{"id":1956,"date":"2024-04-30T17:17:01","date_gmt":"2024-04-30T17:17:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.valdosta.edu\/artcriticism\/?p=1956"},"modified":"2024-04-30T17:17:01","modified_gmt":"2024-04-30T17:17:01","slug":"art-spoken-for-inclusivity-and-diversity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.valdosta.edu\/artcriticism\/2024\/04\/30\/art-spoken-for-inclusivity-and-diversity\/","title":{"rendered":"Art Spoken For Inclusivity and Diversity"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By: Desiree Rose Bailon<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How far can someone speak out, especially about certain topics or implying certain ideas that would be seen as controversial or problematic? The Valdosta National of 2024 tries to implement the idea of allowing different artists to display their identity through their artworks. The artists presented were filtered and selected by the juror, Olivia Richardson, in collaboration with Mark T. Errol, the curator for Art Spoken. Art Spoken was designed to bring in in different artists of different races, ethnicities, and sexual orientation to light and into the spotlight to show who they are as people and show themselves through their work. The idea was solid, but the desired outcome was lacking. The effort was there, but it seemed too lackluster of what it means to show the artist\u2019s identity and who they are to be recognized in honorable fashion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

The artists are a mix of Valdosta State University students and even going as far as those nationwide in the United States. It is appreciative that the Valdosta National have included more than just the students or those outside the school; it merged to include more people to select from and have a chance for lesser-known artists or rising gems to take the spotlight that they deserved. But problems can still arise.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"A
Seongmin Yoo, For The People by The People<\/em>, 2022, Ink, Oil, and Rice Paper on Canvas, 18″x24″x1″<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Seongmin Yoo had one of his artworks to greet incoming visitors at the entrance, but one of their works attracted my attention. The artwork at the entrance was named For The People by The People<\/em>, created in 2022 on white rice paper. The canvas was portraying more than colorful abstractions of people; it holds the color of people\u2019s emotions as they have their voices raised to be heard and seen with the naked eye. Abstracted people can be seen with gaps within their bodies, possibly their mouths open, with bubbles of color and semblances of words coming from those colorful figures. Arms were outstretched to simulate the people being big and loud, and legs were out and expanded to show movement and demonstrate size. The color showed vibrancy of people\u2019s feelings and their expressions, trying to make their voices heard to anyone looking or batting an eye at their direction. It is similar to Strike<\/em> of 2022, except this one depicted a literal rally, a protest. This piece from Yoo was very loud in expressing what is going on in this piece. It shows reminders of wanting change, and that wanting led to protesting, and protesting led to fighting and bashing on pedestrians\u2019 heads and body to deter their protesting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Framed
Seongmin Yoo, Strike<\/em>, 2022, Ink, Oil and Rice Paper on Canvas, 18″x24″x1″<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Cynthia Bickley-Green created an eye-catching piece of work. Originally, the piece reminded me of the moon in different perspectives or time frames, using different colors and sections to depict the many views of the night sky. The title 4th<\/sup> of July, 2022<\/em> was an interesting title to name the viewing of the night sky of the moon. The viewing of the night sky gave the sense of fireworks, to make sense of the many colors and explosive, vibrant style of the design per square section. There is her artist statement; Green referenced using a physiological book about the optic eye and explained how seeing different sections of the piece would expand to a larger view, seeing individual squares combined as one. There was an element of science and sociology in her work, but what I had least expected was the mention of climate change. As much as it demonstrated and gave the idea of how people have different viewpoints and looking at the bigger picture would allow such open-mindedness, there was no reference within the piece that screamed climate change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"One
Cynthia Bickley-Green, 4th of July<\/em>, 2022, Acrylic on Canvas, 28″x28″x1″<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The juror\u2019s statement was an interesting read. Richardson was from up north in Georgia, the area of Atlanta, which compared to the Valdosta area, operated differently when addressing certain topics, such as inclusion and diversity, which was what the exhibition was all about. She had good judgement, but the final product and viewing of the gallery seemed underwhelming for a place to showcase diversity and inclusion for the public to see. It seemed to underhand the idea of proposing identity and who were the artists, like she is to be politically conservative on what to say or what could be written or, worse, who would be presented in the show. But what was alarming was that even if she cannot be explicit for inclusion and diversity, she was able to reference real-life circumstances, such as what is going on in Palestine, which featured so much fighting among people. It seemed she wanted to say more to bring light to inclusion and diversity, yet she is restricted from what truly say on the gallery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The gallery was a simple showcase on what Art Spoken wanted to be, yet it fell so short on its target goal on shedding light on the controversy. But there is a good light with everything; the gallery had its intentions, and over time, it may achieve what it has strode to do.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By: Desiree Rose Bailon How far can someone speak out, especially about certain topics or implying certain ideas that would be seen as controversial or problematic? The Valdosta National of 2024 tries to implement the idea of allowing different artists to display their identity through their artworks. The artists presented were filtered and selected by … Continue reading Art Spoken For Inclusivity and Diversity<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":769,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[217],"tags":[25,131,220,46,63,89,45],"class_list":["post-1956","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-artspoken","tag-art","tag-art-criticism","tag-art-spoken","tag-dedo-maranville-fine-arts-gallery","tag-exhibition","tag-valdosta-national","tag-valdosta-state-university"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.valdosta.edu\/artcriticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1956","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.valdosta.edu\/artcriticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.valdosta.edu\/artcriticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.valdosta.edu\/artcriticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/769"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.valdosta.edu\/artcriticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1956"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blog.valdosta.edu\/artcriticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1956\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1962,"href":"https:\/\/blog.valdosta.edu\/artcriticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1956\/revisions\/1962"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.valdosta.edu\/artcriticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1956"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.valdosta.edu\/artcriticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1956"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.valdosta.edu\/artcriticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1956"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}