Weisman exhibit asks: ‘Who is a citizen? What is citizenship?’

The Weisman Art Museum’s (WAM) ongoing exhibition, “Who is a citizen? What is citizenship?” is a noteworthy attempt to connect viewers to the timely political debate surrounding immigration issues, particularly as it relates to the predicament of illegal aliens in Minnesota and across the country.

Underscoring its real-life relevance, Gov. Tim Pawlenty has pushed for a crackdown on illegal immigrants, especially as preparations for the GOP Convention get going. In January, the governor ordered contractors to run employee names through a federal electronic identity check system to verify that they are indeed U.S. citizens, a key attempt at curtailing illegal immigrants, according to a recent Star Tribune article. But the Alabama-based Southern Poverty Law Center offers evidence that an anti-immigration trend is correlated with a greater incidence of hate crimes. It points to the 48 percent increase in hate crimes that have occurred around the country since 2000.

Continued: Click “Read more”  While it doesn’t necessarily sort through these complicated issues, the WAM exhibit provides some historical perspective and it puts questions “out there.” As the first installment of a yearlong series about the responsibility of the artist living and working in a democracy, the 30 paintings, photos and prints (pulled together from the museum’s permanent collection), unfold throughout several vignettes. The featured artists deal with themes such as status, representation, community and activism. 

For viewers, the chronicle begins with Lewis Hine’s photos of the multitude of immigrants who came from all over the place to Ellis Island in 1905, according to museum information. Later, famed photographer Walker Evans documents the impoverished sharecroppers who lived in rural Alabama during the Depression (Iconic black-and-white snapshots of Allie Mae Burroughs, plus other people, coupled with author James Agee’s writing comprise the well-known book, Let Us Now Praise Famous Men.) It also highlights photos from local photographer Joseph Allen who captures the faces of American Indians in contemporary Minnesota society. Altogether, the exhibit proves that while artwork can be taken on its own, it may also be a force for political change.

Image: Rockwell Kent, Workers of the World Unite!, 1937