Week 9

 Chapter 7 - John Berger, Ways of Seeing

“Publicity is never a celebration of a pleasure-in-itself. Publicity is always about the future buyer. It offers him an image of himself made glamorous by the product or opportunity it is trying to sell.” pg.132

In this text, I thought it was interesting to point out that publicity is more of a strategy that gets consumers to get what they “want” by showing them as a “need”.

“Art is a sign of affluence; it belongs to the good life; it is part of the furnishing which the world gives to the rich and the beautiful.” pg.135

Berger was able to conceptualize art as a luxury item that is typically associated with wealth and beauty. It implies that those who have the means to afford it can use art as a way to display their affluence and add beauty and elegance to their surroundings. 

Chapter 5 - Nicholas Mirzoeff, How to see the world

“Nineteenth-century Paris was a city world in which the urban observer claimed a certain cultural power by seeing without being seen.” pg.163

Mirzoeff describes Paris as a place where the  cultural power came from the ability to observe and understand the workings of the city and its people, while remaining detached from the daily struggles of life in the city. The observer could analyze the social and cultural patterns of the city and make observations without becoming part of them.

“Recent art history has claimed that the painting of women on their own in Paris would have implied to their contemporaries that these were sex workers.” Pg. 169

This perception may have been driven by the social and cultural norms of the time, which placed a strong emphasis on morality and the regulation of female sexuality. I think women who were depicted in paintings or other forms of art were often expected to conform to certain standards of modesty and respectability, and those who did not were often stigmatized and marginalized.

Inspired by the video of Wendy Red  Star, I wanted to showcase this picture I had taken in front of the biggest Mosque in India. When I traveled to India I was bombarded with Indians that were so proud of where they’re from and the beautiful temples and mosques scattered throughout their country. Behind me, is the largest mosque in India called Masij-i-Jehan-Numa, commonly known as the Jama Masjid of Delhi. This beautiful monument was built by the mughal emperor Shah Jahan between 1650 and 1656. This historical place served as the imperial mosque of the Mughal emperors until the demise of the empire in 1857. This place is considered a symbolic gesture of Islamic power across India.