Exploring Displacement and Immigration in Contemporary Art - Essay Sample

Introduction

In the Contemporary Art, the theme of displacement, immigration, and belonging focus on the broader social-political and economic issues that face individuals. Crossing boundary in the phase migration brings about experiences of both people and objects into consideration. Art can better draw out this moments to live where people can re-live it as well make viewers perceive such moments in an artistic standpoint. Moreover, arts expresses these experiences, also depicting the intertwined aspects of modernism and native cultures alongside the historical event depicted in the images. The artistic perspective enable us, viewers, to empathize and submerge ourselves in the world of the immigrants, to understand what they are facing. When we see an image of children abandon in cold, the issue catches our attention, and we are left asking ourselves many questions, 'where did humanity went wrong'? In representing these encounters on paper, people are reminded of simple act of kindness and lending out a hand. Thus, the images below will represent three main themes of displacement, belonging, and migration.

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Figure SEQ Figure \* ARABIC 1 Object Number 2013.164

The artistic hands behind the art Tour Group in a Landscape, Yu Peng is a Taiwanese artist in late years of the 20th century, his amazing work fall under paintings. Yu Peng work incorporated the medium of hanging scroll and used ink on paper which has a seal and his signature on the upper left side.

At a glance, the tour group gaze at the painting in a manner that they are posing for a snapshot. In the surrounding area, the art constitutes of a typical garden features, comprising of lotus fishponds, scholar's pavilion, rocks, and vegetation. The shapes of the rocks and plants blend in a proportionately eccentric human beings shapes, and the figures seems to be drawn childishly. Yu Peng's mastery of puppetry, as well as ink and oil painting during his childhood years, helped him a lot in developing this unique imaginative piece even without any formal knowledge in school of fine arts school. The artist was always passionate of his Chinese culture, so in quest of searching his roots, he moved to the mainland China from his home-grown Township, Taiwan. In his pursuit, he paid a visit to Beijing, the Dunhuang, Buddhist caves in Gansu region and Hangzhou. He stumbled on folk art mediums which he assimilated into this painting. The painting employs exaggeration, spatial fission, with an intentional sloppiness to bring forth a theatrical comic effect and the theme of displacement. With his understanding of literati painting, he recreated a technique of gu Zhuo or "ancient clumsiness," which generates the subversion of genre refinements, indicating the Chinese painting practice of displacement with concept of modernism in Taiwan.

Figure 2: Object Number 1960.117.208

The artwork, You Make Sweet Life Increase is a work by an unknown Artist retrieved from a Divan of Anvari manuscript folio 208 works collection, which dated back in 1588 in Southern parts of Asia, Pakistan, Punjab, Lahore. The creation emerged during Mughal period, during this time arts and Indian architecture flourished as the ruler were great art admirers. The medium used on the art are dense, compacted watercolor, ink as well as gold on paper. The dimensions on the manuscript folio are 15.4 by 14 cm. The artist largely integrated the culture, starting from the mode of dressing; the Punjabi suits exemplify the rich Indian culture. With a closer look at the folio, the recto side highlights an image describing a crowned figure which is acknowledged by the complementary writing on top as Khwaja Mansur. The king is seemingly looking in the direction of his servants, and in the forefront of the picture, his other servant are handing out something to the beggars, which presumably is from the king. The picture also showcase two writings sections comprising of nasta'liq script written in Persian with black ink. Partly, the text incorporate the Qasida-a speech praising the king Khwaja Mansur along with the Mansuriyya palace and garden praises. The other part includes Nasiruddin Tahir, grand vizier commendation poem.

Generally, the theme manifested in this painting is that of belonging, which we perceive from the personalities present in the picture. The presented entities are two people from a separate world. First, there is the ruler and the subject, just by the political virtue predispositions, these two persons are separate; one is meant to rule, and another must be a follower. These separate worlds give these people a sense of belonging, in that the others cannot exist in another's world. Another thing that imposes the theme of belonging in the picture is the fact that the two persons in the image descend from different class. Just by virtue of the social standing, we can draw a sense of belongingness, in that the one with the higher status, the king belong to the different realms from his servants and the beggars.

Figure 3: 3.2002.24 J. H. Adams

The image represents a photograph taken by J. H. Adams, an American citizen. The photograph is titled Races, Immigration: United States. New York. New York City. Immigrant Station: Regulation of Immigration at the Port of Entry, United States Immigrant Station, New York City: Group of Those to Be Deported, which is dated back in 1903 in the New York City. The medium used in the photograph is a glossy collodion silver print, and the photo technique applied is Collodion method and also having an image dimension of 17 by 23.5 cm. The image shows immigrants' women and children enclosed in a room. The surrounding in the area does not look quite organized, and their luggage are scattered all over the place. By the look of things, the immigrants in the photograph look scared, and their faces shows uncertainty of what would befall them. Children in the foreground look miserable, or maybe starved for a long time unsure of what is yet to come. The authors integrated the theme of migration in this work to show the extent of the social-political problem. Immigration existed since the time of slavery where American owned slaves to work for them in their plantations and industries. In the 1900s, many immigrants moved to the United State for different reasons, others were fleeing for their safety, and others looking for greener pastures for their families. New York City harbored all manner of immigrants who picked up any work, which the native rejected for survival. Deportation mainly occurred if the immigrant is undocumented, meaning that he/she entered the country of migration illegally. In the photograph, this is likely to be the situation; however, there are other reasons like, for instance, engaging in criminal activities or forgery of immigration documents.