Struggling for justice in a country that did not want to give justice to it's people. That is South Africa or was for that matter. In 1990 they were able to elect a president for the first time. "Chicago Anti Apartheid Movement Collection" is a collection of pieces that are being shown at Columbia College Chicago's Library. It depicts the struggles that people of South Africa as well as some of its surrounding counties struggled for equality.
There were many posters and t-shirts that hung on the first floor of the library. They each depict a form of protest that was brought about when it was most problematic. There is even a computer that you can look at archives of things like different newspapers around the time when people in the US even tried to bring awareness to apartheid. There were protests even at Columbia College Chicago in the late 1980s.
One piece that stuck out to me was the one poster of a pair of hands trying to pull apart two bars. It just showed how the country struggled to get justice. I am guessing that after 20 years that they were able to get justice because it says it behind the bars. I felt that this image was very strong that the country’s struggle for justice had finally ended. I am not sure if that is the correct way of interpreting that piece, but I just assume it is because the way the hands are showing the two bars being pulled apart and they are bent. The words 20 years appears behind it. So it makes sense if that was what it was showing.
The gallery for me was good, but not good enough for me. It was interesting to see all of the different posters and t-shirts that showed the struggling South Africa and how it wanted justice for their country. Although it was good I felt that it lacked information. The pieces that I saw, most of them were not labeled and I was not sure what I should think of it. Before I went to this I did not know what the Anti Apartheid Movement was. It was not after I looked at the informational card about how South Africa and other surrounding countries were affected by apartheid and wanted justice in their country. I was still not really sure what it was so I looked up some information online to find out more about it because it seemed interesting and I wanted to learn more about it. This collection was a good collection, but I felt like I could have learned more if they added some more information.
If you are interested in the Anti Apartheid Movement you can come see the different pieces that were made at the time of the movement. If you have no clue what it is, I wouldn’t bother because it gives you little information that makes you wonder what it is really about. The “Chicago Anti Apartheid Movement Collection” runs through the February 28, 2009 at 624 S. Michigan Ave on the 1st floor of the library during library hours.
For additional information:
http://calendar.colum.edu/cgi-bin/view/webevent.cgi?show_favorites=0&cmd=startup&calID=69
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Elizabeth, there's a problem here that really undermines your review, and that's that you buried your opinion of the show way down in the fourth paragraph. You needed to say it sooner, because I started getting really grouchy by the time I got to the end of para.3, thinking, "Well, she just didn't bother to learn anything about this subject before writing the review." But it turns out you felt the whole problem was the show didn't do enough teaching. If you had said that at the get-go, then your paragraph about not understanding the "bent bars" poster would be evidence to show how your ability to enjoy the show was frustrated by the lack of interpretive/background information. You have lots of -potentially- useful detail here but the vague lead paragraph keeps you from getting the use out of it.
ReplyDeleteOne other thing: just typing in a URL is not the same thing as linking!! With no images or connections to other sites, you're guilty of the same thing you criticize in this show. Reviews should be conduits to information, not dead ends!