http://www.smmoa.org/site/exhibits/onViewNow.html
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About Me
- Art 08
- We are a group of Art students from the University of California Riverside who are attending a series of Art Galleries in several parts of Southern California. We have decided to use Blogger.com to post the pictures we take, and record our thoughts and opinions about the work we visit. You can find our critiques and thoughts on the work in the "comments" field, which appears below the pictures of the art.
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Bergamot Station, Lost Angeles CA, Oct 20th 2007
Santa Monica Museum of Art
Project Room #2
Title: Black Magic Woman
Loren Holland: Black Magic Woman
Holland created Black Magic Woman specifically to accompany the exhibition by William Pope.L which is showing in the museum’s main gallery. This presentation of seductive and humorous images possesses the creepy qualities of nineteenth-century gothic ghost stories. The title was inspired by the Santana song, “Black Magic Woman.” The work portrays three contemporary Santeria priestesses practicing in the spooky, partially decayed swamp and mist, of a Louisiana graveyard. In a theatrical sense, it addresses themes of class, racial stereotyping, and death. Holland’s stylized representations of black women address issues of cultural misconception and include both contemporary and mythical elements. From the looks of it, one priestess is conducting a love spell in which you see her putting on perfume and had pinned a voodoo doll. Another is working on a car which is evidently growing flowers. And the last priestess is trying to raise zombies and is seen holding a pinned heart and a Dr. Pepper bottle!
I have to comment that this exhibition was one of my favorites’! Because I have always been fascinated with spiritual themes, I feel that Holland did an amazing job of combining modernism and humor with what is supposed to originally scare people. Another great thing about this piece is that Holland kept your eyes wandering around it to find the modern objects that related to the three priestess’s spells.
-Rebecca L.
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