Ligon

I believe that Glenn Ligon is an extremely brilliant conceptual artist mainly because he tackled and undertook some very “taboo” subjects and topics in his art, mainly pertaining to race or sex or even identity in general, to ultimately widen one’s perspective on societal issues. I believe if we, as humans, do not dialogue about controversial things, we will never be able to make significant or meaningful progress in our society and thinking, and I believe Ligon thinks the same way.

Some of Ligon’s work is quite simple and “clean” on the surface, but the deep meanings that one must delve into may cause distress and confusion. This somewhat paradoxical association is Ligon’s attempt to draw people into the pieces of art: first the person sees the simplistic piece, but as that person gets closer, they begin to realize that there is much more meaning. In a way, his art is forcing people to think critically about things that people normally wouldn’t discuss or even think about because they are too “taboo.”

Some of Ligon’s work is also very convoluted, blurry, abstract and difficult to perceive, which I believe is his attempt to show how he was very lost and confused at times in his life, particularly in relation to his race and homosexuality. I believe he presented these pieces to help other people that are muddled or adrift in society relate to someone else who was in the same position, forming a community that works together. I also believe that he made some of his pieces very blurry to depict the actual blurriness (or in other words, misunderstanding) of someone’s race and sexuality on the societal level and how these “taboo” yet critical topics get distorted generalizations created by media, politicians, celebrities, etc., thus leading to a complicated lack of communication.

The piece I chose to present today is a picture of the United States Constitution. While it was not created to be a “work of art” I do believe that it depicts some of the same methods that Ligon uses in his work. The U.S. Constitution, in its original form, is blurry, very difficult to read and certainly understand, and very convoluted. The question that arises is, “What does this ‘Constitution’ actually mean?” I find that something created hundreds of years ago gets distorted over time as things change and now when we look at it (or at least when I look at it) we ask ourselves what it actually means and delve into a deep thought process – just like Ligon’s intention.