Mini Post 3: "Feast & Famine" Visit Darryl Guinto

The exhibit "Feast & Famine" located in Express Newark showcases pieces that explore the current status of our culture and humanity today. The gallery looks at food as a social, political and bodily phenomenon. The works that really stood out the most to me spoke about food waste and the use of representation in advertising. It is important to look at the dark side of our everyday products because awareness is what will bring change in our never-ending problems in society.

Chris Thorson
Harvest Fresh
2012

 The first installation that I really thought was very important and a problem that our culture was facing is through this piece, Harvest Fresh, by Chris Thorson. This construction shows withered and sprouted potatoes and the lonely grapevine on the right. This piece demonstrates how much food is being wasted in our world today, so much food is being produced and being thrown out because it doesn't look good enough or it doesn't look at all in it's the best shape. Throughout our lifetime, the food industry has been promoting that good food is something that looks beautiful and pristine, it has lead to a society that puts the superficial looks above a natural-looking product. For example, apples are given to consumers with a wax coating, food is genetically modified to look bigger, nicer and even brighter. In other words, food is being manipulated in a way to appeal to the eyes which leads to much more poor nutrition in our world and an increase in health risks.

Renee Cox
The Liberation of Lady J and UB
1998

The next contemporary piece is The Liberation of Lady J and UB, by Renee Cox. In addition to our exploration of everyday products, this art piece really stands out from many of the pieces in the gallery because it presents us with two very well known products of Aunt Jemima and Uncle Ben's. It is really interesting because they are products that we may have used more than once in our lifetime. Advertising and branding came out of this society where it was produced so it is not an unusual thing, it is a reflection of the ideas and values that are prevalent in society. The branding on both of these is pretty offensive considering that "uncle" was used for black slaves and servants of the time and "Aunt Jemima" refers to a friendly black woman who is perceived as obsequiously servile or acting in, or protective of, the interests of whites. Renee Cox does not like the fact that her representation is being used for that matter so she recreates herself as a superhero character and she is liberating Aunt Jemima and Uncle Ben out of their dark historical dimension.

The Ambassadors
Holbein the Younger
1533

The Conversion of St. Paul
Caravaggio
1600

A piece that I find very provocative from Stockstad's textbook is The Ambassadors, by Holbein the Younger. We see within the painting that it is presenting the conflicts that are going on in England. The man on the left is Jean de Dinteville, the one who commissioned the painting. The top shelf contains objects that relate to the heavens such as the study of astronomy and the bottom shelves represent objects that relate to earthly things like arithmetics and the globe. What is really interesting here is what is placed on the foreground, a skull stretched diagonally, making the viewer tilt their head to change their perspective. It is what captures the viewers and it symbolizes death. This is a painting that almost looks like it celebrates earthly achievements and when you look in the top left corner, you can see the crucifixion of Jesus. Holbein creates this painting so we can see that humans can only achieve so much in life. He points to the limits of human life and the inevitability of death and the temporary human achievements.

The last piece that I really enjoy in Stockstad's text is one of the most famous paintings from Caravaggio, The Conversion of St. Paul. The painting represents the travel of Saul when he was blinded and heard the voice of Christ who convicts him into St. Paul. Caravaggio uses this dark style to eliminate all the distractions in the photo to point us towards Paul's conversion. The painting is presented to us at the turn of the 17th century, so the art is coming from the Counter-Reformation. This beautiful painting brings us to a point in time where there becomes a challenger to the Catholic Church. This represents the battle of the importance of paintings in the Church at this time. It really symbolizes the belief that the human body is so very vulnerable to the divine by the creation of this painting, where the human body is at the bottom and is in a weak state while the horse is the one that is dominating this painting. 

All the pieces presented here are reflections of the creator's world, from Chris Thorson's view of the food waste that is prevalent in today's society, to Renee Cox's offense of her own culture from food companies and all the way to the Renaissance where religion is starting to compete with humanism and science. They all play a part in telling our cultures and history. In conclusion, art history is another outlet to help all of us learn about crucial times in history and helps us understand those experiences in a dynamic way.

Citations

Stokstad, Marilyn, and Michael Watt Cothren. Art History. Sixth ed., II, Pearson, 2018.