The Pacification of Balangigg
...gigg. The sculpture is an “in the round” or free standing sculpture, meaning it can be seen from all sides. It is in open form and seems to interact with space surrounding it. Around the very muscular and large legs are plain brown pants that look almost like some sort of slave pants, or pants of someone who is in a lower class. The artist pays great attention to detail when forming the muscles of the body. The body and arms are tense with force, and you can see this by looking at the way the back muscles are shaped and by the way the veins are popping out of the arms. There is a large red bull’s eye in the center of the chest, and there is blood painted onto the hands. The hands of the figure are bound together with a string of rope with three bells tied onto it. The bells on the rope create an area that expands beyond the center of the piece. I have come up with many different ideas for the meanings of all the things the artist did to the figure. I do not know what culture or ethnic background the artist is from, but it seems like maybe the figure is bound by persecution of around him. The artist might be a minority or have friends that are minorities. The blood on his hands and the tenseness of the muscles made me feel like he is trying to break loose from his “chains” of rope and bells. It seems to me like there is an implied motion showing that any moment the figure will break the rope. I couldn’t come to any other conclusion about the bells other than maybe the people that are trying to pacify him are trying to use the bells to soothe or calm him down, which is what the word pacification mean. The big red target to me means that he is a victim and that everyone is against him. I don’t know what message the artist was trying to give with the rabbit head. In ancient Native American culture, the rabbit was the very object of fear. When a rabbit knows a predator is after him, it is like a deer in headlights. It just stays still and quivers with fear or runs helplessly. I think that this is a great piece of artwork. It is probably one of my favorites as it is one of the only ones th...