Creative Aspect

For the creative aspect of my final project I decided to make a provocative statue, which I titled The Cotton Man. This statue can be viewed in several drastically different lights, depending completely on critical lenses, with the one of race being the most influential. While creating him I stayed indifferent to which meaning he has, focusing more on the fact that he has several meanings, and doing what I could to preserve those diverse interpretations. Viewed with no relation to racism or race, the man seems like any hard worker at work in the fields. It appears he’s harvesting cotton, but that is unimportant. Chances are in this view that the statue is a tribute to farmers, representing their hard work and struggle. If viewed through the lens of racism, however, the outcome is much less pretty. It appears this statue is grossly racist, depicting a black man – or slave – harvesting cotton. The questions would be, if it isn’t racist: why is the statue black, why is he picking cotton rather than some other grain, and why make the statue in the first place. Though from the impartial lens it appeared obvious – the statue has to be some color, why not black, cotton is a common crop, and the statue is a tribute – this would be hard to prove in the face of accusations of racism. Though neither of these options singularly influenced the creation of the statue, together they helped me form a provocative work of art whose meaning depends entirely on the critical lens it’s viewed through.