Z in a New Light
My self portrait “Z in a New Light" was inspired by Jean Michel Basquiat. I chose him because I loved that he always incorporated and embodied his culture, background, and values in his pieces. He always gave homage to his African American roots and he viewed that part of him as royalty. I also chose him because I knew creating a self portrait in his art style would challenge me. I wanted to view and portray myself in a way that I would have never thought to. In addition to that, this class made me want to explore my identity more. I felt that drawing myself in a different light would help me explore myself on a deeper level. I’ve always been very particular with my image and the way I make myself look to others. I always wanted to be the “perfect girl” , the “pretty girl” but with this piece I found that there is beauty in the unorthodox. The colors that I chose to use in my piece represent me and my fashion because it was vibrant and completely random. Usually when people get dressed they have an “aesthetic”. An aesthetic in fashion is basically your style or your taste. I don’t have one. I go with what I feel and let it make something beautiful. I know the self portrait I created shows that. I didn’t have a set color scheme when I colored it. I let the markers speak to me and I put it on paper. Naturally, at first I thought it had to be perfect with straight lines and such but that’s not what Basquiat represented. He emphasized the beauty in being imperfect. The jagged lines and the uneven shapes is what made his pieces so amazing. When creating my piece I solely focused on recreating his “Self Portrait As a Heel”. It was so simple but so beautiful to me. I wish I could paint like he did but the markers that I used gave me the result that I was aiming for.
Finkelstein, Chapter 5 Fashion :
" Looking at fashion is more than observing the predominance of highly promoted luxury goods, extravagant patterns of consumption and celebrity endorsements of leisure activities and lifestyles." page 213
2-More recent (2016) article in Hyperallergic Magazine:
" Which is more important, the expression of the feeling itself, or the knowledge that it will be documented and seen by others?"
" It is the advertisements plastered on the subway and the pop-up ads that appear in your browser. It is the listicle telling you “10 things you need to know about ‘x.”“The NewOnes, will free Us,” they represent, for Ms. Mutu, “words that we haven’t heard, people we haven’t noticed. They will be our redemption.”
Wangechi Mutu: A Fantastic Journey
No comments:
Post a Comment