BURN: ORIGIN & RESISTANCE
During the visit to the Art Gallery, Dr. Ellis Williams made a point of how Black women and how people of color were treated in our society. In his artwork, BURN: ORIGIN & RESISTANCE, he pointed out how God created the first woman, black, Molded from Mother Earth and how she was everything and perfect. But in the past, a Black woman was treated like a nonexistent human being.
The work of art that first stood me out was Dr. Ellis-William’s Autumn’s FIRE/Breonna’s Forest 2020. Being someone who always talks about climate change, this piece of art caught my eyes. When I first entered the Gallery, by looking at it, that’s the first piece that has me interested. It was made with acrylic and cold wax. This piece is mixed with a lot of colors. If we look closely, there seem to have plants at the background of the art overlapped with a dominant red color, we can also see that there are some orange colors which by looking at the picture can mean fire. The first thing I thought when I chose this picture was how climate change has been a burden to humanity, especially in people of color’s communities. As Dr. Williams stated in his work that “In the beginning, Black women resisted against systemic oppressions. And that Black women became Fire aka “FIYA” to fight the BURN.” We can relate this piece of art to this quote because we can see that in this piece, there was fire ravaging the whole forest which we can clearly see the flames in the whole entire frame represented mostly by the red color and a little bit of orange. By observing this art, it can be related to climate change and mostly global warming. We can not say climate change without talking about racial injustice. Black women had suffered surviving in the condition that they were in where the environment was barely clean. We can say that global warming affects everybody, but rich people always find a way to live in a healthy and comfortable environment while colored people are suffering to survive the heat especially black women that were doing almost everything to raise their children, take care of the house and even take care of themselves which they barely have the time to do because of the way they’re were oppressed. Looking back at the picture we see that the fire was taking everything in the forest. Because of the heat caused by global warming, the forest is on fire.
The second artwork that caught my eyes from the BURN: ORIGINS & RESISTANCE exhibition was Cloudy Night. This piece is made by a digital collage on metal. By looking in this artwork we see the wind blowing off the leaves of the trees. We see an aggressive storm passing by the forest, we are also seeing the leaves of the trees going in another direction which might cause the trees to fall. We also see an orange color between the trees which can explain that there is smoke coming out of there. This piece of art is like the first one. It can be related to climate change or global warming as well. People of color have always been suffering not only racism but the way they are living and the environment. Not too many people talk about climate change, but it is affecting a substantial portion of our communities, especially black women. Looking back at the artwork, we see that there is a little bit of deforestation. An environment without a lot of trees can affect the percentage of oxygen in nature. When a woman is pregnant, they need a lot more oxygen to supply her and the baby’s blood and this is because of the circumstances of the environment that they live in. Dr. William’s artwork can be related to this piece by pointing out the aspect of climate change. Climate change is being increasingly dangerous in our lives, especially in black communities. In another hand, I can see this piece of art how the trees represent Black women and how the wind represents the embouchement that comes in their way and tear them down and the smoke can represent the pain that they have endured during the fighting for their freedom. Black women have suffered enormously, and they are mostly the most underestimated people in our society. One of the quotes that stood me out was” patriarchy is the single most life-threatening social disease assaulting the male body and spirit in our nation.” Even in our household, patriarchy plays a significant role. Some of us were taught that each of us have our role to play, and women were allowed to do certain things. That mentality has devastated Black women’s lives and has people underestimated their importance in our life.
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