Pretend What You Know Not to Know
Pretend not to Know What You Know
ARTIST Adrian Piper, American, born 1948
MEDIUM Gelatin silver photographs with silkscreened text
DATES 1990
DIMENSIONS overall: 43 7/eight x 98 in. (111.4 x 248.ix cm) A 44 1/sixteen" x 22 ane/8" ten one vii/8" B 44 i/8" x 35 i/sixteen" x 1 seven/eight" C 44 1/8" x 31 5/viii" 10 1 7/8" (show scale)
COLLECTIONS Photography
CREDIT LINE Purchased with funds given by the Daniel and Joanna S. Rose Fund
RIGHTS Argument © Adrian Piper
This paper analyzes the work title 'Pretend.non to know. What you know' by the artist Adrian Piper. The triptych piece depicts three mothers of different ethnicities and their children. Starting at the center of the slice, a studio portrait of a Caucasian woman hugging her kid while happily looking towards the viewer. On the left side, an African female parent, frowning and looking away from the camera, holds her child who, every bit the mother, shows obvious signs of malnutrition. On the correct side, an Asian woman and her child sit down on a pile of wood and robes while looking towards the right side of the frame, covering her and her child'southward caput with a scarf. A text written in red letters at the lesser of every pic, divided in 3 sections from left to right reads: pretend - not to know- what yous know.
One of the most obvious references of this piece is the iconic representation of 'The Madonna and the Kid". This title ofttimes refers to the image of the Virgin Mary and the child Jesus. As part of the Roman Catholic tradition and the Orthodox Church, this depiction has its roots in European culture and religious beliefs at its cadre. Piper'south deliberate placement of the proud Caucasian woman at the center of the piece reflects on her privilege. Based on the entirety of Piper's work, information technology is off-white to account this piece equally a commentary on race and politics.
Sassoferrato / 'madonna And Child', 17th Century, Italian School. Kid Jesus. Virgin Mary. is a painting past Giovanni Battista Salvi da Sassoferrato -1609-1685- which was uploaded on March 29th, 2019.
Even though this depiction of the Madonna (which means "my lady" in Italian), has crossed all cultures around the world, and her physical features vary according to the ethnicity of her followers, the white-skinned virgin is the most advertised and popular of all. It also might be important to detect the fact that this is the but posed photo- farther on in this paper, I will reflect on the concept of 'the harmful mother' or 'intensive mothering' based on the female parent's gesture. This woman probably visited the photographer'southward studio with the pretense of preserving an idealized epitome of her and her kid. This brings to mind the dilemma of the pose, and reflections on prototype-repertoire and tableaux vivants referenced in the famous philosophical essay on photography 'The Camera Lucida' by Roland Barthes. Equally the author states:
""...It [the photo] completely de-realizes the man globe of conflicts and desires, nether cover of illustrating it. What characterizes the so-called advanced societies is that they today consume images and no longer, similar those of the past, beliefs; they are therefore more liberal, less fanatical, but likewise more "false" (less "authentic")""
Based on this written report new meanings emerge from Piper's artwork. In contrast to the other two images on each side, the Caucasian woman hugs her kid from behind in a very protective style, and both, the woman and her kid look straight at the camera. One of the focal points when thinking of gimmicky patriarchal maternity is the presumption that mothering is inherent to all women, and the caring of the child, an exclusive responsibility of the biological mother. This type of mothering develops into the best called "intensive mothering". The institution of motherhood has created arbitrary methods for the "appropriate" caring of the child based on its ideologies. As the feminist Sharon Hayes marks: these methods 'are synthetic as child-centered, expert-guided, emotionally absorbing, labor- intensive and financially expensive'. So, maybe what Piper means, when including the red text over the image 'non to know', is precisely our ignorance of our lost wisdom on the true nature of motherhood.
For Rich, the patriarchal institution of motherhood is located at the same level of rape, prostitution, and slavery. Her meticulous research conspicuously exposes how it is in motherhood that women are transfigured and enslaved. When following these lines, attention is called to the other two mothers depicted in this artwork. Starting on the right side with the Asian mother and text 'what we know', the focus lies purely on the procedures of the institution in this region well known as one of the apex of political control over women'southward bodies. Since it is not possible to clearly define the origins of the woman in the picture, only assumptions can be made. In relation to the other two images, it is possible to infer that this photo could be part of the collection of memories of the Vietnam state of war. Continuing in this line of idea, information technology is accurate to suggest that the suffering of the African and Asian woman facilitates the happiness of the Caucasian family unit in this case. On the other hand, 'The One-Kid Policy' and the radical reproductive politics implemented in the early on 1980's in China come to listen. Notice the gesture of the mother protecting her child with a caput scarf, while her wait seemingly connects with the unaware mother at the centre as if she is attempting to scare her.
Every bit we go along in this dissection, it becomes more and more evident the trigger-happy and almost evil bonds reinforced in the bloody text connecting the three mothers: the ways of mothering, their myths and ideologies, the social guild or course/race system, war and slavery. The one history that men and women can business relationship equally is the fact that we all come from a mother's womb. So, when speaking of the difference of history, Africa is the very starting time place I am drawn to.
The Black Madonna Of Czestochowa is a painting by Irek Szelag which was uploaded on April 26th, 2013.
It is not random the fact that the Black Madonna of Częstochowa has a scar on her face, and her look is manner more opaque than the one of the light skinned one. The relationship between the gaze of the African female parent and her child and the Częstochowa'south Lady is astounding. This painting has its origins in Jerusalem. In 326, it was discovered by St. Helena, who brought it back to Constantinople to exist presented to Constantine the Great, and later on to Częstochowa as a possession of the Smooth Kingdom. Also known as the 'Hodegetria' or 'She Who Points the Way', the history of this icon, currently resting in Poland, where it is also called 'Our Lady of Sorrows', goes beyond the metaphor. Her image was badly injured in 1430 past Hussite raiders and later on corrected by medieval restores. It is essential to note that role of their solution was to repaint the original prototype and to change her original features, such as her nose, which was given a more than aquiline or 'European' look.
The African American tradition differs from the patriarchal ideologies on mothering in the Westward despite their radical political connections. Different its Western counterpart, mothering is understood as the cadre of the African civilisation. Their focus is on empowerment, protection, preservation, and resistance especially in the face up of racism. An important stardom to highlight is the concept of 'Customs Mothering' or 'Other-Mothering' as a part of a survival strategy and the preservation of the essential values that Mothering represents for the African Culture. Black women are aware of the responsibility of the child's life and caring as function of a whole and the bug and consequences wide to the community by overcharging with the kid's responsibility to a single mother. White American mothers know the truth of 'other-mothers' very well. It is off-white to say that a deeply political relationship connects black slave mothers with white families in America, and that many of the upper-middle class children in racist America had developed forbidden feelings with blackness slave mothers as role of their extended family network. Should we 'pretend'? Situated on the left side, black motherhood in Piper's triptych is a symbol of power and dignity. The female parent's resistance despite the brutalities of domination, racial divisiveness, apartheid and dehumanization while preserving the love for her children and responsibility for their nurturance is pure social activism.
Motherhood is ane of the keystones of social control beyond cultures. Non even the near privileged women can escape this reality. Patriarchy however insists in the obliteration of the female body and its powers equally a tool for socio-political and economic control. The idealization of the mother's paradigm lying underneath the docility of the Madonna is confronted in Adrian Piper'due south artwork with the strength embodied by the African Mother on the left side, who despite the many injuries acquired by the calamities of racism, never quits her nobility and love for her children and the children of her community. Adrian Piper, a female person artist who herself experienced the violence of racist America, makes these three Madonnas an icon for all mothers pressured to conform to an unattainable ideal of motherhood across cultures, a blood-red alert to this destructive divisiveness.
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Source: https://www.katybeltran.com/blog/pretend-not-to-know-what-you-know
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