This week’s discussion on New York was one that opened my eyes to the immense diversity and culture the city holds. This week we focused on the sidewalks of New York and how they are a site for conflict and negotiation. At the beginning of the week the thought that a simple sidewalk could be “a site for conflict and negotiation” didn’t really make sense to me. I wondered how something as plain as a sidewalk could hold the depth that the phrase insinuates. However, after reading a portion of the “Sidewalks” section of Imagining New York City by Christoph Linder and our class discussion of the public art in New York, I really understood the meaning of that phrase.
The book Imagining New York City provided some insight into the immense life New York contains. The sidewalks that Linder talks about are described in a way that they seem as alive as the people walking on and through them. The sidewalk is a demanding entity and you can see it in the actions of New Yorkers. The people are compelled to act a certain way and to look a certain way. The sidewalks are meant for transportation and mobility, but it is also a way to display one’s identity, wealth, etc. Linder helped me see that a sidewalk could be a site of negotiation and conflict by actually bringing the sidewalk to life.
Our talk in class about works of public art in New York was profound and insightful. We were shown Kara Walker’s A Subtlety, David Hammons’ Bliz-aard Ball Sale, Claes Oldenberg’s The Store, and Richard Serra’s Tilted Arc. Our conversation about these art pieces is what truly allowed me to see how the sidewalks of New York are a site of conflict and negotiation. I saw this in the way that all the art pieces demanded people to interact with them. These works of art commands the viewer to self reflect in some way, and deal with how the piece makes them feel and how they see the world. For example, Richard Serra’s Tilted Arc caused conflict because it physically forced people to see and interact with the world. David Hammons’ piece makes the viewer think about the things they consider a commodity and the actual worth of things in this materialistic world.
Our discussion of Kara Walker’s A Subtlety brought up the idea that the piece may have caused African-Americans to be conflicted in how they viewed themselves, and that it may have caused them to distance themselves from the piece in order to not be associated with the image/stereotypes the piece portrays of African-Americans. Walker’s piece was especially bothersome to African-American women, and this is because, by standing next to the sculpture, they are immediately being associated with the woman. They become the real life version of this woman who is in what some would claim is a derogatory and degrading position. African-American women may feel that if they are seen with the sculpture then people will start to think of them the same way. It is this fear that people will generalize that keep African-American women from getting to close to things that might make them appear to be anything like the woman in A Subtlety. In a world where blacks have to constantly be aware of how they portray themselves lest they fall into the stereotypes people have created. That fall could hinder their reputation, public image, and their ability to attain and retain a job. It is this need to remain unblemished by the stereotypes of society that forces these women to, sometimes unconsciously, distance themselves from pieces and other media such as Walker’s.
Some of the pieces caused conflict like Serra’s, and some of the pieces made the viewers negotiate with themselves on their view of the world and who they are as a person like Walker’s. New York’s sidewalks are truly a place for negotiation and conflict.
– February 5, 2016
