Activist Exhibitions

While both NJCU galleries have shown amazing work from talented artists, there were two pieces of art from the Lemmerman Gallary that really caught my eye. The first art piece is called "Momma's Last Passport Issue No. 1" by Nicholas D'Ornellas (2019). The other artworks I connected with is part of a set of five, though the art gallery only shared two of the five pieces. Created by Francesca Azzara, the name of both the pieces are "Leaving Certainty Behind"(2014) and "A Land Better Known" (2014). Together, these pieces developed the thought of immigration and women's power in my head.

"Momma's Last Passport Issue No. 1," is a handwoven screen print image of D'Ornellas's mother. Though the photo is not in high quality, you can see the outline of her face very faintly. He mainly uses textiles in his artwork, showing beautiful woven pieces of art. D'Ornellas was born in Guyana but was raised here in Jersey City. Like any immigrant, he lived a life of two cultures. He wanted to stay true to his origins while living his life here in America. This artwork is a representation of the journey and decision his mother made to live in a new country. As it hangs up high in the exhibition, he put his mother on a high standard, he had full pride in her. Each weave shows a small part of a large story of what journey his mother has taken. You can see more of his pieces on his Instagram, which is similar to the one shown here.




Azzara's works seem to follow a storyline when creating each set of pieces. Even though I only saw part of the set in person, I got the gist of what kind of story these artworks were portraying. You can also see the whole collection on her website. These two, in particular, are from the collection called "Walking Women."Azzara is a mixed media artist and creates her imagery on panels of any size. These were created with manipulated wax, burned matchsticks, stencils, and other mediums. She talks more about her choices of mediums and how she creates her artworks in this youtube video. As a part of a small art group, she made a statement saying, "These imagined landscapes emerge from a dream whereby the dreamer discovers a world that appears recognizable, yet it is one he/she has never seen." (Francesca Azzara).  I related to these pieces quite a lot since I was not born in this country. My mother made the choice to bring me and my sister to America in hopes of living a better life. "Leaving Certainty Behind" represented me leaving my origins and all the people and places I knew. "A Land Better Known" represented America, and the hopes we had to live a better lifestyle. Thus, this collection represented immigration to have a fresh start. It also reminded me of my own mother, who left her life behind to live in a foreign country where she had to learn everything from the beginning.

As mentioned in both artworks, I saw the theme of immigration and women. These are two topics that many activists fight for rights. As immigration is a sensitive topic these days, D'Ornella's dedication to his mother represents the everyday faces of an immigrant. The face is not defined, showing that it is a face that you may have passed by and never bothered to look closely. Even so, every person has a reason to come to another country. "This car lay on the back of the trailer like a corpse on a gurney, its destroyed frame providing visceral proof that there was, in fact, a war happening on the other side of the world." (The Didactic and The Ambiguous in The Paranoiac Age). This quote talked about a terrorist attack that was related to the Iraq War. Many people are not aware of what happens outside of their environment. When immigrants come to run from these problems, the residents that live in the country they are coming to cannot relate to the problems that they faced. Azzara's artwork shows the journey of escaping new lands. The matchsticks in her art made me think of burned trees, as it represented chaos and war. All five pieces from the collection show the hard journey of traveling from home to new lands. Both artworks also portrayed a female figure, D'Ornella with his mother and Azzara showing us a story of women traveling lands. Women in publicity have always been portrayed as sexual beings known for their erotic bodies. John Berger's "Way of Seeing" lists what publicity is for women, some being, "The special sexual emphasis given to women's legs" (Berger, J) and "The poses taken up to denote stereotypes of women: serene women (madonna), free-wheeling secretary (actress, king's mistress), perfect hostess (spectator-owner's wife), sex-object (Venus, nymph surprised), etc." (Berger, J). In comparison to what Berger says, the women in these artworks are not portrayed that way. They are shown as strong women who make hard decisions for themselves. They represent the power and capabilities of what a woman can do. These images are prime examples that represent women and immigration.


Works Cited

Berger, J. (1972). Ways of Seeing. London: British Broadcasting Corp. and Penguin Books.

"Francesca Azzara." New Art Group, <newartgroup.com/francesca-azzara/>.

"The Didactic and The Ambiguous in The Paranoiac Age." Seeing Power: Art and Activism in the 21st Century, by Nato Thompson, Melville House Publishing, 2015, pp. 29-30.