Blog 5

Left: actual artwork

Right: my sketch 

Contemporary Art Museum

Santiago Sierra (b. 1966, Spain)

89 Huicholes 

2006

84 black and white photographs 

The work was made by Spanish artist Santiago Sierra in 2006. The images are of 84 different members of the Huichol people (an indigenous group in Mexico, known to be generally poor and experience a lot of discrimination). 

These people believe that photographing one's face takes away part of the soul, therefore, the artist was only able to photograph the backs of each of their heads. However, this also gives the piece a more mysterious mood. It leaves the audience wondering who the people are and what expressions they may be hiding. By presenting the viewer with these images, the Sierra is also commenting on the discrimination faced by the Huichol. Taking away their faces makes the people hard to identify and less different from any other person. 

The artist chose to arrange the images in rows of 5x17, leaving an image missing from the bottom right corner. This makes the piece kind of unsettling, the missing image creates and unbalanced composition that is surprising and uncomfortable for the audience. 

Sierra also chose to make the photos black and white and photograph each person with a plain white background. This creates a lot of contrast and a wider range of values. The black frames connecting all the images also adds to the value of the overall piece and helps unify the images. Overall, I think that the images presented are must more interesting and striking in black and white. If the images were in color, I think it would be too much for the eye to process because it's such a large piece. 

The medium chosen by the artist is very traditional, photography is not a new technology and has been used by artists for a long. However, knowing the context of the piece and the beliefs of the Huichol people makes the medium seem very modern and innovative. 

The purpose of the piece is to comment on the discrimination faced by the Huichol people. By choosing these people as his subject, Sierra is showing a kind of reverence for them. He is also drawing attention to their unique and little known culture. Before being exposed to this piece, I had never heard of the Huichol people.