Rachel Knight- Blog 3; Art21 Compassion, 3

To my surprise, this program was rather interesting, drawing me in and opening my mind. Opening with a woman singing opera into a cell phone for the sound effect, I sat back and nodded in amazement. Then it goes on to show William Kentridge who is working with animated films inspired by charcoal drawings, making me dwindle on how unique our technological world can be for the arts. By taking creativity and an artistic license of sorts, impressive pieces have come about, not only amazing viewers but seemingly the artists themselves. Combining different processes and machines, the film shows how an artist can make a film from drawing, showing that we are always learning in order to advance. Incorporating a historical story, the techniques used to do this are very interesting and unlike anything I have ever seen, further intriguing me as I watched this program.
Exposing a lack of tolerance and injustice through art of many sorts, these artists unplanningly have a motive with their work, letting it flow out of them naturally. Moving on to photography with artist Carrie Mae Weems, the next focus of the program emphasizes the history in the pieces also. The photographs and the richness of their history and present day influence really remind us how far our society has come in good and bad ways. The past and present is bridged together through the photography’s in particular. Without the civil rights movement, Barack Obama would never have a chance to be where he is today and we can be reminded of this through photo’s from the movement. Next the program flows into art with furniture by Doris Salcedo.
Basing her work on experiences, specifically not her own, but someone else’s, Salcedo made the process of building pieces of furniture and other objects quite the experience. It makes me feel as though she was burying a feeling, a story, a problem into an object. Spending great amount of time on pieces and constructing them in the most impractical way, Salcedo and the large group who works with her found the rationality of what they do, through violence and events that they have witnessed, through someone else’s experience and torture. Embracing detail and matters of time, the pieces these groups create are phenomenal and heart wrenching. Symbolizing experiences of racism, discrimination, ignorance, and many other injustices, these pieces give an overwhelming feeling, leaving me grateful for the equality in my life. Compassion was the theme of this program. Compassion did not need to be said or defined, but just as Salcedo’s work does, it was hidden between the lines, leaving you with an emotion rather than an answer to what compassion truly is. These three artists all took on very different styles of art, but still created something similar and so precious.