Peabody Essex Museum
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“What is Art? It is the response of man’s creative soul to the call of the Real.” - Rabindranath Tagore
Why this place?
After more than four years I have finally been able to have a family vacation. It has been a long journey, but this is the first time I was able to go out and have some fun with a little bit of a learning experience. Our family chose to go to Salem, Massachusetts (that’s right! The places where they burned the “witches’’). Known for celebrating Halloween all October long, this city also holds the Peabody Essex Museum. According to Wikipedia, the museum “is a successor to the East India Marine Society, established in 1799. It combines the collections of the former Peabody Museum of Salem and the Essex Institute.” I remember coming here in eighth grade to tour the museum, specifically for the Spanish and Latin American art. This year, they are holding exhibitions for Japanese, American and Indian Art.
“Intersections: Anila Quayyum Agha is an immersive single room installation that bathes the visitor in a geometric array of light and shadow. Inspired by traditional Islamic architectural motifs, Pakistani-American artist Anila Quayyum Agha’s laser-cut steel lantern conjures the design of the Alhambra Palace in Granada, Spain, a historic site of cross-cultural intersection where a thousand years ago Islamic and Western cultures thrived in coexistence. Agha, an internationally renowned, award-winning artist, creates mixed media works that engage topics ranging from global politics and cultural multiplicity, to mass media and gender roles. [1]
Japanese
The Japanese exhibit was one of the most soothing experiences. Many art pieces were sculptures or furniture that contained pieces of pearls embedded in it. However, of all the pieces, it was this one that caught my eye. It’s simple look is what made me gravitate towards it. At first glance, this sculpture reminded me of waves sprouting from the ocean. Yet, with the color of the piece being white it made me also think of steam coming from geysers or vents. However, overall, the piece made me feel very calm and at peace. When I took this picture I forgot to take a picture of the artist and description. However a Google search led me to Fujikasa Satoko[]. Satoko sculptures are described as “fluid and dynamic”. She is “inspired by the natural world, her works embody the freedom and energy reminiscent of soaring birds or winds moving through a valley.” Her goal is to invoke a sense of exhilaration she feels when looking at nature. While admiring nature does conjure a sense of exhilaration, for me it gives me a sense of peace–a jarring difference from the work I experience. Satoko pieces bring me back to memories of strolling through Mount Rainier and hiking at Acadia National Park [2].
American
The city of Salem has been a huge part of American History, mostly known for the notorious witch trials. Yet, they have a richer history–becoming a trading port for the Pacific and Africa, known as the East India Marine Society; playing a key role in the American Revolution by becoming a town for privateering; and even was the birthplace of Nathniel Hawthrone whose most famous work The Scarlet Letter, has been deemed as a valuable contribution to New England history.
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With its history deeply entwined with the ocean, many painters and authors have taken to using it as an important theme in their piece. In the painting above, Thomas Moran’s painting was deeply influenced by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s 1855 poem The Song Hiawatha. The title of his painting: “Fiercely the red sun descending / Burned his way along the heavens” comes from the IX part of Longfellow’s poem titled Hiawatha and the Pearl Feather. While I am not one for poems, the way Longfellow described the sunset made me suddenly recollect the majestic and beautiful sunsets–full of colors.
“O’er the water pointing westward, To the purple clouds of sunset. Fiercely the red sun descending Burned his way along the heavens, Set the sky on fire behind him,” [4]
I loved how in the painting we can see the “purple clouds” of the sunset to the right but our attention is focused on the “Fiercely…red sun descending”. Longfellow also uses Anthropomorphism to give human-like qualities to the sun stating how he “burned his way” along the sky and “set the sky on fire behind him”. When looking at the painting you can see how accurately Moran captured the words of Longfellow, even creating a trail of the sun to show the fire that he set behind him. Out of all the paintings in the In American Waters exhibition, this really captured my attention. Especially with the contrast of the orange and fiery red with the purple, blue and gray skies. The way Moran paid attention to the water and added the sun on the water, it looked almost looked life like. [3]
I also have put another painting here as well: William Bradford’s Icebound Ship. Although I won’t go into too much detail, I found this painting very beautiful and intricate. The way the ice and snow is painted looks very really. Furthermore, A close up of the ship shows that Bradford really took his time for every part of the painting. What makes the painting even more beautiful is that Bradford conjured this painting from his imagination. He heard stories from other people’s expeditions and painted what he imagined them facing.
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India
Being Indian-American, I was excited to view the exhibit of art from India. India is the second most populous country in the world. It is home to 19,500 languages [5], multiple religions, ethnicities, and cultures. With such an abundance, paintings and art pieces don’t have much in common, rather every piece is unique, distinctive, and talks about different subjects pertaining to different lives. The first words that greet the viewers of the gallery are the words of the famous Rabindranath Tagore. Tagore was a “poet, writer, playwright, composer, philosopher, social reformer and painter” [6]. He was the first Non-European poet to win the Nobel Prize in Literature and first to give it back after the Jallianwala Bagh massacre. The British Empire tried to hold their power over India. However after the movement that came with Gandhi, India became independent once again. It has only been about 60 years since India has been independent. Their growth is exponential and has no means of tapering off.
Walking through the gallery, Chester and Davida Herwitz Gallery[7] captured a pretty distinctive but still small part of India (India is so big, it’s hard to capture it all in a few rooms). One painting that captured my eye was Unknown painted by . This painting used oils to make very plain but eye catching patterns. After looking at the painting for some time I realized many social points are present in the painting.
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One social point is darker versus light skin present in India. After colonization, many indigenous countries found shame in their natural skin colour. India is not different. Even today, you will see ads for bleaching and lightening skin, colorism, and disparities between people who are darker skinned versus lighter skinned. For example in the painting, the family of royalty, most likely from India based on their dress, jewelry, turban, have lighter brown skin complexion. However, in the background, a darker skinned person is carrying an umbrella, most likely to keep the family in shade as they walk down a sunny street. While the family have their face facing forward, the person in the back has his face casted downwards in an almost submissive, subservient position. The purpose of putting him in the background and almost covered up shows how dark versus light skinned Indians were viewed. We can also see that the British officer, a light skin tone, is even further up in the foreground. His body language is nonchalant-leaning his weight on his right leg, hands in pocket. It shows that he is comfortable, while the royal family looks more scared and shaper. Although it could symbolize them being in England, and therefore a reasonable explanation for their alert and shy attitude, it seems that the purpose of putting the lightest skin person at ease in the foreground represents people of darker complexion placing lighter skinned people as above.
Another social point highlights sexism. There are three “female” figures in this painting. One being the “mother” the “daughter” and the women in the building to the right. For every single female figure they are behind a man or behind somebody else. It shows how females are sometimes regarded as beneath the opposite sex. We can also see with the men, they are adorned with finer and more jewellery representing more wealth they have.
Lastly, another social point that I believe Husain intended is highlighted in the little girl dressed in pink. Unlike her family, she is dressed in more westernized clothes. In addition, unlike her mother, she wears an Anglo Saxon crown on her head. When growing up in the United States, there was an unspoken rule that we had to wear similar styles to “American clothing”. If we didn’t, we would be seen as a black sheep. I remember getting weird looks when I wore something “different” and being incredibly jealous when I saw girls wear more Americanized clothing. Nowadays, it’s trendy to wear clothes from different cultures and I always laugh remembering why I had to feel so jealous or embarrassed wearing my culture’s clothing. Painting the girls’ clothing as such took me back to those days in school. Also, while wearing Western clothing, she is hiding behind her mothers skirt. It shows how she has yet to develop her confidence similar to me. She is not comfortable in her skin which is a persistent problem that people of color face.
Tribute to Salem
My favorite holiday has always been Halloween and one of my life’s goals is to visit Salem during Halloween. However, even visiting during July I got the sense of it being a little haunted. One of my favorite traditions on Halloween is to watch the Hocus Pocus movie and Casper. Therefore, it was a pleasant surprise (not really surprising since we were in Salem) to see a whole piece dedicated to the Salem witch trials. There are five parts to this display case: the Hocus Pocus movies; an advertisement; a metal sculpture; a wooden sculpture; and a musically written piece.
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Hocus Pocus
Hocus Pocus is one of my favorite Halloween movies. I love when I get to introduce friends to this movie because it is iconic. Hocus Pocus is a fantasy comedy film directed by Kenny Ortega. It wasn’t met with many favorable reviews, but ever since it was aired every October by Disney, it has turned it into a cult classic. Some day timed scenes were filmed in Salem but most were shot in Burbank, California. However, the story is set in Salem where a town is haunted by the three Sanderson Sisters in 1693. They are defeated but then brought back to life in 1993 and are trying to find a way to live forever. It may not be everybody’s favorite cup of tea but I definitely loved it. There has even been some news about a sequel in progress which I will definitely be watching.
The three Sanderson Sisters are played by Better Midler, Sarah Jessica Parker, and Kathy Najimy. Just to give an idea of how good this movie is, take a look at the video below.
Witch Cream advertisement
I don’t have much research on this particular piece. However, there is a blog post here that goes into detail about this particular advertisement. Below is a close up of the image itself. 
Witch weathervane
A weathervane is used to tell which direction the wind is blowing. I have always seen these in movies, usually when ominous music plays right before horrible things are about to happen. However, I never knew what they were called. I found an article that goes into more detail about weathervane and their history if you are more interested!
The Salem Witch mechanical fortune teller
Salem had not garnered the “October economy” even with the rising popularity of works such The Crucible and the movies Hocus Pocus. It was only after the 19th century “during the advent of mass commercialization that led Salem entrepreneurs to repackage the history of the witch trials into creative and amusing witch products” [8]. One of these products was this mechanical fortune teller.
“March of the Salem Witches”
I couldn’t find much information about this music piece. There were two articles I found that mentioned it in passing but did not delve deeper into it, and those were the first results that Google gave! Apparently, it was not the music itself that was important but the advertisement on the back of the music that allowed Daniel Low & Co, to market to a wider audience.
Conclusion
This has been the first vacation my family and I took after my 3 and a half years of me studying in college. It was really relaxing to look at the painting and also exciting learning about the different themes, cultures, and works. This last picture is one part of Zarah Hussain’s Breath. [11] It always feels like we are running around without any time to just stop and enjoy being. Museums and arts like this allow us to break from life and relax the mind.
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