Zainab Khilji
Thank God, I’m Home: First Meal
Julie Green has done an amazing job with her exhibition. Although she is not in this world anymore, she has left some great activist art pieces from us to reflect on to bring awareness to wrongfully accusing people of color of crimes they never commited. This is all because of their color. One of my favorite quotes from the book “This is what I know about Art”, by Kimberly Drew “ Art and Protest will forever be bound together.” This is important because Julie Green is using her art to bring awareness. For us to learn and ask questions that no one does about the system. People who can't do much can definitely use art to portray and let their message out. This way they have a voice.
The very first picture that stood out to me the most when I entered the art Gallery was “Thank God I’m Home, said Marcel Brown '', by Julie Green. I chose this piece of art because family is so important and the feeling of one's home and their comfort is un describable. This is the story of a teenage 18 years old boy, who was wrongfully accused of murder. He was sentenced to a death penalty and after serving 10 crucial years in prison for something he never committed, he was released. The relief of finally coming home at the age 28 years old, spending 10 years in prison really touched me alot. Imagine being lost from the world for 10 years for the wrong doing you never committed. It is so unfair to Marcel and his family. Family is so important and coming from prison to home made food with your loved one is everything. In this painting we see the colors turquoise, purple, brown, beige, and white. To me I see a house that represents Marcel's family house that is in the shades of turquoise and purple mixed. A plate with what looks like homemade food and sandwiches. And a table cloth for the plates with flowers. The middle of the painting has thank God i'm home written with white. According to Julie Green purple represents leaving the courthouse. Turquoise refers to the paint on the bottom of the Dixon pool at Oregon where green was taught. The flowers and these colors are giving me a fresh start of vibes. This painting is the main piece to all her arts of the First meal. “Thank God im Home’ this quote is so important it doesn't need any more words to describe the feeling of finally being home. To be so grateful to prove his innocence and finally getting his life back together. This art conveys to us that justice and law enforcement are not for the people of color. They will find any given opportunities to take away someone's life, their dreams, and families. It is as if they are human. They are being treated like they are not the same flesh and bones like everyone. One quote from the previous readings that I've mentioned before as well is “ In the history of African Americans, the story of struggle has been a constant one. Although we have come from slaverly, to segregations, there is still a lot to go in order for everyone to be treated equally and not on how they look, their background, and their color. Marcel's journey can definitely portray their struggles are ongoing. He was wrongfully accused of something he never did, all because of his skin color. Although I can not relate to the amount of struggle black skin people go through,I can relate in a sense that people assume certain stereotypes based on how you look. Being a muslim in this country is not easy because og how you look and dress.
The second activist art I chose from Julie Green's pieces was “T-Bone Phone, 2020.”
This person was released from prison and went to a restaurant to eat steak. Which is probably not given at prison. Prison food is really bad and as little as it seems to us but to them it is probably really important to finally eat good food. He ordered his food and while waiting for it, he was astonished with seeing all those people in the restaurant with their phones and new technology. Imagine coming out of prison and realizing how much the world has changed and had gotten advanced, but you are still in the old phase not expecting these changes. It is so sad to get your life snatched away from you. To not have any memories and come out to a whole new world. How stressful this can be to adapt to new changes. The art itself was so well displayed. The center of the art is the iphone and in the iphone we see a fabric that is sewed to be in the shape of a steak. In the bottom we see 4 apps. One is the calling app, calendar and that has 27 years written. This is so symbolic. 27 years is a long time and so many things have changed. Another App Which says UBS and mail. Outside the phone we see a bunch of little people, so many of them. To me this depicts that life goes on and so many things change. For him it was the people around him and they all were using their phones.
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