Urban Visions

The major theme of last week’s readings was children’s perceptions of the world. In all four poems, the speakers reflected on childhood experiences and relationships. This theme was also present in the exhibit at Loyola’s Julio Art Gallery, “Urban Visions.” The exhibit went along with this year’s Humanities Symposium, “Urban Spaces, Urban Voices,” which involved the talk from producer David Simon. Artists Ellis Marsalis III, Tom Lipka, Dee Herget, and Andre Chung used photography and window screen painting to depict the lives of Baltimore residents.
Ellis Marsalis’ work caught my eye first and was my favorite part of the show. The blurb beside his collection of photographs stated his intent to “discover the story of us all” as a community, neighborhood, and world. In addition to being a photographer he is a poet, which is perhaps why his description of his work was so moving. The series of black-and-white pictures showed various children in impoverished areas of Baltimore. All of the youngsters appeared innocent yet tough. Their curiosity shines through their big, bright eyes, while their hard exterior makes clear the difficulties they have already been through and expect to endure again. The photos of the older kids showed an even more intimidating attitude; they look to be only thirteen but are holding guns. There were other images of families and people of all ages looking quite content despite grim surroundings. This artwork provoked incredible feelings of sadness in me—another reminder of some of the realities people have to deal with, not just in Baltimore but all over the world. Rather than the carefree, true happiness the characters in the poems felt, these children seemed to feel hopeless.
Andre Chung, a photojournalist for the Baltimore Sun, had a series of photographs depicting older children. He wanted to capture the “relationships of people of color to each other and to the world.” There were several images of major events in a teen’s life: prom and graduation. The photographs of prom—the preparation and the actual dance—portrayed the event well: family bombarding kids with cameras, dancing with their best friends until their feet hurt. I thought the best was one of graduation, where one boy was the focus of the picture, eyes filled with tears, and behind him were the rest of his classmates jumping for joy. The image is the most accurate depiction of graduating I have ever seen; it shows the complex and overwhelming mixture of sadness, ecstasy, fear, excitement, and everything else I and many other teens—of every race—felt on that momentous day. Other photographs showed more everyday teenage life at school. There was one of a disapproving black, female guidance counselor shaking her head at a male student and one of a black boy sitting at a computer while a white girl awkwardly hugged him from behind. The other more striking photo of the bunch was of three young males standing on a street seemingly having a good time but in a very bad neighborhood, one that actually resembled some I’ve seen near York Road. Are we supposed to assume they are gang members, drug dealers, or regular kids, based on their race? Chung did an excellent job in depicting stereotypes, not to condone that kind of thinking but to make us figure out how not to.
Two of the artists, Tom Lipka and Dee Herget, are two of Baltimore’s original window screen painters. Their images were not of children, but of suburbs and the countryside. They featured scenic gardens, log cabins by the water, and small town squares in which the townspeople went about their daily activities. The bright, colorful, simplistic paintings were basically the opposite of the other Baltimore photographs. Lipka and Herget were probably portraying places very different from what they had known and perhaps wanted to experience more.
This was my first time viewing a professional art exhibit at Loyola, and I was pretty impressed. These Baltimore artists provided great insight into Baltimore and people in general through their work, tying in many of the themes we have discussed in class such as children’s views and urban life. I would have liked to hear the panel discussion of the artwork, but I feel as if I got to know the artists on a very real level by seeing the world through their eyes.