Going to the Chicago cultural center was a fun time. Being in there I saw many pieces of artwork that stood out to me in terms of the atmosphere or vibe it created. One of my favorite artists and pieces was Roger Reutimann, who constructed the piece “The Death of Venus”. I really liked his work and was fascinated by the meanings in which it portrayed. The pieces of work was a sculpted women painted in a glossy bright red. She wore no clothes, but her face was taken over by the bones of a skull. When I first looked at the piece I found myself unsettled as I didn’t like the whole concept, it took me a while and I came back to the piece again and really looked at the detail and the meanings that could have been trying to be portrayed or at least what I thought them to be. I found the bright red the most appealing factor due to the eye catching color but also the various connotations that it presents, such as on one hand, love, power, and affection and on the other, anger and death which I find intriguing as he juxtaposed good notions with bad. This piece made me think about the whole concept of ourselves in society, and the women symbolizing the darkness within us, due to the skull face and how in society we tend to only see the superficial good elements of person compared to really looking within them to see their flaws.
The whole exhibit was juxtaposition on the idea of beauty and death and how these contradicting elements can be so closely linked, and this concept struck me as I never took notice to how death is so closely linked to the idea of life and its beauty, that in a second it will be gone, and who will know that you existed. This exhibit brings light to the bad and negativity of death but also the aspect of remembrance.
Its culturally significant by documenting the society we live in and the effects that its having on us that we don’t take notice of.
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