Weekly Selfie #5

 

"Momma Bear and Baby Cub"

In my selfie, I chose a bear for my collage. I feel like I resonate with a bear because of how I am with my son. People compare moms to "momma bears" because they are so loving and protective of their cubs and then when they have to attack an outsider from attacking their cub, that's exactly what they do. With that, I chose to find a picture of a bear with her cub, and I put my face and my son's face on the bear to create the collage. In the MoMA article, "The Feminist Challenge of Wangechi Mutu", I liked the quote, "I'm interested in powerful images that strike chords embedded deep in the reservoirs of our unconscious." To me, this shows how Wangechi Mutu was more interested in powerful images than clearcut binaries. She wants people to look at images and think hard that can resonate with them deep meanings and conversations that we tend to forget about. Another quote I like is from John Berger in chapter 5, which says, "A painting could speak to the soul- by way of what it referred to, but never by the way it envisaged." This means how paintings can make someone relate to it, and it usually not by what is seen and painted, but instead by the message of the painting. These both quotes relate to the meanings of paintings and how one can interpret it that is not seen by the eye, and I feel like you can sense that from my collage.

John Berger Ch. 4+5

1. "A painting could speak to the soul- by way of what it referred to, but never by the way it envisaged."

2. "Thus painting itself had to be able to demonstrate the desirability of what money could buy."

Mirzoeff Ch. 2

1. "Seeing the world is not about how we see but about what we make of what we see."

2. "What we see with the eyes, it turns out, is less like a photograph than it is like a rapidly drawn sketch."

Wangechi Mutu at Met

1. "... Ms. Mutu replies that her preference is to let the art do the job of heightening social awareness; she could not justify withdrawal."

2. "... she notes that 'in classical African art, the female body in some instances is the museum- she is where the art is placed."

The Feminist Challenge of Wangechi Mutu

1. "I'm interested in powerful images that strike chords embedded deep in the reservoirs of our unconscious."

Wangechi Mutu Exhibition at Brooklyn Museum

1. "Mutu encourages audiences to consider these mythical worlds as places for cultural, psychological, and socio-political exploration and transformation."