In the Club 57 exhibit, this particular piece caught my eye. It is Sur Rodney’s “Learn to Draw Your Own Conclusions,” from 1980. In hindsight, I am a bit surprised that it was this particular piece that I was most drawn to because in comparison to most of the other features of this exhibit, it is dull. There are no vibrant colors jumping out at the viewer or big, bolded letters to inform you of a club event. It seems like a piece that would easily be overlooked or missed along the way. For this reason, I’m particularly glad that I happened to choose it.
Even though we cannot really make out anything that is written on the picket signs, we still can gather an idea of what is going on. This definitely is reflective of what is going on in our world today, and I think this is part of the reason why I had such a strong reaction to this piece. Throughout this exhibit, a strong emphasis was placed on challenging social norms and ridding the people of all the restrictions of what is considered proper. One of the most important ways of doing that is by protesting through a variety of different methods, as we continue to see today. By dressing in a certain way, playing a certain type of music, or forming a protest group such as the one that is depicted here, the public unrest is made clear. The social norms will only shift as a result of the sort of movements and pushes that are exemplified throughout the Club 57 showing. The title encourages allowing our own thought processes to stray from what we are constantly being taught, form our own personas and decide who/what we want to be for ourselves. I think this is an extremely important message that will continue to be true for generations to come. This piece definitely resonated with me for reasons such as these.
