THE NAKED MAN OF STEEL In 2006, Angus Taylor, a South African sculptor, created a giant carbon steel statue of a naked black man (Froud, 2011). The artwork was named ‘Positive’ (Fig 1). The origin and meaning behind this name will be revealed further on in the essay. The statue caused varied reactions in three different locations, namely on the campus of the University of Potchefstroom, in front of a Strand apartment block and finally a farm in the middle of the Karoo. There were some harsh reactions towards the artwork from sections of the White community and some of the Black community. These reactions led to issues regarding the right to freedom of expression from the artist and the public. Statues are generally erected and displayed in only one place, where they remain. In the case of ‘Positive,’ it was moved three times because of adverse public reaction. The statue was first erected outside a building of the University of Potchefstroom (Barnard, 2013). Taylor paid R100 000 to have it placed on the campus (Peters, 2006). He said, “One could not before 1994 place a sculpture of a naked black man on the campus in Potchefstroom,” (Taylor 2014) and in celebration of the restrictions being lifted Taylor decided to name the statue ‘Positive’ (Taylor 2014). He stated “’Positive’ is an anti-monument, a large, raw sculpture without any pompous propaganda or agenda” (Taylor 2014). However the Potchefstroom students reacted by painting the old South African flag on it and thereafter tied an apron around its pelvic region (Peters, 2006). The statue was then removed and taken to Grande Provence, a gallery in Franschhoek, where it was bought by a Belgian art collector, Willy Woestyn (Barnard, 2013). Woestyn is also an architect and... ... middle of paper ... ...eature/article_2-5_artimpact.htm [2014, Feb 26]. Friedman, S. 2008, The People shall Govern. Mail & Guardian, 17 (35). 14 February: 4 Froud, G. 2011, Angus Taylor [Online]. Available: http://www.angustaylor.co.za/profile.html [2014, Feb 24] Grant, D. 2005, Sculpture [Online]. Available: http://www.sculpture.org/documents/scmag05/dec_05/webspecs/grantwebspec.shtml [2104, Feb 24] Leppan, S. 2006, Nude African Statue Gone at Last [Online]. Available: http://helderbergbasin.blogspot.com/2009/06/nude-african-statue-gone-at-last.html [2014, Feb 24] McFarlane, N.2014, Impaled be political idiocy [Online]. Available: http://www.bolanderproperty.co.za/opinion/1215-impaled-by-political-idiocy.html [2014, Feb 26] McFarlane, N. personal interview, Lourensford, 28 February 2014 McFarlane, N. 2012. It’s not the porn, it’s the principle. The Bolander, 17(35). 1 February: 4.
Statues and shrines of Our Lady of Consolation can be found in thousands of cities around the world. Constructed of marble, wood, or other stone, these replicas hold a special aura about them. One such sculpture of Our Lady of Consolation, located in Leopold, Indiana, has a fascinating history entirely its own. July 4, 2002 marked the 135th year since the statue had reached the shores of America (Hackmann 1). As the result of a promise, the replica of Our Lady found its new home in southern Indiana. Following their capture and shipment to the horrid Civil War prison at Andersonville, four young men—Isidore Naviaux, Henry Devillez, Lambert Rogier, and Xavier Rogier—endured appalling conditions and made an oath to pay tribute to Our Lady of Consolation if one survived.
needs to make up his own ritual that he can do before running into a
In the essay “The Man at the River,” written by Dave Eggers is about an American man who does not want to cross the river with his Sudanese friends because of the fear of getting his cut infected.
Think of the last time you saw a painting that featured African Americans in it. Were they the main focus? Did the painting have only African Americans or did it include white Americans too? Now think about the artist, were they an African American? The average person who knows little to nothing about art most likely does not know any African American artists or does not know many artworks that involve only black people in a non-historical context. Kerry James Marshall’s exhibition Mastry is exactly that. It is made up of multiple artworks which only show black people in both historical and non-historical contexts. This exhibition helps to counter this issue of the lack of artworks where only black people are portrayed how white people would
Burns, James MacGregor, J.W Peltason, Thomas E. Cronin, and David B. Magleby. Government By The People. 01-02 Edition ed. New Jersey: Prentice Hall, 2002
One in five veterans from Afghanistan and Iraqi wars have been diagnosed with posttraumatic stress disorder. Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a mental health condition triggered by a terrifying event and mostly effects military veterans. The book Lone Survivor, written by Marcus Luttrell, is an eye witness account of the 2005 operation Red Wing that tells the harrowing story of SEAL Team 10. Throughout the book, Marcus hears voices in his head of his fallen teammates. Even today, Marcus wakes up in the middle of the night because of the terrible nightmares, which are symptoms of PTSD. There are a lot of ways to combat PTSD so our troops do not have to endure this hardship. Some of the ways to combat the disorder is to understand PTSD, detect it early, having family support and preventing it.
...best case for the retention of the British Benin sculptures is to accord them the unique status they deserve as exceptional artworks and exhibit them appropriately in a prestigious national art gallery, for everyone to appreciate fully.
Wolf Brother by Michelle Paver Six thousand years ago in Northern Europe, a teenager named Torak woke up with his shoulder throbbing in pain. His father lies next to him, bleeding from an open wound. The two have been attacked by an enormous demon bear, which is bound to come back at any moment. As he bleeds out, Torak’s father can only bear to say a few more words. He says that the demon bear will only grow stronger with each kill it makes, and he also tells Torak that he has to go to the Mountain of the World Spirit in order to defeat the bear.
In Robert Olen Butler’s Mr. Spaceman, an extraterrestrial visits Earth with a mission. He is running out of time, but his earthling wife, Edna Bradshaw, helps him along the way. Edna is a former hairdresser. She is in her early 40s and has large breasts. She has many Southern old-fashioned traits. The alien’s name cannot be pronounced by Earthlings; therefore, Edna assigns him the name Desi. Desi is a very empathetic creature. His extensive study of media and pop culture causes him to talk in slogans, idioms, and clichés. He has no lips, hair, nose, or ears. He has large cat-shaped eyes, as well as 8 digits on each foot and hand. His species is telepathic and has the power to induce sleep and forgetfulness. At the turn of the millennium, Desi abducts a casino bus of 12 people, near Lake Charles, Louisiana. There are 7 men and 5 women in this group. The driver is Henry Gillette. He is homosexual and has a gray ponytail, along with sideburns. There are a total of four couples. Jared and Citrus are in their early twenties and have body jewelry. Mary and Lucky Wynn are Vietnamese. The other two couples are Viola and Arthur Stackhouse and Misty and Digger. Then, there is Hudson, an African-American Harvard graduate in a suit. The other two passengers are Claudia and Trey, a devoted gambler. Most of the story takes place in Desi’s spacecraft, before “Y2K.” Desi makes an effort to understand humanity. His was sent by his species with orders to reveal himself on New Year’s. Desi tackles what it means to be human; he is perplexed by language, dreams, and other human aspects.
In conclusion, scholars have come to identity “Ethiopia Awakening” as one of Fuller’s most meaningful works. 34 The sculpture demonstrated multiple and diverse meanings. “Ethiopia Awakening” embodied symbolic language that pointed to the struggles of contemporary African Americans. Fuller’s use of symbolic language demonstrated that like music and religion, art has the power to express emotion. Today, “Ethiopia Awakening” stands in the reading room of the Manuscripts, Archives, and Rare Books Division at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture in New York City. The sculpture reminds researchers to recover, document, write and share African American history.
There is no art, music, and literature like here in sub-Saharan Africa. What is important to Westerners, such as the artist, label, and static-like wall hanging, means nothing to us. African art is living, spiritual, and meant to go back to the Earth once the soul of the item has run out. As the Bamana of Mali say, the art are “things that can be looked at without limit”. Our artwork has changed, emerged, and survived eras of turmoil and inversely, hope. I have found passing through the global gateway into Africa has made me appreciate this culture more, and appealed to me on a level that made me choose being a part of it.
27 Baird, Robert M. and Stuart E Rosenbaum. Pornography - Private Right or Public Menace Pg. 52
Waugh, T., ‘Men’s Pornography: Gay Vs. Straight’, in C.K. Creekmur and A. Doty, eds, Out In Culture, Durham NC, 1995, pp.307–27.
Wars, civil wars, poverty, natural disasters and many more factors forces people to leave their home behind in search of a new place to settle down. There are around 15.4 million refugees in the world – people who has nowhere to go because their homes have been destroyed. But who are going to help these refugees, who have already lost so much. This short story, The Go-Between written by Ali Smith focuses on a 33 years old African refugee, who has repeatedly tried to cross the Spanish border unsuccessfully.
The holocaust attested that morality is adaptable in severe conditions. Traditional morality stopped to be contained by the barbed wires of the concentration camps. Inside the camps, prisoners were not dealt like humans and thus adapted animal-like behavior needed to survive. The “ordinary moral world” (86) Primo Levi refers in his autobiographical novel Se questo è un uomo (If This Is a Man or Survival in Auschwitz), stops to exist; the meanings and applications of words such as “good,” “evil,” “just,” and “unjust” begin to merge and the differences between these opposites turn vague. Continued existence in Auschwitz demanded abolition of one’s self-respect and human dignity. Vulnerability to unending dehumanization certainly directs one to be dehumanized, thrusting one to resort on mental, physical, and social adaptation to be able to preserve one’s life and personality. It is in this adaptation that the line distinguishing right and wrong starts to deform.