Review
The Absurdity of Truth exhibit that accompanied ETSU’s Native American week was by far my favorite display of the semester. John Feodorov created works of art varying from two-dimensional mixed media to short films, my favorite of which was a piece that he created titled “A Black Snake Comes to Navajo Land.” It portrayed such a strong representation of the struggles Navajo people face and accompanied the overall theme of destruction as a result of capitalism and imperialism. Artist descriptions are a key element in understanding the artist’s perspective, but it is essential that such summaries still allow the viewer to interpret his or her own meaning for the artwork. Feodorov does an incredible job accomplishing this with all of his individual pieces, as well as with an overall description that captures the exhibit beautifully. The strongest line that caught my attention was this: “If you walk away from this exhibit thinking ‘Gee, Native Americans are such spiritual people,’ then both of us have failed. If, on the other hand, the work prompts you to ponder about how, in many ways, we share the same struggle, I propose that the next question we ask is, ‘Great, …how can we work together?’” Feodorov in himself is an incredible individual. He is humbled and does not wish to bring attention to himself, rather, to bring attention current, on-going world and environmental issues. Using his words from his lecture, “I think it’s a mistake for artists to only know about art. It is essential for people to become familiar with what is happening in the world, and what has happened already. This allows you to express feeling through your art.” This is an accurate and essential element to becoming a good artist and, through him, I began to see art from a different point of view that I had not before considered. Ultimately, Absurdity of Truth was a beautiful, eye-opening experience that was positive as it didn’t put blame on any one race or ethnicity, but instead acknowledged the imperfections of the human race as a whole. I believe that this is an approach more artists should take; if you are going to try and change the world, why not be creative while you’re at it?
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The above slideshow is of the many different animals, both endangered and not, in their natural environment of Kenya, Africa.
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