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Identity is a fragile thing, as the work
of Greenfield and even Ringgold suggests: it is the product of struggle and deliberate
assertion, and it is always in need of maintenance. But identity is also the result of
social forces much larger than the personal self. It depends on a degree of material
wealth and control over the natural world to anchor identity to an enduring place. But
Laurie Hogin's painting, Imperial Eyes: Indonesia (1997; fig. 12), indicts western
capitalism for a maniacal reduction of the world to commodity, transforming everything
into the logic of the global marketplace. America is neither garden of paradise nor
triumphant urban dynamo, but the unseen hand of exploitation. Indonesia's exotic Bird of
Paradise croaks under the assault of capitalism. The lush image of the bird contrasts with
the tags of American consumerism that are inscribed in the frame: coffee, tea, palm oil,
feathers, tobacco, tropical hardwoods, rubber. These are what Indonesia really means to
American well-being, Hogin announces. America is a voracious appetite. ...[continue] |
