Machinery of Oppression
Framed: H. 31 3/8 in × W. 41 7/16 in × D. 2 1/4 in (79.7 cm × 105.3 cm × 5.7 cm)
Artist’s statement about this work, October 2020
Witnessing the crumbling stature of the American presidency and the resulting social disruption caused to the public, particularly communities of color, I saw an entire machinery of oppression unraveling before my eyes. Tracing roots of oppression to colonialism and injustices associated with immigration, this work began as an exploration of these two components in fueling the overall historic oppression of different immigrant communities in America.
Within my own South Asian community, I closely observed colonial oppression trickling down and creating further unjust circumstances for specific groups of the community, particularly women, to justify patriarchal systems and values. How this machinery of oppression becomes cycles of oppressions and carries forward hundreds of years of neglect, hate, and suppression within our communities is the question I wanted to answer and I hope the audience reflects on through this work.
Norms of cultural tolerance within the United States have included embracing food and commodifying traditional aesthetics of individual cultures into mainstream American culture. Such characteristics of consumer greed and appetite while dismissing justice for the cultural communities being appropriated in the process is represented by the enlarged figure in the painting.
As an immigrant, a woman, a naturalized American citizen and an artist, I have interacted with themes of oppression on an individual level. Post-Colonial narratives of upholding the “white colonizer” as an authority even on traditional Indian art forms is prevalent within the art world. As a response and without diluting the traditional process of my work, I have created this work to also challenge Euro-centric value judgements placed on traditional art forms in the art world.
—Rupy C. Tut
