A piece of political art I find to be highly interesting is Faith Ringgold’s 1972 poster United States of Attica. Her poster displays a map of the United States divided into four pieces which is dedicated to the prisoners who rioted at Attica Prison in 1971 in protest of the profoundly inhumane conditions at Attica and the prison industrial complex as it stood—and stands. Ringgold’s map is also variously labeled with a wide range of atrocities (and their death tolls) committed by the United States government throughout history, including the My Lai massacre, the Korean War, and the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki among other things. Every state is additionally labeled with acts of violence committed against marginalized communities, such as lynchings. Her intention with this piece of art was to highlight the violence that the United States was built upon and the cruelty that it continues to dole out today. It was profound in the wake of the Attica riots and it remains profound today, especially when taking into account acts that the American government has been responsible for, such as destabilization of the Middle East and incidents of police brutality. Ringgold addresses the timeless nature of her piece with an addendum on the bottom which reads, “This map of American violence is incomplete – please write in whatever you find lacking.” Her poster still resonates today as Americans hear about senseless violence our country is responsible for every day we read the news or turn on the television.

This art has a very strong meaning. It sends a message that people should become more peaceful and that all wars should stop. The artist probably made this because they know that usually nothing good comes out of war. This is important because it shows how there are a lot of useless wars right now or wars for the wrong reasons. It has gotten so bad that the artist decided to make protest art about it. This piece of art resonates with me because I believe that wars should not be started for the wrong reasons. Of course there are some wars that need to be fought. For example, World War Two. In my opinion, if Germany was not stopped, they would keep fighting until they conquered the whole world. This is one of the mandatory wars that must be fought. Most wars do not have to be fought out, and they should look for more peaceful ways to resolve them, like through debates and talks. I say this because, at the end of the day, a human life is worth a lot.

                                              (Barry Scanlan for Art to Change the World)

This purpose of this image is to convey how large businesses and corporations disregard environmental consequences of their actions in order to extend their wealth and control. This piece of art is quite current (2018?) and its message is still significant as this is still a prominent issue. It is important for us as a society to acknowledge the importance of preserving the state of our planet as it is essential to our survival and our future. It is true that many companies and individuals who are in charge of these companies are motivated by their desire for money and power, with little to no care about how some factors of their operations (ex: high carbon footprints) impact the condition of the planet, environment, and climate. This resonates especially now because it emphasizes how people are so focused on becoming more affluent that they do not see the increasing negative impact they may have on our world.

This art by Leon Golub titled, “Vietnam II” (1973) stood for the strong popular position of being against the Vietnam War. The Vietnam war enlisted millions of Americans in the draft and hundreds of thousands of Americans died due to the tactical and witty guerrilla warfare employed by the Vietnamese. This piece of art is important because it symbolized a time where the United States of America was fighting a war that was very unpopular with its people. America right now is fighting wars that are very unpopular with its people, therefore this art piece is highly relevant.

This painting is known as the Pyramid Of Capitalism, and it was made to show the evils of capitalism. They show the disparity that the economy breeds and how the lower classes often have to do the hard work for the upper classes. The pyramid is reminiscent of feudalism in Europe, with the top benefiting from the people below, creating a system of the rich becoming richer. It was made for industrial workers and reminding the upper classes that America runs off the working class, and if they ever stopped working, the whole system would topple onto itself. It would later be used by the Soviets as a criticism against Capitalism.

Although I do not agree with the later uses of the painting, I do think that the painting itself brings up a great point about Capitalism. This point being that the upper class relies on the lower classes. Birth and status have a big factor in where you start in America, but what I think the painting fails to mention is the class mobility that does happen in America. Even though the class mobility in America is on the rarer side, it is not completely uncommon and with the right amount of work, and luck, people can climb on the classes to be on the top.

This piece by Mr. Brainwash makes Albert Einstein the center of the piece, a man who is widely considered as the smartest man ever. In a time of such divide and hatred, love truly is the answer, and Albert Einstein is someone who we look to for the correct answers. If everyone just loved each other there wouldn’t be racism, homophobia, etc… There is a lack of love in society today which causes such a great divide in our everyday lives and throughout history. The background of the image uses art from various time periods to bring about unity, and also uses bright colors to be appealing to an audience, and for me, I associate bright colors with optimism. Everyone needs love, and it creates such a feeling of happiness when you receive it, illustrating Mickey in the picture, also having him towards the center is a great representation of love as Mickey was caring, kind, and always had open arms to his friends and strangers. The simplicity of this piece is also the beauty, as it speaks such loud volumes with just a few words, and art.

This art work protests war, suggesting that resources be used elsewhere, such as art. This artwork is important in times of war, where there are major movements against the government’s cruelty in war or fake reason for war. This artwork still resonates now by expressing some people’s opinion about the war happening in Russia and Ukraine.

This piece of art did not appeal to us because we were not able to find the meaning that the artist intended to convey nor participate in any dialogue with the work. The artwork appeared to us as an amalgamation of shapes, which didn’t symbolize anything-it merely inspired confusion.  The limited meaning which we were able to derive from this work emerged out of our befuddlement. The sculpture appeared differently from every angle, morphing as you walked around it. We connected this variance in the work to the idea that everything can be viewed from a variety of perspectives.

This piece does not represent our campus. Our campus is uniformed and organized, and this order creates a serenity which students experience. Rather the sculpture felt random and erratic, which made us feel confused and even anxious at our lack of understanding. This made the artwork feel completely out of place.

We think the sculpture is here because the college believes in the efficacy of abstract art. Abstract art is meant to foster critical thinking because the meaning of the work is not clear on the surface. A college education requires nuanced thinking and demands that students gain access to new frameworks for processing information. Abstract art requires out-of-the box thinking to acquire meaning, which resembles our college learning process.

This artwork was commissioned by Ralph Martel, who attended CSI. It is possible that one of the reasons that CSI placed the sculpture there is to show students that they too are capable of being recognized for their accomplishments just as Ralph Martel was.

Jackson Mushnick, Gabriella Cota, Sasha Smolansky, Wilson Wu

On our walk around campus, our group found this statue that we thought to be reminiscent of a dolphin. It spoke to us because, although it was abstract, we believed that it served perfectly as an emblem for our school’s mascot, the dolphin. Its abstract nature also lent itself to the diversity of the CSI community. Although we are all different, it can be representative of the fact that we are united as students of the same school. In a similar vein, it does represent our campus, as we are all CSI dolphins. I think it is there both to beautify the campus and to send a message about our unity as a student body. As to who put it there, we believe that it was most likely an alum or donor–perhaps both.

Adriana Ndokaj, Amanda Alencastro, Angie Mekki, Sophia Hart