Saturday, February 19, 2022

Destinies Manifest

I heard a little while ago that Mia (the preferred name of the Minneapolis Institute of Art) had an exhibit coming up called Supernatural America, and I confess I wasn't interested. Ghosts and gods are not my thing. 

But the lead image in the Star Tribune review, and the seven-minute animated video it comes from, might get me over to see at least that piece:

The animation is called "Destinies Manifest," and it was created by artist John Jota Leaños. 

As you can see, it refers to the 1872 painting "American Progress," thought it has transformed that heroic, striding goddess figure into an angel of death.

I've said before I have a high tolerance for didacticism in art. I'd love to see someone take on this bit of colonialist kitsch, and the prominent place Leaños gave to highways in that scene makes me all the more interested.


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