Burn

Burn: Origins and Resistance

When visiting the BURN: Origins & Resistance exhibit by Dr. Ellis-Williams, a few pieces stood out very strongly to me. Two of these were Black Goddess with Golden Lips and especially 2nd Degree Burn. The first of these is a digital collage on canvas, which was interesting to see as a medium. The image really stood out to me with the physical and printed textures of cloth in the background, and the smooth skin in the portrait. I’m not very sure what the significance is of the shape cut out of the woman’s face, but I think that the mystery of a concealed identity makes her more beautiful, and more representative of a bigger group of black women. I didn’t notice that the burn on the bottom left was in the shape of an iron until I noticed the clothespin piece in the corner of the gallery. The 2nd Degree Burn piece was also extremely interesting to me. It has a lot of dimension and texture, which visually struck me, but what really stood out was the feeling that this texture created. With all the red rounded stones on the piece and the arrays of red dots on the canvas, it reminded me of burnt skin, red and raw with pain. 

The first piece strongly reminds me of beauty standards for women, mainly Eurocentric and especially in black women. A quotation from Ways of Seeing by John Berger comes to mind: “The publicity image steals her love of herself as she is, and offers it back to her for the price of a product.” While there is no specific product being advertised here, there is something to be said about the lack of representation of dark-skinned women. The world encourages pale complexion, slim noses and blue eyes, and if you don’t look this way, you’re advised to make an attempt to or accept it as a flaw. It’s a rare but welcome sight to see a dark-skinned black woman represented as a figure of beauty and power, like a goddess as the caption describes. 

    When creating my own selfie based off these images, I really wanted to think about my personal experiences with strong women that have helped me after being burned. My first thought was my mother, and the woman who sacrificed so much to raise her. After my grandmother’s death, I had finally gotten to hear the stories of her hard life in Hong Kong where she married into a poor family, her immigration to the US, where she spent decades working every day to provide for her four children. She never got a vacation, and she always wanted to provide the best for her kids, even if it may have been the reason for her poor health as she aged. There was this fire inside her; when she worked non-stop for $40 a week, and when she was given a month to live and turned it into over a year. A few weeks ago, I got her name tattooed on my arm, a permanent “burn” mark of a woman who burned bright. My mom and I have been supporting each other throughout this difficult time.

Personal narratives such as these are a big part of raising awareness for social causes. It brings awareness to the way injustice, racism, etc. impacts actual lives, instead of just imagining it as a negative part of society. Seeing something so intimately makes it that much more impactful. For example, in This is What I Know About Art, Kimberly Drew writes about her college art history experience, in which the advisor of that department told her, “If you wanted to be in a classroom with other students of color then you should not have enrolled in art history classes,” (pg. 27). Knowing that she faced this kind of discrimination, especially in a place of higher education, makes a person question the disadvantages others may have in such important aspects of life. If just her speaking out about the narrow view that her fellow students and professor are discussing about racism and history makes them so uncomfortable, they have no idea what it’s like to actually be on the receiving end. 

These works are definitely activist, as was probably intended by the artist. Through her description of this exhibit and the larger series it is a part of, Dr. Ellis-Williams explains the “burn” of black women have felt to this day, and how their fire has been a source of healing. Her works bring up uncomfortable feelings by experiencing a glimpse of the pain of others. Some of her works include canvases that have been walked all over, shown in a video of the process, which makes a person think about how black women have been downtrodden in history. Another piece allows the viewer to participate and write the name of someone who helped their fire on a clothespin, which is a great way to get viewers to think and process these works, even in the context of their own lives. In a similar fashion, the Interventionists artist Krysztof Wodiczko said, “I focus more on the experience of the participants, my ‘co-artists,’ in each project. They are the initial, most important, ‘viewers,’ and the primary subjects in my instrumentation projects…” when describing his homeless vehicles that are also interactive.