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TEDx Talks
Published: 2017-08-25
Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FlvpQmvfR_k
how we choose to live our lives day to day as a consequence of so many things the choices that we make are rooted in believes that can be filtered down three lenses what we see what we experience and what we understand but what about what we don't see experience or understand the artist Kerry James Marshall is all life long mission to insert the black figure into
art history and onto the walls of museums where images of black people have been woefully under represented we don't see them his self appointed task a profound and urgent response to some of the most important issues face today racial injustice a search for equality these issues are manifestation of our society they are choices conscious or otherwise made or not made and these choices often make decades
centuries even millennia ago have established how we frame our society a friend is a set of rules assumptions and understandings a frame helps us navigate it's a died but it does not necessarily need to be our destiny collectively we can re frame issues like social justice and many others re framing long held beliefs is extraordinarily difficult but it's also fundamental for us to change and evolve
our lives and it's never been more important we are collectively as responsible for the society we live in so we must decide and if necessary we must refrain we are trained and conditioned to see what is inside the frame but we can also be limited by that frame my dad group include a style when I was a little girl it took me to the center of
town to visit the oldest synagogue in the western hemisphere the congregation dates back to the fifteen hundreds when I walked in I was really surprised to see a thick layer of sand spread all over the floor I was walking through sand like I was on a beach it seemed so out of place I turned to my dad for an answer was the stand there because we
were on a Caribbean island no he said no it's a long tradition dating back to the time of the inquisition when Spanish Jews would put sand on the floor of their homes to muffle their prayers so that they would not get caught by the authorities what I found so fascinating even shocking even as a little girl with that even now the synagogue would not let go
of the sand even when its membership is perfectly free to do so because it had become so much a part of the symbolism of that space but why permit an attribute rooted in persecution still be a part of your face we all live lives built on such habits not all those habits are born from generosity or positive intent my whole career in museums has been about
creating the conditions for human plenitude and asking what are the frames that get in the way I believe this not because of some abstract idea but because of something vivid and real that happened to me in curious how and that changed me and probably has happened to you it changed you too what are the barriers to a rich full life historical frames often dictate what we
think do I am here to say that we should be constantly vigilant and understand the frame by which I habits and actions are formed those unexamined preferences those ways that are seen as unnatural and neutral constantly challenge and the best space to do that is in the museum museums can be the most powerful tools for re framing society that we have museums disrupt societal frames for
a living they questioned habits and surface blind spots can they do this by showing the work of artists who re frame and question the status quo in unique ways through the experience of real physical powerful this matters to you and me because refraining can equip us with the tools to clear blinders and break through the limitations on the ways we see experience and understand issues that
affect us all museums prepares for a complicated interdependent world they teach us visual literacy critical thinking and how to imagine the world from the perspective of someone very different from yourself this is even more important now in the age of self fees that always put us in the center of the the rabbit hole that's the self affirming world of the internet echo chamber and the resurgence
of fear of even hostility toward people who are different from us our belief systems are turning inward what we need is a place that generates a kind of outward commonality something that brings people together that is less about the self and more about being with each other and museums are that place once we understand the frame we can choose to abandon and who sees better than
an artist in fact it would benefit all of us not only to see the wait not openly to follow the way an artist sees but to follow the way an artist thinks picture two fast friends just a few years out of art school Marcel Duchamp and Constantin Brancusi are young painter and a young sculptor and they want to change the world they're interested in everything new
it's nineteen twelve and they read about in aviation show taking place in their hometown Paris and they go see what's up they're wowed by this brand new flying machine called an aeroplane and they especially fall in love with the shape and look of its spinning propeller blades back in his studio Brancusi creates a blade like sculpture shifts its orientation and the result is one of the
most famous works in the entire history sculpture bird in space which announced a non representational art and sculpture it was a breakthrough but only in Europe in the U. S. when the sculpture travel to Chicago in nineteen twenty seven customs officials refused to believe it was a work of art and impounded it it was finally released under the category of kitchen utensils and hospital supplies fast
track to two thousand and five and a version of the same sculpture sets a world auction record at over thirty million dollars Frank uses sculptures and Isham sculptures made from things found in everyday life like a bicycle wheel a method that is now a permanent fixture of art making made icons twentieth century art they saw and transposed the wonders of one field into their own this
way of thinking is in the DNA of every artist at artists you're disruptors let the imagination of the artist is one of the most powerful weapons of a conscious a society they help us envision what we can't see or didn't see before we need to practice those skills to see outside the frame artists do that for a living for Kerry James Marshall making you aware of
what you couldn't see what was outside the frame was the black figure this is what I love upon museums they show you what you don't yet know you love and that what you don't even know yet will refrain your world most of you know this painting by Vincent van Gogh but did you know that you could fall in love with the my love tenderly stone rose
petals laid on the floor a road trip gone awry a dot covered room museums today present art and ideas that push our perceptions they use arts eruptive ten shell museums are less concerned with showing a fixed history then the delving into the counter knowledge that part imparts when it's scrambles our senses and because museums are experts in refraining they are refraining themselves over and again consciously
upending their own historic backgrounds over the last decade museums have been undergoing a major makeover encouraging a more activist role than before for themselves and their communities whereas they were once all knowing places of instruction imparting information to a less knowing passive audience today museums are increasingly places of experimentation and this is what inspires me good museums highlight and challenge than disrupt the frame or status
quo they are radical and not just those crazy contemporary art museums I could the artist to to to Chicago the met the Louvre as potential hotbeds radically inspiring us to understand the world around us differently in order to improve it today's best museums are a laboratory a new product development department and inventors paradise learning to look at things from a different perspective hard to do and
takes practice use museums as your studio where you can flex your own reframing muscles and you better practice because reframing as hard we are working against all the embedded forces I keep you inside the frame when we use museums as our research lab for how we can individually and collectively breaks through the frame we become citizens not just consumers defined by concerns beyond our selfie selves
and beyond the commercial transactional bottom line the question then becomes what can we do in common at the MC a Chicago we're building a new space that openly solicits your active role comments is a space conceived by artists to reconsider frames perhaps in response to the art you've just seen perhaps in response to other topics or other frames you may be bounded by that you can
then break apart this space is to liberally scale for more intense encounters varying from say five to fifty people that propel audiences into participants and even collaborators taking part with the museum in what constitutes our poll the Commons is also welcoming particularly because it opens up new ideas that challenge given wisdom that is precisely why people should feel most well together we become a new audience
of active cultural participants who are not segmented by markets nor bracketed by income or zip code nor divided into our producers versus our consumers which is not to say that there's agreement we're not here to establish a consensus we are here to provide a platform for respectful descent and difference in a culturally complex civil society we are here to generate civic friendship Newseum's have moved from
showing you a broader world too urging you to perceive the world from different perspectives that's what we really need right now is for people to hear and learn from one another looking at ourselves through the lens of others we can better see our own frames that is the democratic potential of the art space museums are not just concerned with the art world museums are concerned with
the world unlike classic museums of old which quite literally set themselves as a thing apart from daily life the twenty first century museum is a way to get closer to the world all Lynn all your senses this is a belief I share with the Icelandic global artist over for a license Oliver creates immersive environments that you can actually walk into rather than just look at they're
made from ephemeral materials water light fog heat cold that you feel on your skin and experience with your whole body essentially he creates artworks that bring you into a deeply present Sperry ends we have all been moved by a work of art a novel a poem a painting piece of music this deep experience is the necessary first step to being conscious which then leads to taking
action museums are becoming places where not only artists but you are invited to radically we consider the world around us slower discuss observe and formulate alternatives and new approaches in short act picture Chicago public housing project what comes to mind now see a mural size painting by Kerry James Marshall from the nineteen nineties called Wentworth gardens it's a beautiful sunny day the bluebirds are out in
the sky and you spot to young people holding hands in love to the left a beautification project is underway S. fencing surrounds a small but flourishing patch of green that beautification project points to a communal dedication and aspiration for better homes and better gardens the words that we've like a garland through the legs of the young couple %HESITATION continue on their way eternally unruffled they exhibit
a personal dedication to each other the garden exhibits a communal dedication a communal act this is not a nostalgic or whitewash scene shortcomings a city planning stamp of bureaucracy is still there are literally at the upper right of the canvas and in the regularizing architecture that is the backdrop for this young couple's life now and perhaps in the future but these aren't housing projects as dangerous
or socially fragmented spaces these are homes and gardens and people with full lives one afternoon I saw a group of young people who actually live in what Wentworth gardens and they were visiting Kerry James Marshall show at the museum of contemporary Chicago for these young people Wentworth gardens is in some place in the news it's their home it's where they live laugh with friends fall in
love and learn about life these kids who came to Kerry James Marshall show recognized their world in his painting these kids saw themselves as central characters in the frame having seen themselves represented having been given a greater visibility of themselves in the world perhaps they went home with a greater sense of self on dot seeds the cultural landscape for the future because a sense of self
is the root ingredient for becoming someone who acts embrace about change according to their values and goals museums our place to envision the future the responsibility for those of us who are charged with programming and designing Newseum's is to ensure that we reframe provocatively and with greater intention than ever before we have to ensure that we give you the tools to decide who you are who
