"Better Late than Never"

 

Yusraa bint Yusuf Ismail

Prof. Cacoilo

Acts of Resistance

Art Gallery Essay 2

                                   

            Because I over-procrastinate with everything I do, I cannot discuss one of the artists in-depth, but I would like to mention her work. I do not have her name, but I have the name of her project which is called Little Steph. Little Steph is a doll that has attachable and detachable organs in which you can place symbols and colors which code for different feelings and sensations. The doll is meant to assist patience who have difficulty expressing their pains and feelings to medical professionals. Medical jargon can be difficult for anyone outside of the field to comprehend or portray. With the help of the doll, patients can express their variety of feelings and their locations to doctors. This piece is important and completely stands out to me because it takes a matter, which is one expressing themselves to medical professionals and how it can be very difficult and find a solution for it. With this, it’s a start and many others can piggyback from her work. The main idea of this piece is that it can be tough for people to extend their true feelings to medical professionals. With that said, it can bring awareness to the medical field and to people who have this issue to acknowledge it and not feel bad about it or alone.

            The “Emotion Sorting Cape” by Pollie Barden is a piece that struck me. In Pollie’s words “The Emotional Sorting Cape is a visual and tangible tool for me to externally process my emotions.” I view the cape as something that I can benefit from, and others can too. Everyone who struggles with avoiding their feelings and struggling to express their emotions should have a cape or an object which they can use in the same way to help them process their emotions. The “Emotion Sorting Cape” is beautiful, and it’s made from colorful fabric, tubing, plastic bags, and a video documentation of Pollie Barden doing a session processing her emotions while in the cape. What also struck me from Pollie Barden is what she says in the beginning of her artists’ caption which is that she has crafted a life of avoiding until recently in the year 2020 when she had been forced to engage with her emotions. She mentions that her journey is not a straight path and that there are peaks and valleys in which she often gets lost and turned around in.

From the Interventionists chapter three Ready to Wear, I drew a close similarity from The Emotion Sorting Cape to the Dis-Armor piece designed by Krzysztof Wodiczko. The piece was designed “to assist in communication for those who feel alienated, traumatized, and silenced”. Pollie Barden’s cape helps process and sort emotions while Wodiczko’s piece helps communicate emotions. Wodiczko’s piece is one which I would find beneficial for myself as well as many others. I too greatly struggle with engaging with my emotions and have yet to really find a way of process them correctly. What I have started to do is be honest with an emotion and acknowledge it. When I am unsure of how I feel which leads me to feeling down, I resort to favorite outlets as I like to call them or “happy place” in other words. I am not yet in a place where I can put on a special cape and process my emotions, but I can try my hardest to be honest and breaking through that sturdy wall to vulnerability.

The final artist’s work that I would like to acknowledge is Kristy Lopez. Lopez created and designed dinnerware-safe glazed earthenware ceramics to depict gratitude to those in her life that has helped her through life and all or some of its important parts, sad parts, and great parts. The name of the piece is called Gratitude Gifts: Rescue, Abundance, Sorry, Adventure, Bloom, Lover’s Soup, Support, Middle, Roots, Only, Leo 2021. Kristy mentions that she struggles with perfectionism and appreciation for her artwork. Her inner critic disabled her from making meaningful art as an expression outlet for her which led to her bottling up emotions and inhibiting the processing of her life events. I found her work important because when we are focusing on bettering ourselves, we can tend to forget about the people in our lives who are assisting us through the difficult times and good times. Kristy says, “Communicating with gratitude gifts is how I choose to express myself to the various individuals who inspired each work and accompanying Thank You cards highlight the impacts they have each had on me.” People including myself can use Kristy’s work as inspiration and a way for us to communicate gratitude and other emotions to others using a tangible item and card or another written component. It can be something large and grand or small that can help communicate emotions to the various important people in out lives that are in deserving of it. We can also encourage others to do the same and it can be a great outlet for those in need of it.