Homeless Veteran Exhibition (Blogger #6)

Inside of an abandoned warehouse there is a ceiling with exposed wooden beams that meet very old brick walls.  A quarter of the ways down on each of the walls lays a beautiful pink with gold floral patterned wallpaper that really draws attention to the place. On those bright walls hang other no so colorful photos to include a spaceship that looks like Saturn and a surfer catching some waves. The room is made to be a makeshift living room actually, a vintage floral sofa, a burgundy floor rug, a couple of lamps, and some end tables to be exact. There’s something even more attention grabbing though and she stands off to the side of the sofa. She is clothed solely in pink children’s paint that is accented with a gold floral pattern. Exactly like the wall. At thirty-seven years of age, and 8,000 pounds she is the center of attention in this room. Although she is painted to blend with the wall she stands out because she is supposed to. She is an elephant. A pink and gold floral patterned elephant in the middle of a pink and gold floral patterned room for the world to see.

The world has become complacent. Unconcerned about the way society and overall life functions these days. The urbanized idiomatic expression, “there’s an elephant in the room” perfectly depicts what it means to become complacent. Most of us go through the motions of life in attempt to keep up with the ever-rising costs just to live. We work to pay rent, for food, for clothing, for childcare, for transportation and sometimes, after those basic necessities are met, there’s no spending room left. Even more often, some don’t have the luxury to even pay rent and those are the people that us complacent jobholders pass every day on the streets. The elephant in this case is the homeless population. A common occurrence that many consider natural these days therefore no one addresses or attempts to figure out a solution for the rising epidemic. Yet if we painted all the homeless people’s skin pink with a gold floral pattern would it raise attention? Imagine a world with such colorful people in the black and white complacency of society. An elephant in the room will never go unnoticed and it has to be addressed in order to remove it from its unnatural setting.

Sitting Indian style in front of a paint-splattered wall is a stenciled piece of art; a black and white man, capped in a black beanie and clothed in what appears to be a hooded sweatshirt. This black and white image so plain among the burgundy wall with gray and white paint splatter as if it’s ran down from something else above him. He sits in the cold with his full beard, hooded sweatshirt and over-sized pants being the only things keeping him warm. In his gloved hands that expose his knuckles, he holds a white paper sign that reads in in bright red ink, “Keep Your Coins, I Want Change.” In front of him, sits a plain white Styrofoam cup to catch the coins his passerby’s might drop in. As I look at this burgundy wall with paint splatter I see a simple piece of art with a straightforward purpose. I see a homeless man on a cold winters day asking me to question how he has become the elephant in the room that we call society. Will I continue to assist in limiting his agency?

Anyone has the ability to take control of and influence his or her life and this is something that psychologists consider our agency. In clearer words, this is the conscious effort we make to adapt to all things it means to be human whether it’s the need for intimate connections, power or success, or even the ability to just achieve independence. Theoretically, we are supposed to have complete power in controlling how our lives turn out. Success driven by hard work is what America was founded on and in theory, the harder you work the more you achieve but that is not always the case. Take for example our Veterans, the men and women that put their lives on the line, give up part of their agency in order to give you full control of yours. This man in the painting gave his life in order to protect yours and the message on his sign written in blood red coloring to signify his pain of our ignorance toward who he was, is, or could be for that matter.  He asks us not to contribute to the weakness society has already given him but to validate his existence and give what has not been given. “Perhaps the first step to really addressing poverty is to examine ourselves as well as our reactions to poverty … Panhandling is the manifestation of racism, classism, lack of housing. So let’s not just give them money and say, ‘Oh I feel fine now’ Giving people money when they’re panhandling isn’t addressing poverty. It’s helping out a fellow human being and that’s a cool thing to do. And perhaps a good place to start, though certainly just a beginning.” (Figueroa) Agency can be a powerful thing and this man is asking to put all of ours together to liberate his from the social, economical and political restraints. Together, we can change the world.