Final Self Project- Shield

 

                        

                                                                           "Shield"

Final Self Project

For my final self project I was inspired by Yoko Ono and Kehinde Wiley. Every artwork that Yoko Ono does has a special meaning to her or a significant message, like her art performance called Cut Pieces. This particular art performance addresses sexual violence in public display and the protests against the war. She used art as an outlet to express her feelings and ideas by using her personal experiences. The Cut piece demonstrates a woman alone with a pair of scissors on stage dressed in a suit and she allows people to come on stage and cut a piece of her clothing. Here Yoko Ono demonstrates the importance of consent and giving freely. The artist’s body is hers and hers alone, she does not belong to anyone but herself. 

Kehinde Wiley artworks often feature decorative backgrounds with floral, nature inspired, and other colorful patterns. These elements surrounding the person help outline the one being painted. His artworks address topics such as politics of race and power in art. Wiley’s protraits are of people of color because he wants to represent people of ark skin in the art world. The art world lacks the representation of the power that people of color have. He often paints young black men and women with patterned backgrounds and historical poses to show men and women in fields of power. For my final self project I decided to paint the shield of the Ecuadorian Flag. My self project painting represents the importance of my culture. Both of my parents come from the country side and I wanted the trees surrounding the shield to represent where my parents come from and our background.

The shield has many different elements to it and each has its own representation. The steamboat represents the first steamboat to be sailed in Latin America first built in the shipyards of Guayaquil, which traveled along Ecuador’s Guayas River. The volcano is called Chimborazo the highest volcano of Ecaudor, its perpetual snow the source of the Guayas River. The sun signifies gold, surrounded by astrological signs for Aries, Taurus, Gemini, and Cancer which represents the months of March through July and symbolizes the duration of the March Revolution of 1845. The colors of the flag are yellow, blue and red. The red represents the blood shed by the soldiers of the battles of Independence who fought for freedom and justice. The yellow symbolizes the grain, mineral wealth and fertility of the harvests and the land. The blue color symbolizes the sky, sea, and rivers. The Andean Condor symbolizes the power, greatness, and strength of Ecuador.

1. “As a part of society it is specifically the sector which concentrates all gazing and all consciousness.” Spectacle illustrates that reality is presented to us in an everyday manifestation.

2. “The Spectacle is not a collection of images, but a social relation among people, mediated by images.” Images such as advertising, television, film, and digital photos. The spectacle is an instrument used to attract an audience’s attention or curiosity. The spectacle today was unlike the spectacle 100 years ago. Modern technology expresses the spectacle in today’s modern world. The spectacle has the power to bring people together and spread to millions of people through social media and television.