Art museum assignment (Identity)

   
   
     This spring break really sucked for me... I really was looking forward to this break and had many plans on going to interesting places like the MoMA museum and enjoying the break with my loved ones and friends. Unfortunately, I was not able to visit an art museum over the break. I spent my break home with a fever because of the wacky bipolar weather we had... Although my plans did not work out, and I was not able to visit great places I had planned to visit, like the art museum, I did do some research and went to the MoMA website to look at some exhibitions. The first photo that really caught my eye was the Jungle by Wilfredo Lam. I do not know why it caught my eye, to be honest.. Maybe because it was tripping me out... or maybe because of the colors even though they are not so vibrant.. I don't know... But I thought it looked cool. From what I read, it said the theme was "Investigating Identity." Wilfredo addresses the identity as a way we  perceive and express ourselves. We are born with our identities, but they can change as we grow, depending on our surroundings, our experiences and/or the new things we learn everyday in life, etc. Some critiques of self, identity, and perception are usually viewed negatively or I guess, isn't as explanatory. It all depends... Self is who I am, identities are basicly factors and conditions we are born with that later on start developing into other or different things, and perception is our ability to see, hear, and be aware of our senses. So in that case it all depends. This image represents self because we all are born with identity even if sometimes we feel lost or confused about who we are. We all carry different personalities depending on our environment/surroundings, and that ends up showing us that we have this identity that changes up most of the time. We all are born with one identity that carries many traits. When I look at this picture I sort of see, like, different faces and different colors depending on the faces. To me the faces are ourselves; our identity, and the colors are maybe the people or the environment we are in or we are surrounded by. But clearly, the faces aren't the same, which shows that we are constantly changing. This artist is telling the audiece of the gallery that we all adopt different behaviors and ways depending on who we are surrounded with. This artist is telling me that us human beings are very peculiar. Wilfredo sort of uses philosphy in this image because it has you questioning our identities in a way... At least he does to me. Our indentities also influence the decisions we make in life, which sometimes end up helping us create or find who we are, if that even makes sense... We also have different perspectives, so when we are exposed to new information, our identity starts changing up too.

Wilfredo Lam. The Jungle. 1943

    Another image I found I liked was from the artist named Francis Picabia.

Francis Picabia. Our Heads Are Round so Our Thoughts Can Change Direction. 

   I liked this image so much because you could see so much love in this painting (In my opinion). You see this man and this woman gazing into each other's eyes. They look very much in love. You see the man's head. You see a place like maybe houses, and then behind the woman, you see a Dhow. This image immediately reminded me of a saying I hear many people say when they are truly in love with their spouse or their loved one. "They knew they loved eachother when 'home' went from being a place to being a person." She probably looks at that man and feels like she's home, and same with him. Maybe he loves Dhows too, and when he looks at her, he feels like home too. Then you look at the woman's hand and you see how when he grabs her hand, her hand turns all in stripes. It is like when you are in love and you feel butterflies in you tummy... Maybe that is how the artist wanted it to look/feel like. I just see pure love/romance in this image.

  Both images are different but they maybe carry similarity when it comes to identity. The first  image is completely about identity and the second picture is about romance (In my opinion) but can be about identity too. Like I was saying before, your identity changes as you grow and as you are exposed to new experiences and surroundings. Love can maybe change these lovers identities or maybe the decisions they made were influenced by their identities. It all depends...