Latest news with #sculpture
CBC
a day ago
- Health
- CBC
Through nature walks, insect trails and stained glass, this artist seeks healing in wonder
Montreal-based interdisciplinary artist Laura Hudspith's experience with language, her body and its relationship to nature changed when she was diagnosed with fibromyalgia, a chronic illness. Hudpsith's work spans sculpture, installation, photography and text. She's worked extensively with copper, algae and sea glass. Her art explores her understanding of health, the body and the molecular. While completing her MFA at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Hudspith became inspired by language and the weight words carry in different circumstances. Language, like meditation, can offer healing, clarity and introspection, she explains. Through her ritualized walks, which have become central to her life, Hudspith discovered insect trails in the wood of fallen trees. The language-like shapes left by the insects became the inspiration behind her latest exhibition, Wanderer, which is now on view at Zalucky Contemporary in Toronto Hudspith's newest body of work seeks to find the connections between autoimmunity, language and magic. Guided by her experiences with illness and her interests in philosophy and science, Wanderer explores the microbiological implications of turning inward to heal oneself. The exhibition is made up of floor and wall-mounted sculptures made from stained glass and copper. The organic and fluid shapes of each work mirrors the asymmetry often found in nature. Tendrils of copper branch out throughout the borders of each mounted piece, paralleling the insect-like sculpture, a head, and behind, and to either side. CBC Arts spoke with Hudspith to discuss her work. This interview has been edited for length and clarity. CBC Arts: You explain that your experience with chronic illness has informed your view and interpretation of nature in a metaphysical sense. Can you elaborate on this further? Laura Hudspith: Becoming chronically ill marked a profound shift for me in many ways. I witnessed the transmutation of my psyche and soma. Through these experiences, I've learned to allow my body and illness to act as guides, and endeavour to train my focus toward considering the bio-possibilities that could emerge from rethinking bodies and illness through the lens of the molecular. I've come to see molecules and cells, viral and inorganic matter, as possessing distinct autonomies. These kinds of recognitions open me up to experiencing the healing properties of coming to know something truly profound about oneself and the world — what I call "wonder." And the experience of wonder can be so encompassing that it begins to matter-me to its shape, soothing my body, even assuaging a flare-up of autoimmune symptoms altogether. In this way, wonder becomes a form of molecular healing, and I seek this sensation out. You've brought up this concept of "magical thinking," something that stems from meditative walks. Could you explain what magical thinking means to you in the context of your art and how it informs your work? I've found that the act of walking can be practised as a form of healing, particularly when walking amidst densely wooded or pastoral areas outside of urban spaces. There's something really special that happens here: the thump of footfall feels as though it's held closer to our bodies, and to all of the many non-human bodies around you, be they animal, vegetal, geological. In my experience, the effect of this sound dampening, at least of my own movements, creates a spatial sense much like being in a bubble of tranquillity and solitude that moves with you, a bubble that I find ideal for turning inward. And yet, in these spaces, you simultaneously become so much more aware of the density of a place, its liveliness and also its expansiveness. I find this heightened, dual awareness to be ideal for reattuning ourselves to self, to our innermost core, but also the world. Walking opens us up for encounters, both within and without. The work marks a turn toward "magical thinking" insofar as peeling back the metaphysical properties and biomechanical processes behind how immaterial matters — such as language, or the social and cultural structures that order our everyday lives — affect the material world in meaningful ways, such as making us ill or well. Their effects can seem almost "magical" in nature. In entering the terrain of inquiry that this word "magic" opens up as it relates to healing, Wanderer draws from my image archive of insect trails I've collected while walking, and from mystical figures of our own making, said to represent the core of our being. Here, I look to the archetypal figure of the "wild woman." Like walking rituals that carve pathways in me for healing, wild woman mythos offers insight for deepening our self-knowledge and worldly connection. She embodies our intuition and wisdom and the untamability of our core being. She is conceived of as a healer and life-giver, and as a death doula, even a necromancer or a witch. As our wise and intuitive core, she senses what is no longer working for us about ourselves and guides us through transforming that self-material into something that will better serve us. That is, if we attune ourselves to listen and allow our bodies to act as guides. How did you make the connection between language and the insect trails found on your meditative walks? I've always been drawn to words and texts — how meaning can change and deepen when a few words are strung together. I became more particularly fascinated with semantic linguistics through my experiences with autoimmunity and coming to understand how language shapes our bodies and internal systems. The same words can carry distinct meanings and connotations when uttered outside or inside the medical sphere — for example, differences in meaning that can gnaw at you. Through my years of practicing walking meditation, I've amassed an archive of photographs documenting the burrowed insect trails in the cambium layer of the wood in fallen trees. Their trails have always appeared to me as some kind of arcane language or unknowable script that articulates a wisdom truly its own; its meaning is wholly illegible to me as a human, yet nevertheless intelligent. I began tracing these complex markings and serpentine trails, building stained glass patterns for what would become my Seer series, the wall-hanging works inWanderer. What sparked the evolution of the Seer series? Seers is inspired by the intricate, organic patterns produced by these wood-burrowing insects. Wild woman's eye (2024), made of stained glass and copper, was the first piece made in the Seer series, composing my imaginings of what her ancient and wizened, milky eyes might look like if she were to take corporeal form. She is perhaps capable of reading non-human text. My glassworks incorporate these tracings as either reflections in her eye or a way of seeing. Throughout the series, I began to evolve a geometrically perfect oval into increasingly amorphous eye forms with slight asymmetries. Our brains have a preference for symmetry, and encountering slight asymmetries can produce a subtle psychedelic effect. I love the idea that meeting the wild woman's gaze — whose gaze is also our own — might have this effect. What was the process like translating the intricate, microscopic realities of insect trails into tangible art forms? The process of translation has looked different for each body of work. In my Seer series forWanderer, using my walking image archive was most intuitive. Some glass patterns were created by tracing the trails directly, building the eye form around them, while others were formed by bringing together or overlaying several trails more instinctively. I felt that allowing for an intuitively-led process would serve as a way for me to honour the source of these images, while also echoing notions of wandering and meandering that are explored throughout the exhibition. I love glass, copper, algae and salts. Copper atoms have free electrons that are constantly searching for space and a point of connection, which I find so beautiful. Copper atoms are indeed on the move, changing and becoming just like you and I. I see my materials as collaborators who might help reorient our thinking as we peer into our being. Through other bodies of work, I've observed and imaged many of my own cellular structures — breast, ovary, and lymph, for example — as well as molecular bodies that we are often in close relation to, from algae to sedimentary rock. I find that the varied textures and uneven luminosity inherent to stained glass render these microscope-gathered histologies with such clarity and revelation.
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
Mexico City bids adiós to monument to Castro and 'Che' Guevara
Goodbye, Fidel. Hasta la vista, Che. Denunciations and accolades greeted the abrupt removal this month of a controversial monument in the Mexican capital commemorating the two revolutionaries, Fidel Castro and Ernesto 'Che' Guevara. The monument, a pair of bronze, life-sized sculptures of Castro and Guevara chilling on a bench, recalls a consequential moment in both Mexican and Cuban history — the pair's first meeting, which took place in an apartment in Mexico City in June or July 1955, according to historians. At the time, both were twentysomething militants in the formative stages of their transformation into leftist icons who would inspire a global generation of revolutionaries and activists. A leftist Mexico City government installed the monument in 2017 in a small park in the capital's Colonia Tabacalera neighborhood, not far from where the storied duo first met in a Cold War encounter that has taken on near-mythical dimensions among many on the left. In the two sculptures, both men stare straight ahead and are decked out in light combat garb — Guevara in his trademark beret (a look immortalized on T-shirts across the globe) and Castro sporting a fighter's cap. His legs crossed, Castro grasps a cigar in his left hand, and a book on his right. Guevara's right hand secures a pipe. The sculpture has long sparked polemics: While adherents of the left generally applauded it, and some visitors would leave flowers, critics assailed the artwork as a tasteless shrine to a bloody communist dictatorship. 'Ideological censorship' César Huerta, left-wing journalist, on the statues' removal Spearheading its removal Wednesday was Alessandra Rojo de la Vega, conservative borough president of the capital's central Cuauhtémoc district, where the bench (known as Encuentro or Encounter) was situated. Her decision, Rojo de la Vega initially explained on social media, was based on legality — not politics. She said there wasn't "one single paper" authorizing the monument's installation. Its removal, she added, would allow park denizens to stroll in "liberty and security." Read more: Case of 'El Chapo' son cooperating with U.S. prosecutors roils Mexico She posted images of city workers prying out the two figures from the bench and the bronzed Castro and Guevara being ignominiously hauled away in a bulldozer. But the borough president later pivoted to a more ideological rationale. "This city cannot ... promote or provide refuge for figures who injured human dignity, be it in Mexico or the rest of the world" Rojo de la Vega told Radio Formula. As to the fate of the dual bronzes, she said that officials may consider a sale, using the proceeds — likely from lefty purchasers enthralled with the Cuban uprising — for park upkeep. Read more: Many Mexican immigrants swept up in L.A. raids are deeply rooted in U.S. "If we auction them off, it will mark a first — the communists will use their money, not someone else's," Rojo de la Vega said. "If they love them so much, they can put them in their garden, or their patio." Not pleased was Mexico's leftist president, Claudia Sheinbaum, who said she would speak to the Mexico City mayor — a political ally — about placing the monument elsewhere. The question isn't whether one embraces or rejects the views of the two protagonists, Sheinbaum argued to reporters on Thursday. The Castro-Che encounter, the president said, recalled "a historic moment" that unfolded in Mexico and merited a display of memory. The contretemps here echoes spats in the United States about monuments glorifying Confederate generals: Critics decry the displays as exalting traitors and white supremacists, while others argue that the statues just reflect history. 'An assassin with good press' José Luis Trueba Lara, radio commentator, on Ernesto 'Che' Guevara In the case of the Castro and Guevara likenesses, Sheinbaum suggested that their removal was partisan payback for her own signature monument-canceling moment — the banishment of one of Mexico's most illustrious landmarks, a virtual symbol of the city. In her former post, as mayor of Mexico City, Sheinbaum ordered the removal of a soaring bronze of Christopher Columbus, which, for more than a century, graced a pedestal in the capital's elegant Paseo de la Reforma. The stylized tableau depicted Columbus as a noble conqueror: one hand raised to the horizon, the other lifting a veil from a globe. For years, Indigenous activists and others staged protests at the statue, labeling Columbus and other conquistadores as perpetrators of genocide. In 2020, Sheinbaum finally ordered that the Columbus monument be taken down for renovations; it was never returned to its lofty perch. Its ejection enraged both Columbus' admirers and others who viewed the monument as an integral marker of the Mexican capital. They accuse Sheinbaum of bowing to political correctness. The traffic circle where Columbus long lent his presence has now been renamed the Women Who Fight roundabout, a rallying point for Indigenous, feminist and other protesters hoisting handwritten placards. The grandiose Columbus figure, meantime, remains out of public sight in museum storage. The Castro-Guevara bench, situated in an easy-to-miss park, didn't compare in size or significance to the towering Columbus of the stylish Paseo de la Reforma. But its removal lit up social media, rekindling historic enmities. "An intent to erase the symbols of battle, of resistance, of Mexican-Cuban humanity," César Huerta, a left-wing journalist, wrote on X, blasting the action as "ideological censorship." Read more: How 'El Diablo,' a corrupt Mexican lawman, helped create a narco-state A radio commentator, José Luis Trueba Lara, bid good riddance, calling Guevara "an assassin with good press" and Castro a "bloodcurdling dictator." Carlos Bravo Regidor, a columnist, berated the left for being more concerned "about the retirement of some miserable statues of Fidel and el Che than for the misery suffered by those who live beneath the yoke of the Cuban dictatorship." At the time of his 1955 encounter with Guevara, Castro, then 28, was not long out of a Cuban prison for an insurgent attack against the U.S.-backed Cuban dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista. Guevara, one year younger, was a physician from a middle-class Buenos Aires' upbringing brimming with revolutionary fervor — and a vision of a pan-Latin American socialist union, free of U.S. "imperialism." The two young men immediately hit if off, historians say, embarking on a lifelong friendship and collaboration in the revolutionary project. Both would be among 82 fighters aboard the yacht Granma that, in November 1956, set sail for Cuba from Mexico's Gulf coast. Their voyage, and subsequent guerrilla campaign, would culminate in 1959 in a historic overthrow of Batista and the imposition of a communist government in Havana. Fidel and el Che are long gone, and the book on the Cold War officially closed more than a quarter-century ago. But, as the fiery debate here about an unassuming bench statue illustrates, the ideological fault lines of the Cold War are far from completely obscured, at least not in Latin America. Special correspondent Cecilia Sánchez Vidal contributed. Sign up for Essential California for news, features and recommendations from the L.A. Times and beyond in your inbox six days a week. This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times. Solve the daily Crossword
BBC News
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- BBC News
Halesown's cultural heritage reflected in public art
A striking new piece of public art that celebrates a town's cultural history and identity will be unveiled next week. You Are Here is the first public sculpture for celebrated artist Tom Hicks, which he created with the support of his local community in Halesowen, large blue, pink and white metal structure includes the engraved trade names and typefaces of local businesses and is part of a new transport hub and green public space on Cross Street. Mr Hicks, who was commissioned by Birmingham's Ikon Gallery in partnership with Transport for West Midlands, said it was a "wonderful opportunity to celebrate the visual landscape of the Black Country". The self-taught photographer used a smartphone to take images in Dudley, Sandwell, Walsall and Wolverhampton, which he shared with his thousands of Instagram followers on Black Country part of the design process, Hicks also ran a series of photo and poetry workshops for members of the public in collaboration with Black Country poet Liz Berry, which focussed on local signage and typography. The trade names on the sign included the recently closed Dancers, a family-run clothing store established in 1880, alongside Carpets, The Curtain People, Franklins and Master Nails. Hicks said the project "sparked an exciting new direction for my practice – informed by my photography, I have expanded into three-dimensional work and explored materials, construction techniques and paint treatments".The artist said he had worked directly with factories in the area to fabricate the sculpture."Their time, patience and expertise have been invaluable," he added. "My art practice encourages people to observe and appreciate their immediate surroundings, and the letters and symbols that appear on the artwork were all found in Halesowen." The piece had been commissioned to help build community ownership of the new sustainable transport infrastructure, said TfWM. "One of our organisation's key aims is to provide customers with experiences of using sustainable transport that they want to repeat, and we hope that You Are Here helps to further this," said the organisation's Chris Brown. The piece will be officially unveiled at an event on Wednesday.
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
Can you mount an art exhibition about race in the age of Trump?
It is one of the most evocative works from the American Civil War: A sculpture of a Black man who had escaped from slavery helping an injured White Union soldier lost in hostile territory. When it was unveiled in 1864, John Rogers' 'The Wounded Scout, a Friend in the Swamp,' was celebrated for its anti-slavery message and patriotic tone. But in 2025, a Smithsonian exhibition, 'The Shape of Power: Stories of Race and American Sculpture,' asked visitors to reconsider the message behind the piece. On display, the sculpture is paired with a description that prompts viewers to consider how the work, and others by Rogers 'reinforced the long-standing racist social order,' despite its pro-Union and emancipation sentiment. The exhibition's efforts to challenge enduring ideas about race and American sculpture became a subject of President Donald Trump's ire earlier this year. In an executive order, he condemned the exhibition for stating that 'sculpture has been a powerful tool in promoting scientific racism,' that 'race is a human invention' and that the United States has used race 'to establish and maintain systems of power, privilege, and disenfranchisement.' 'Museums in our Nation's capital should be places where individuals go to learn — not to be subjected to divisive narratives,' the executive order said. Trump has championed a cultural agenda built around celebrating, as the executive order put it, 'shared American values' and 'unmatched record of advancing liberty, prosperity, and human flourishing,' and he has put Vice President JD Vance, who serves on the Smithsonian's Board of Regents, in charge of stopping government spending on exhibits that don't align with that agenda. That has forced the Smithsonian into an awkward position. In June, the Smithsonian began a review of content in its museums. The institution has repeatedly said it is committed to being 'free from political or partisan influence' – but the review has raised serious questions over whether the world's largest museum complex will curb candid discussions about the country's past, beginning with exhibits like 'The Shape of Power.' Sasa Aakil, a young artist who helped with 'The Shape of Power,' said that it would be 'catastrophic' if the Smithsonian were to change many of its exhibits. 'America has never been good at truth. That's why so many people are doing the work that they're doing. That's why this exhibition exists.' Humbler displays, notable reactions For the amount of attention it garnered from the president, the exhibition at the Smithsonian's American Art Museum has a surprisingly humble, intimate feel. Tucked away on the third floor of a sprawling neo-classical building shared with the National Portrait Gallery in downtown Washington, the exhibit holds 82 sculptures dating from 1792 to 2023. The pieces are arranged according to a series of topics with prompts asking visitors to consider how they encounter the pieces. A large passage of text on the wall at the exhibition entrance says: 'Stories anchor this exhibition,' and that through it, visitors can discover how artists used sculpture to 'tell fuller stories about how race and racism shape the ways we understand ourselves.' The stated goal of for the exhibit is 'to encourage visitors to feel invited into a transparent and honest dialogue about the histories of race, racism, and the role of sculpture, art history and museums in shaping these stories,' its curators have written. Ferdinand Pettrich's 'The Dying Tecumseh,' for example, portrays a Shawnee warrior's death during the War of 1812. Completed in 1856, he is shown in a relaxed pose, reclining as if asleep. In reality, he died in battle and his body was mutilated by American soldiers. Pettrich, according to the exhibit, made the sculpture as political propaganda for Vice President Richard Mentor Johnson, who had claimed he killed Tecumseh and made the alleged act part of his campaign slogan. It also reinforced racist ideas about Native Americans during a time when the United States was rapidly expanding westward, the exhibit said. Yards away from Hiram Powers' 'Greek Slave,' a famous 19th century sculpture, is Julia Kwon's 'Fetishization,' a 2016 work featuring a hollow, female torso wrapped with a vibrant patchwork of silk bojagi, Korean object-wrapping cloth. The intention, Kwon told CNN, is to comment 'on the gravity and absurdity of the objectification of Asian female bodies.' Asked about its objections to the exhibit, Lindsey Halligan, a White House official who Trump has tasked with helping to root out 'improper ideology' at the Smithsonian, told CNN in a statement: 'The Shape of Power exhibit claims that 'sculpture has been a powerful tool in promoting scientific racism,' a statement that ultimately serves to create division rather than unity.' 'While it's important to confront history with honesty, framing an entire medium of art through such a narrow and accusatory lens overshadows its broader cultural, aesthetic, and educational value,' Halligan said in a statement. 'Instead of fostering dialogue or deeper understanding, the Shape of Power exhibit's approach alienates audiences and reduces complex artistic legacies to a single, controversial narrative. After all, it's hard to imagine Michelangelo thinking about racism as he chiseled David's abs – he was in the relentless pursuit of artistic perfection, not pushing a political agenda.' (Michelangelo's work is not part of the exhibit.) Some see value in the president's push to reshape the museums. Mike Gonzalez, a fellow at the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank, expressed optimism about the Smithsonian's review, arguing that the institution should not mount exhibitions that examine the US through 'a prism of the oppressed and the oppressor.' 'I think, you know, you have to tell the whole story, not a small part of the story that is designed to make people feel grievances against their own country,' he said. But critics say the administration's review has the potential to undermine the nation's ability to understand its complicated history through art. Examining art from the past has the potential to hit at the core of how Americans understand their country, Northwestern University art history professor Rebecca Zorach told CNN, and that's the value of exhibitions like 'The Shape of Power.' 'Art provides ways to process these issues. I think some people are afraid of what it means to kind of have that opportunity,' Zorach said. The administration's claims of a 'divisive, race-centered ideology' are a 'real caricature' of what museums and other cultural institutions are trying to do, she said. It was also 'astonishing' that the administration would dispute a scientifically accepted view that race is a construct, she added. Probing questions Sasa Aakil, a 22-year-old artist who was a student collaborator on 'The Shape of Power', told CNN the exhibition was not designed to make people feel resentment towards their country, but to consider the broader context of the art. She recalled the first time she saw 'The Dying Tecumseh.' It unnerved her, she said, especially as she learned more about the distorted version of the history the artwork relayed. For Aakil, the statue is a reminder that museums have always made some people uncomfortable. 'Many of these sculptures were always problematic, were always painful and were always very violent. And this exhibition is forcing people to see that, as opposed to allowing people to live in a fantasy,' she said. Another piece, 'DNA Study Revisited' by Philadelphia artist Roberto Lugo, is intended to push back against the ways sculpture has been used to bolster ideas about racial classifications. In a self-portrait, Lugo uses different patterns that correspond to parts of his ancestry, drawing from Spanish, African, Portuguese and indigenous peoples of the Caribbean. Lugo told CNN that he believes art is 'a way for us to understand the world through someone else's experiences.' 'Through exhibitions like this, I hope we can begin to normalize storytelling from diverse communities,' he added. 'Every story matters, and art gives us a voice in a world where we have too often been silenced.' While it's unclear what changes, if any, the Smithsonian will make to 'The Shape of Power,' the institution has changed exhibits that have drawn controversy in the past. In 1978, religious groups sued over an evolution exhibition that they alleged violated the First Amendment, but a court sided with the Smithsonian, and the National Museum of Natural History kept the exhibit up. But in 1995, the Smithsonian reduced the size and scope of an exhibit on Enola Gay, the B-29 bomber that dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima, after veterans' groups and lawmakers complained about what it said about World War II. And in 2011, the National Portrait Gallery, which shares the same building as the American Art Museum, debuted 'Hide/Seek,' the first major museum exhibition on gender and sexual identity at the Smithsonian. The show featured the video 'A Fire in My Belly' by the late artist David Wojnarowicz, which includes a scene where ants crawl over a crucifix, prompting uproar from the Catholic League and conservative members of the House of Representatives. It was quickly removed, but not without criticism from those that argued that the Smithsonian was capitulating to homophobic censorship. The planned run for the 'The Shape of Power' exhibition began November 8, 2024, and is to continue through September 14. The Smithsonian did not respond to multiple requests for comment for this story. Solve the daily Crossword
CNN
3 days ago
- Politics
- CNN
Can you mount an art exhibition about race in the age of Trump?
It is one of the most evocative works from the American Civil War: A sculpture of a Black man who had escaped from slavery helping an injured White Union soldier lost in hostile territory. When it was unveiled in 1864, John Rogers' 'The Wounded Scout, a Friend in the Swamp,' was celebrated for its anti-slavery message and patriotic tone. But in 2025, a Smithsonian exhibition, 'The Shape of Power: Stories of Race and American Sculpture,' asked visitors to reconsider the message behind the piece. On display, the sculpture is paired with a description that prompts viewers to consider how the work, and others by Rogers 'reinforced the long-standing racist social order,' despite its pro-Union and emancipation sentiment. The exhibition's efforts to challenge enduring ideas about race and American sculpture became a subject of President Donald Trump's ire earlier this year. In an executive order, he condemned the exhibition for stating that 'sculpture has been a powerful tool in promoting scientific racism,' that 'race is a human invention' and that the United States has used race 'to establish and maintain systems of power, privilege, and disenfranchisement.' 'Museums in our Nation's capital should be places where individuals go to learn — not to be subjected to divisive narratives,' the executive order said. Trump has championed a cultural agenda built around celebrating, as the executive order put it, 'shared American values' and 'unmatched record of advancing liberty, prosperity, and human flourishing,' and he has put Vice President JD Vance, who serves on the Smithsonian's Board of Regents, in charge of stopping government spending on exhibits that don't align with that agenda. That has forced the Smithsonian into an awkward position. In June, the Smithsonian began a review of content in its museums. The institution has repeatedly said it is committed to being 'free from political or partisan influence' – but the review has raised serious questions over whether the world's largest museum complex will curb candid discussions about the country's past, beginning with exhibits like 'The Shape of Power.' Sasa Aakil, a young artist who helped with 'The Shape of Power,' said that it would be 'catastrophic' if the Smithsonian were to change many of its exhibits. 'America has never been good at truth. That's why so many people are doing the work that they're doing. That's why this exhibition exists.' For the amount of attention it garnered from the president, the exhibition at the Smithsonian's American Art Museum has a surprisingly humble, intimate feel. Tucked away on the third floor of a sprawling neo-classical building shared with the National Portrait Gallery in downtown Washington, the exhibit holds 82 sculptures dating from 1792 to 2023. The pieces are arranged according to a series of topics with prompts asking visitors to consider how they encounter the pieces. A large passage of text on the wall at the exhibition entrance says: 'Stories anchor this exhibition,' and that through it, visitors can discover how artists used sculpture to 'tell fuller stories about how race and racism shape the ways we understand ourselves.' The stated goal of for the exhibit is 'to encourage visitors to feel invited into a transparent and honest dialogue about the histories of race, racism, and the role of sculpture, art history and museums in shaping these stories,' its curators have written. Ferdinand Pettrich's 'The Dying Tecumseh,' for example, portrays a Shawnee warrior's death during the War of 1812. Completed in 1856, he is shown in a relaxed pose, reclining as if asleep. In reality, he died in battle and his body was mutilated by American soldiers. Pettrich, according to the exhibit, made the sculpture as political propaganda for Vice President Richard Mentor Johnson, who had claimed he killed Tecumseh and made the alleged act part of his campaign slogan. It also reinforced racist ideas about Native Americans during a time when the United States was rapidly expanding westward, the exhibit said. Yards away from Hiram Powers' 'Greek Slave,' a famous 19th century sculpture, is Julia Kwon's 'Fetishization,' a 2016 work featuring a hollow, female torso wrapped with a vibrant patchwork of silk bojagi, Korean object-wrapping cloth. The intention, Kwon told CNN, is to comment 'on the gravity and absurdity of the objectification of Asian female bodies.' Asked about its objections to the exhibit, Lindsey Halligan, a White House official who Trump has tasked with helping to root out 'improper ideology' at the Smithsonian, told CNN in a statement: 'The Shape of Power exhibit claims that 'sculpture has been a powerful tool in promoting scientific racism,' a statement that ultimately serves to create division rather than unity.' 'While it's important to confront history with honesty, framing an entire medium of art through such a narrow and accusatory lens overshadows its broader cultural, aesthetic, and educational value,' Halligan said in a statement. 'Instead of fostering dialogue or deeper understanding, the Shape of Power exhibit's approach alienates audiences and reduces complex artistic legacies to a single, controversial narrative. After all, it's hard to imagine Michelangelo thinking about racism as he chiseled David's abs – he was in the relentless pursuit of artistic perfection, not pushing a political agenda.' (Michelangelo's work is not part of the exhibit.) Some see value in the president's push to reshape the museums. Mike Gonzalez, a fellow at the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank, expressed optimism about the Smithsonian's review, arguing that the institution should not mount exhibitions that examine the US through 'a prism of the oppressed and the oppressor.' 'I think, you know, you have to tell the whole story, not a small part of the story that is designed to make people feel grievances against their own country,' he said. But critics say the administration's review has the potential to undermine the nation's ability to understand its complicated history through art. Examining art from the past has the potential to hit at the core of how Americans understand their country, Northwestern University art history professor Rebecca Zorach told CNN, and that's the value of exhibitions like 'The Shape of Power.' 'Art provides ways to process these issues. I think some people are afraid of what it means to kind of have that opportunity,' Zorach said. The administration's claims of a 'divisive, race-centered ideology' are a 'real caricature' of what museums and other cultural institutions are trying to do, she said. It was also 'astonishing' that the administration would dispute a scientifically accepted view that race is a construct, she added. Sasa Aakil, a 22-year-old artist who was a student collaborator on 'The Shape of Power', told CNN the exhibition was not designed to make people feel resentment towards their country, but to consider the broader context of the art. She recalled the first time she saw 'The Dying Tecumseh.' It unnerved her, she said, especially as she learned more about the distorted version of the history the artwork relayed. For Aakil, the statue is a reminder that museums have always made some people uncomfortable. 'Many of these sculptures were always problematic, were always painful and were always very violent. And this exhibition is forcing people to see that, as opposed to allowing people to live in a fantasy,' she said. Another piece, 'DNA Study Revisited' by Philadelphia artist Roberto Lugo, is intended to push back against the ways sculpture has been used to bolster ideas about racial classifications. In a self-portrait, Lugo uses different patterns that correspond to parts of his ancestry, drawing from Spanish, African, Portuguese and indigenous peoples of the Caribbean. Lugo told CNN that he believes art is 'a way for us to understand the world through someone else's experiences.' 'Through exhibitions like this, I hope we can begin to normalize storytelling from diverse communities,' he added. 'Every story matters, and art gives us a voice in a world where we have too often been silenced.' While it's unclear what changes, if any, the Smithsonian will make to 'The Shape of Power,' the institution has changed exhibits that have drawn controversy in the past. In 1978, religious groups sued over an evolution exhibition that they alleged violated the First Amendment, but a court sided with the Smithsonian, and the National Museum of Natural History kept the exhibit up. But in 1995, the Smithsonian reduced the size and scope of an exhibit on Enola Gay, the B-29 bomber that dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima, after veterans' groups and lawmakers complained about what it said about World War II. And in 2011, the National Portrait Gallery, which shares the same building as the American Art Museum, debuted 'Hide/Seek,' the first major museum exhibition on gender and sexual identity at the Smithsonian. The show featured the video 'A Fire in My Belly' by the late artist David Wojnarowicz, which includes a scene where ants crawl over a crucifix, prompting uproar from the Catholic League and conservative members of the House of Representatives. It was quickly removed, but not without criticism from those that argued that the Smithsonian was capitulating to homophobic censorship. The planned run for the 'The Shape of Power' exhibition began November 8, 2024, and is to continue through September 14. The Smithsonian did not respond to multiple requests for comment for this story.
