Art

=The Influence of the Performance and Visual Art=

Both performance and visual art have an effect on post memory by helping the audience feel more connected to the past through giving them something they can relate to or through an artistic metaphor. Performance art pieces are "projections" of the past, which allow the audience to either get to know and feel apathy for the characters or insert themselves into the position of the characters. Artistic metaphor helps the audience feel more connected to the past by making a point by comparing it to something the audience may better understand.

"Stories that Dance- Slavery Piece"
"Stories that Dance" was an educational program put on by Proctor's Theatre. The theatre, in Schenectady, New York, had local elementary schools write stories about historical events, then the Northeast Ballet would travel to the schools and work with the students to create a dance, from costumes to actual choreography, then perform their stories in order to make them "come to life on stage."

media type="youtube" key="5d8fmgw2tqk" height="349" width="425" align="center"

^ Watch from 2:06 - 3:10

The part of the above video (2:06-3:10) shows one class that chose to write a story about slavery. The story showed a girl get torn away from her familly, the march to the shore, the Middle Passage, a slave auction and the work that she had to do because she was enslaved. The dancer who portrays this character explains that they have to show that this "really happened" and that it helps it come to life and be better understood.

Actual performance of "Stories that Dance" slavery piece

When you compare the video of the performance of the slavery piece, it has a much greater impact on the audience than a newspaper clipping, like the one below, even though the newspaper clipping is non-fiction and the "Stories that Dance" piece is fiction. We would argue that this is true because performance art, such as dance, has an effect on post memory because they can actually see it happening to people. The blank faces in the dance especially affect this because an audience member can put any face to the main character and make it someone that he considers his own. This goes along with post memory, which states people have a greater memory and understanding of events when they can imagine it happening to someone they consider to be their own.



"An African Cargo"
An African Cargo is a play directed by Felix Cross about a slave ship called "Zong" that gets lost on its way to Jamaica. During the time they were not expecting to spend on the ship, there is "water shortage and sick slaves and crew men," which eventually causes 140 of the 400 slaves onboard to be thrown overboard. The play takes place in a court room, where the captain is claiming the insurance company owes him money for the lost "cargo." The main character, Dido Belle, fights in the court that the Africans who were enslaved could not be considered "cargo" because they are human beings. During the play, she explains the awful conditions of slave ships through "statements such as 'each man had less room than a man in a coffin'" (Lebrasse).

The play depicts the horrors of the Middle Passage through thought-provoking and sometimes hard-to-hear questions posed by Belle, and the play often slows down and incorporates actual footage that explains what actually happened on slave ships. The finale, as Lebrasse's review states, brought the audience to tears because the "emotion felt by the cast and audience is too great for words." This play shows that performance art can affect the audience by connecting fictional characters to which they can relate to events that actually happened in history.



Lebrasse, Colette. "An African Cargo at Greenwich Theatre." Nitro, Black Music Theatre. N.p., 01 09 2007. Web. 10 May 2011. .

"Slum Gardens No. 3" by Joseph Norman
Joseph Norman is one example of an artist who uses artistic metaphor in his artwork in order to create better understanding and truth about a problem that exists in America. This is prominent in his photo "Slum Garden," which is below. Slum Garden is a metaphor for the impoverished African Americans and how it is typically growing rather than decreasing today. There are many different ways to portray poverty, and every impoverished person does not have the same experience. Therefore, Norman uses the metaphor of weeds overtaking a neglected garden, but the garden is, in this case, the "slums." The metaphor helps the art's audience relate to the real issue at hand because everyone can imagine the "weeds" that would take over their own life, so it makes it more personal which creates more apathy and understanding.



"Slum Gardens No. 3." //Collection: National Gallery of Art// (2011) : n. pag. Web. 12 May 2011. .

"Black Soldier" by Thomas Nast


Thomas Nast also uses artistic metaphor to expand on non-fiction in "Black Soldier." Nast's drawing depicts a black soldier who had been promised freedom for his role as a Union soldier in the American Civil War. The drawing takes place after the war, and Lady Liberty is gesturing to the soldier. This is a metaphor for the confusion in America after the Civil War. Many people knew that those who were enslaved needed to be free, but most were at a loss of what to do afterwards. That is why Lady Liberty is gesturing to the soldier and saying "What do we do with him now?" (Son of the South)

This drawing elaborates on the truth of what happened in the recruitment of the enslaved. The actual war recruitment poster seen below promises freedom, but the drawing shows that it comes at a price because the man may have won his freedom, but he lost his leg in the process. It is also suggesting the troubled path that still laid ahead after the war, such as citizenship and suffrage. Therefore, Nast's picture affects history because it gives a greater understanding that freedom wasn't so easily come by when those who were enslaved joined the Union. The artistic metaphor of this drawing helps elaborate on the truth of the past because it helps the reader physically see the confusion America was having when it came to what to do with those who used to be enslaved. It showed that America had stumbled upon new territory and was struggling to find a resolution.



"Black Soldier." //Son of the South// 2008: n. pag. Web. 12 May 2011. .