Gallery Visit

My selfie this week was inspired by "i.am.meme" While it's not about me, there are girls that feel a constant need to put makeup on in the morning to feel confident about themselves. I have experienced it myself where the feeling of walking out of the house without makeup gave me anxiety. While i have grown to over come this, there are still many girls in the world who feel this way. The sad part is, is that these girls aren't ugly. Society has depicted a "natural" look to be dark long lashes, dark eyebrows, and sun kissed skin. But the truth is everyone is beautiful in their own way. Whether you have light eyebrows or dark eyebrows, short lashes or long lashes, pale skin or naturally tan, you are beautiful! 

           Unfortunately during my visit to the art gallery I only got to experience some of the artwork. Out of all of the artwork that was supposed to be there, I only got to enjoy the ones that were actually painted and hanging on the walls. This leaves me with three art pieces. One being “Growing Up” by Stephanie Quispilaya, “i.am.meme” by Meredith Goncalves, and “imposter palace” by Lulu Cipher. Although I only saw these artworks, I definitely got a feel for the themes portrayed in the gallery. One of the more prominent themes, I feel, is the theme of the pressure of society puts on a person throughout life. Everyday peoples experience things, good and bad, all of this impacts the way we look at others and ourselves.

            The artists all address and identify the selfie differently. Each portrayal of the selfies is different and unique. I enjoyed how Meredith Goncalves portrayed her selfie. She put them on the background of old internet memes. Even though many people have put their faces on meme background, her selfie sends out a deeper message. All of her pictures say something different on them, but they each have to do with her growing up and the different roles she had to endure. One of her several pictures that stood out to me was the one that said “STOPS BEING A WHORE WHEN SHE MARRIES A BOY SCOUT.” The reason why this picture sticks out to me is because there have been so many times when I have heard people talking about a girl like she was a whore just because she was doing something and didn’t have a boyfriend. There have even been times where my own parents asked me if a guy I was going to hang out with was my boyfriend, and when I told them he was just my friend they hesitated to let me leave the house. This is exactly the type of pressure society puts on women. They have to be nice, pretty, have a boyfriend, have children, and so many other things. In her work I enjoy the fact that she is comfortable enough to address these issues while using herself as the subject. I know some people would be uncomfortable with having the word “whore” even near their name.

            “Growing Up” by Stephanie Quispilaya was also an interesting piece. Her art showed the different stages of growing up beginning with birth. Her face is painted onto that of an animal, which looks similar to a beaver’s body. There’s a mom and then several children around her. One of the children are breastfeeding, which I think some people would find shocking. I like that she put the element of breastfeeding in there, since there is much controversy on the subject now. Not only are there the different stages of being a child and the mom, but also there black shadow that look like hands all around the mother. The could represent the overbearing pressures of being a mother. Being a mother does not only mean to take care of a child, but she has to remember to take care of herself. The constant need to balance her life with her child’s could be hard and overpowering.

            The artist approaches the presentation of self and self-portraiture with abstract images that symbolize the different pressures that are put on people throughout life. Each artwork has a different subject, but the theme within them are mostly the same. “i.am.meme” shows the pressures of being a female and growing up in a sexist society. “Growing up” shows the different pressures of being a mother and the stages of growing up as an infant. I believe that the artists are trying to make the audience more aware of the social problems around them. By making people more aware of the things going on around them it will make it easier to make changes to society in the long run. The fact that females can be seen as whores because they hang out with guys that aren’t their boyfriends is something that needs to change. It is important for people to realize the different pressures that woman endure. Most people try to brush off these issues and think that it’s just something women made up to complain and get more attention, but that is not the case. Being a mother is not easy, and while every mom loves her child no one can deny that motherhood is easy. There’s a constant pressure for women to be perceives as perfect, to be the perfect mother. Woman have been yelled at for breastfeeding in public, but also get frowned upon when their child is screaming in public because it is hungry. People can’t choose a side and either way someone will have something negative to say. By everyone being aware of these issues, maybe less people will be negative toward these things.