Naomi Wager
Visual Model, “Moving on Perspective”
The best way for me to express my views and opinions regarding including issues such as racism, sexism, homophobia, social inequality, and injustice is through a visual model. For me, a visual model deeply expresses certain connotations and feelings with more of an impact then written or spoken words. I am submitting this wood sculpture as homage to Rosa Parks and the ideals that she stood for. The title is “Moving on Perspective,” which has a double meaning. Metaphorically, moving on from or stepping away from old views that discriminate and hold some captive, and literally the boxes represent different visual perspectives and the “hand” is “moving” on them.
At a very general level, this sculpture represents any person or group of persons that must constantly be on the move and aware of there environment to avoid complete destruction or harm. The entire sculpture is made of wood, including the fingers at the top, and two plaster hand casts. The base of this sculpture clearly represents boxes, shifting in many perspectives, which signifies any force that tries that pushes stereotyping. “Fingers” are on top of the boxes, but there is still potential for the boxes to collapse and bring the fingers down with them.
Of course, it would be silly to think of the boxes as conscious entities, rather they represent the ideas and rhetoric that construct powerful biased and discriminating views. In the case of segregation, many police officers were simply doing their job when arresting blacks. For example, when Parks asked the officers why they were arresting her and always pushing blacks around, the reply was “I don’t know, but the law is the law and you are under arrest.” That statement captures perfectly the idea of what each box represents. The “unknowns” that continue to affect views and inspire discrimination.
Boxes, walking over boxes, which are still in flux and moving, the fingers represent a subject, any subject in the mist of their struggles as no person is quite outside a box that cannot engulf the subject, but that the subject is not completely detached from at the same time. The plaster cast hands are “real” forces attempting to stabilize the boxes, but in the end the subject (or group) must continue to move least multiple perspectives destroy their significance.