I would use one hyphenated word to describe LinkNYC’s #ArtOnLink series of paintings and illustrations: Non-Controversial. Some of the #ArtOnLink stuff is good, some of it is meh. Unfortunately, a majority of #ArtOnLink screens disappear before I can form an opinion or take note of the artist’s Instagram handle.
But given the relatively conservative content aligned with the #ArtOnLink hashtag it came as a bit of a departure to see a mini-uproar erupt over this image, appearing on LinkNYC machines all across town about a month ago:
Just an image of the Statue of Liberty wearing a hijab, displayed on city property. I wonder how those jailed and beaten female protestors in Iran would feel about this. pic.twitter.com/zmOC1U74Z1
— Chadwick Moore (@Chadwick_Moore) May 24, 2019
This illustration, titled “Immigrant Lady Liberty”, depicts the Statue of Liberty draped in a Muslim hijab. It is one of several such illustrations from the series “DIVERSE CITY”, by artist Rajiv Fernandez. The artist’s intent is to “re-envision the Statue of Liberty as marginalized citizens in the current political environment.” Other images in the series pay tribute to “the LGBTQ community, women and children, the Black community and victims of structural racism, and people with disabilities.”
Much of the enmity directed at the hijab illustration is patently Islamophobic. But I found some of the questions provocative. Would Fernandez’s series ever include Lady Liberty wearing a MAGA hat? Probably not. Would the BDSM scene get singled out? What about the polyamorous? How about Lady Liberty represented as that most oppressed minority: the angry bicyclist?
But then an individual artist’s means of celebrating diversity is, by necessity, selective. With countless quantities of ethnic and other identities among us it would be folly to needle the artist for failing to include or exclude. Where is the Filipino community? What of the Hasidic Jews? Why no Hmong representation? No artist could keep up if a series like this was expected to give equal representation to all ethnicities and creeds.
Still, it does beg one to question the limits of celebratable diversity, and what implicit biases come into play. How diverse is your diversity? If the diversity I celebrate is more diverse than yours, do I get a special place in the culture?
I don’t know if I’m just imagining it but lately the #ArtOnLink screens seem to show up way more than they used to on the kiosk advertising screens. As with other content passing through those screens it often becomes impossible to mentally process what you are looking at before it disappears. With so much more of these #ArtOnLink screens showing up the chances of encountering a single image would seem to decrease. I did, however, manage to capture one shot of the “Immigrant Lady Liberty”, in this cropped image from a Galaxy S9+ camera.
I think she is beautiful.
