Museum Visitation: Seeking Art
On my visitation to Perez Art Museum Miami (PAMM) I had the pleasure to observe many mesmerizing works of art. Some of them helped me see a different world that I didn’t even know was out there. Being this my first experience at an art museum I was taken out of breath with many of the art exhibits especially with four of them; I will be explaining the reasons why on the following paragraphs.
The most beautiful object in the museum for me was Jose Bedia (Desde que te fuistes…tu no te imaginas. Since you left… you cannot imagine). While I was walking through the exhibits I passed by this painting and it got my full attention for many reasons. One of them because it has a phrase in Spanish that left me thinking and I actually could relate to it, just because I know what missing someone is and to have family in other countries it gave me a feeling of nostalgic. When I looked at the painting my first impression was of a couple that clearly love each other and have gotten separated by distance. In the painting we can see two scenarios the first one where the female figure is standing on something that could imply land and the male is paddling away in a boat in the other direction.
The second one the same two figures but it seems as if the male has gotten into land too. It wasn’t after I read at the information given that I noticed that the artist is from Cuba and the real meaning of the painting is the relationship between Cubans exiled and the families they leave behind and the struggle of keeping in touch and the sacrifices made for a better life away from the communism. Jose Bedia work is objective it shows the daily life of Cuban refuge in this country. I think that if an artist of today painted this picture it would still look the same just because we face the same problems as in 1996 when the artist painted it. This work aroused in me a feeling of homesick and saudade. Saudade meaning a feeling of longing, melancholy and like I said before nostalgia.
The most interesting Non-European/ Non-North American work of art will be from Liliana Porter (The man with the axe and other brief situations-Venice 2017). This expansive installation is made out of hundreds of objects and different materials. I choose Porter’s work of art to be one of the most interesting in the museum considering that it was the hardest to fully understand its meaning without looking at the information provided. At first when I took a glaze at the art all I could see was a mess my eyes where all over the place trying to figure out what was happening, I asked myself why are they in little broken pieces. Later after getting informed that this exhibit is based on time and how she is trying to show the lines between reality and imagination. Francesco Clemente (Numbers, 19989) was the most disturbing work of art for me at the museum, it was disturbing to watch but at the same time it is fascinating. The painting has a really strong feeling to it, my first impression was women’s power, feminism, eroticism. This work of art is an objective art, in the painting we can clearly see what the artist is trying to show us, mythological, mystical, and religious references.
According to Clemente’s research (the women blowing into the clay vessels allude to an Indian fertility ritual). For the special exhibition I used Arthur Jafa: Love is the Message, the Message is Death. The purpose of the exhibit is to capture the emotions and the reality that the African American Community goes through on a daily. He shows the violence and the pain that this race has suffer throughout this country’s history. Jafa combines films, installations, sculptures and performances. The one that I loved the most was where you go in into a black room just like a movie theater, there a gigantic tv start showing the video of love is a message, just watching the video give u chills. One of the many imagines that impact me that most was a little kid screaming to his mom telling her to wake up as if she was on drugs, on this combines films we see Beyonce, Michael Jackson, Martin L. King, Drake and many more famous Icons. I choose Love is the Message, the Message is Death, 2016 as the most significant to this exhibit.
The videos are in digital color, with sound and a duration of 7 minutes and 25 seconds. Arthur Jafa was born in 1960 in Tupelo in Mississippi, in his videos he trys to express the power and beauty of Black music he does this by incorporating Kanye West Gospel Song Ultralight Beam into the multiple collection of videos. At a point in the exhibit we witness the miss behave of the police against African American. If I had the opportunity to take anything home form the museum it would be the same one as I choose for the most beautiful. Jose Bedia work gave me a feeling of being in my home country and just because I have felt that separation and distance from my love ones as he painted on his art I could identify with his work.
