the political issues that carry heavy weight in the two images. Such concepts are related to the images because of the change in colonialism and the change in the social issues since the colonial period to the postcolonial period. List of Reference: Bing, A., Heartney, E., Hoffmann, K. A., & Teraoka, M. (2006). Ascending chaos: the art of Masami Teraoka. San Francisco, Chronicle Books. Chandler, D. (1997): Semiotics for Beginners. Online source. Reprieved on 15th, September, 2013 from http://www.aber.ac.uk/media/Documents/S4B/semiotic.html Chandler, D. (2002). Semiotics for beginners glossary of key terms. Aberystwyth, Aberystwyth University]. http://www.aber.ac.uk/media/Documents/S4B/sem-gloss.html. Fortun, M., & Bernstein, H. J. (1998). Muddling through: pursuing science and truths in the 21st century. Washington, DC, Counterpoint. Teraoka, M., & Ulak, J. T. (1996). Paintings by Masami Teraoka. Washington, DC, Arthur M. Sackler Gallery/Smithsonian Institution. Read More