Ms. Cosmopolite: Identity

Monday, September 22, 2008

Identity

Tonight the museum opened a new exhibit. Identity: Unlimited Editions is a juried presentation of Los Angeles’s top printmakers (from LAPS, the Los Angeles Printmaking Society) and their expressions of personal identity.

The age-old question of identity is intimately tied to one’s experience of life. Each of us is influenced by our principles, beliefs, and values that bind our perceptions together and shape our identity. How we understand and experience our ethnicity, religion, gender, profession, sexual orientation, or memory composes our consciousness and ultimately our sense of self. An ever evolving process, the exploration of self can yield fixed, mixed, lost, or (perhaps frequently in our globalized world) conflicted identities.

As I roamed the gallery and marveled at the diverse range of creative expression and the richness of printmaking techniques, I felt most comforted by the simple (and universal) image of a fingerprint digitally printed in hot pink ink. The work was not the most beautiful, intricate, or unique—yet the image stayed with me throughout the evening.

As I enjoyed my glass of Pinot Noir with guests in the courtyard, I considered the conundrum posed by identity. A full expression of individuality seems essential to a dynamic society yet, also can lead to defined categories and artificial boundaries (woman, artist, gay, Latino, married, immigrant, Jewish, educated, etc.). How do you promote diversity and individuality while creating unity? (Hint: Become a cosmopolite!)

This interesting question was vividly posed by the late, great Edward Said in his seminal book Orientalism:

Can one divide human reality...into different cultures, histories, traditions, societies, even races, and survive the consequences humanly?

Curious to know what you think.

Ms. Cosmopolite.

This entry posted by CAFAM Web Master @ 2:27 PM

Comments :

Anxious every day of the week to go to CAFAM and see the new exhibits.
Just a little while ago, I threw away some x-rays of my neck and back. There was such fascination looking at myself from this perspective.
I was surprised at the caring I felt for the bones. They're mine. They're me.
Identity

# posted by

sandy : September 23, 2008 5:53 PM

Eric Fromm states in "The Heart of Man: It's Genius for Good and Evil" that all group activity, and competition, foster difference between groups. He proposes the idea of a single "day of man (woman)" for all groups, everywhere, that all celebrate uniformly, to recognize the unity in all people everywhere. Calling attention to diversity necessarily separates human interest groups and gives rise to conflict. But this is not a regressive act or one that goes against the act of diversification. Not if one adheres to the true essence of humanity. As Fromm states: "If the essence of (humanity) is neither the good nor the evil, neither the love nor hate, but a contradiction which demands the search for new solutions which, in turn, creates new contradictions, then indeed (humanity) can answer (its) dilemma either in a regressive or progressive way. What constitutes the essence (of humanity, then) is the question and need for an answer; the various forms of human existence are not the essence, but they are the answer to the conflict which in itself, is the essence." So if conflict is our essence, drawing attention to diversity feeds into our essential essence. And if diversity does that, it fuels the largest unity we could possibly ever hope to possess. We need to embrace conflict and stop looking to conflict as regressive but as a tool for future unification.

# posted by

Matthew : September 24, 2008 12:05 AM