"Dark Star" by Betye Saar, created in 2006.
Betye Saar, Midnight Madonnas, 1996. Mixed-media assemblage, 14 x 11 x 1 ½ in.
The Liberation of Aunt Jemima, 1972. Betye Saar.
I really enjoy Betye Saar’s artwork. Assemblage artists, (or recyclers), like her always seem to be interesting. At the top is Dark Star, created quite recently in 2007. It’s difficult for me to decipher, but it seems to be a ghostly image of a woman in front of a white tree, two moons above her, and she seems to be kneeling on a grave, where we can see the body of a dark child. I could not find any information on this piece, but I did like it because it seemed to be very representational. It must mean a lot more to Saar, and I wish I could recognize the symbolism. But the message is clear enough: race should not stop love.
The second piece I liked right away because of the name! But it is really a beautiful piece; the pictures used in it are beautiful themselves. And again, I can’t get a good look at this piece, so I’m wondering if the image in the top right was originally of Af. Am. people or if she painted them that way. there’s a crescent moon again, most likely pointing out how slave owners had command of their days, while their only free time would have been at night. There’s also a key on a beaded rosary string set against pressed flowers. It’s a well put together piece and I really enjoy it.
Saar’s best known work, The Liberation of Aunt Jemima, is made of a found memo-pad holder, where the hand that would have held a pen now holds a rifle. As you can see, she’s a typical black mammy, adorned with head scarf, black as tar and a stupid, vacant expression on her face. Big-breasted and holding a pencil for you, she is now changed from a typical slave figure to a fighter for her own civil rights, freeing Aunt Jemima from the bondage of slavery and of the pencil. It’s actually quite a whimsical piece after recognizing the hate used to make this, and the love used to recycle it.
Saar also does something else with these found items other than make them art: she reminds us of a past life, even a recent life, where racism is an acceptable media for everyday. She shows us this through her art in more ways than words can. It’s amazing how much these pieces speak about the social and racial injustice done to her people and sex.
My next artist is Laurie Anderson who works in the realm of Performance art.
Above is an example of Performance Art. It would have been difficult to describe it, but I think this video link gives a good impression of the movement as a whole. Performance art in itself is a social commentary of capitalism in that instead of selling their art as a commodity, they bring the art to you, and that ties in with Laurie Anderson’s explanation in the following video. She likes to make social commentaries in her works, but I can honestly say that I like her performances.
Laurie doesn’t really say what we do wrong, she just observes and gives her interpretation of what she sees. It is like a dream in the way she describes the things she sees around her, and I kind of like that. It reminds me of the way Nabokov writes, (and I love him)! You see the event from her eyes during the performance, but at the same time you can see her seeing the event. It feels freeing, actually.
As you can see, I only have two by her, and one just gives the words, but that’s all I could find sadly.
Both artists, Betye Saar and Laurie Anderson have important things to say in regard to our society, and they say it in ways unique to themselves and their art. That alone, one can respect, but I also found myself enjoying their art and not just their words. Their pieces and performances said things to me about my life instead of telling me just what they thought I should see in their pieces. And like Laurie said, (I’m really actually inferring this, please don’t be confused), it’s not what story you have to tell, but why are you telling it and how you tell it.
