Month: October 2018

PERSEPOLIS

Persepolis, by Marjane Satrapi, is a graphic memoir and autobiography of the authors experience growing up in Tehran, Iran during the 80’s. The book recounts her stories of loss, family, rebellion and revolution. Marjane Satrapi primarily wrights through the lens of her younger self, through a character named Marji, as well as adding narrative to the panels with a hindsight approach by providing the words that weren’t spoken and also including her opinions looking back at the events. This graphic memoir creates a discourse on quite tragic, violent and traumatic topics such as martyrs, war, torture, execution and death and presents it in an easily digestible, almost censored, child like view of this material by giving it to us in a comic book format.

Some issues that are occur in the book of Persepolis, or Iran in the 80’s, still occur in our political climate today, just with different contexts and different intentions. The most prominent I’d say is religion. Views of religion in Persepolis are more towards the extremist side with the government wanting to impose a complete power over the people through the median of religion, in this case, Islam. Debates on the issue on religion, especially Islam, in the west, specifically some parts of Europe and the United States, are a heated topic with many wanting to ban practicing Muslims from immigrating into their country, while other want to accept all Muslims, especially refugees, into their countries. Personally I’m not to sure on my stance on this one. While I believe that everyone should have the freedom to have their own values, practice their own religion and express their own culture, but I question, from an objective point of view, to what extent is Islam compatible with our western values and in what ways is it not as Islam has its own set of values and culture attached to it?

Many of the issues and situation that Marjane was in while growing up, seems like a world away to me. I’ve been privilege to have grown up here in Vancouver as I’ve never had to live through an oppressive religious regime, I’ve never had to worry about being drafted or being bombed.

 

ARTS OF RESISTANCE

            Arts of Resistance: Politics and the Past in Latin America, Curated by Dr. Laura Osorio Sunnucks, who holds a PhD in Mesoamerican art and heritage, is an exhibit that was held at the Museum of Anthropology from May 17, 2018 to September 30, 2018. The exhibition aims to “illustrate how communities in Latin America use traditional or historical art forms to express contemporary political realities” (as taken from the MOA website). By displaying an assortment of different pieces from various marginalized, indigenous and other communities in Latin American countries, the exhibit provides us an insight, through the lens of contemporary art, of how different cultural customs, practices and forms of rebellion can be tied back to Spanish conquests and Neo-colonialism found today in the 21^st century and the effects that these ruling powers have and had over the people of these Latin American Countries.

From mask and tunics representing the devil, to various huipils, and audio recordings playing in different areas of the exhibit, there was a lot of information to absorb. However having been born in Mexico, I’ve always felt a sort of pride and nationalism when it comes to Latin American culture and its history of conquest and rebellions, as well just finding history cool in general, so much of the information presented wasn’t new to me, however it did expand my horizons of knowledge of other Latin American countries other than Mexico.

One of the objects that I have the most knowledge about and am most familiar with was the huipil. The huipil is a traditional garment worn by women that is similar to a tunic or a blouse. Materials for these huipils varied by geographical location and social status. Those who lived in high altitude regions wore huipi’s made of heavy materials such as wool due to its insulative properties and its ability to retain warmth when wet. Those who lived in lower, costal or arid regions wore ones made more of cotton. For those who were part Spanish, so those who were mestizos (half Indigenous and half Spanish), had to wear silk huipils that had heavy European influence in their design, compared to the traditional shape of those worn by completely indigenous peoples (It should be noted this is no longer the rule). However many little design elements were used do define themselves as indigenous, or a part of that community that was not obvious to the ruling powers at the time (the Spanish) and empower the people to discreetly resist the European influence that was being forced upon them in a silent rebellion of sorts. One of the littles design features the diamond shape, which is an important symbol to pre-Hispanic Latin American cultures. To a Spanish colonialist, it may just seem as a simple design to ad colour and flair to the garments or just as a simple shape. However to the knowing eye, It is meant to represent the center of the universe in a 3D shape, extending up and out wards connecting the ground to the sky, as well as north, east south and west. When trying to visualize this, think of the Mayan Pyramids, this is the exact design used on the huipils. Another design feature is colour. At first glance the colour of a huipil my be seen simply as a fashion statement or ones personal preference. While this is true, the various colours also represent the marital status of the person wearing it. Those with duller colours such as greys and browns were single and ready to mingle, while those who wore huipils with bright, vibrant colours such as reds, blues and yellows, were already taken.

Over all I must say I enjoyed the exhibit. It was jam packed with information and interesting pieces that each told their own story of struggle and resistance. While it was interesting, I found myself wanting more. I felt that this exhibit merely scratched the surface of these issues, which was probably the point.

 

All references are attributed to:

https://moa.ubc.ca/exhibition/arts-of-resistance/