From across the gallery, a large, holographic collage of baseball cards caught my eye. Like a moth to a fluorescent light, I was attracted by its sheen. Once I approached the artwork, I realized there was a second piece right underneath. Perched on a floating shelf, a 2X3 baseball card was its own piece. Ironically, its size caught my attention. This baseball card did not give a description or any statistics of this mystery player, nor a face. With a masculine figure and body, his face was concealed with an opaque layer of gold glitter. Honestly, I was stumped with its meaning. After logging onto the GLAMFA website and reading the artists, Abdul Mazid, ‘s statement, I believe I (kind of) grasped his conceptual appeal. Mazid talked about that through his art he tried to convey the idea of two contrary ideas that will simultaneously attract, yet repulse the audience. The glitter had attracted my attention, but its size would normally repulse the spectator. He also mentioned that he used Western ideology, such as the perception of masculinity, as one of his subjects. In this art piece, I believe he tried to portray the perception of masculinity through the baseball player’s body, but countered it with his face completely covered in gold glitter, which is perceived as feminine. Through this contrary juxtaposition, he facilitated the audience to questioning of a topic that was never fully questioned. It’s crazy to think that a whole hemisphere has come up with an idea of what is truly a whole identity of masculinity and what is feminine. Who is to say what characteristics make up a gender’s traits? I really admired Mazid’s message and concept through his simple sized art piece.
Destructive Alchemy
by Abdul Mazid
For more information about Abdul Mazid: http://www.abdulmazid.com/
Shannon Choi 