The Couple in the Cage Analysis

Andrew Kim

Douglas Keith

Art History 6c

June 9, 2017

The Couple in the Cage

        Art contains a plethora of expressions, types, and categories in which today’s society views for an entertainment value. Within the entertainment value, art can be interpreted in a variety of ways. However, among the arts that were contrived, performance artists Guillermo Gómez-Peña and Coco Fusco embarked their own “art” as a representation of unknown satire. Through the production of the documentary “The Couple in the Cage,” the important social experiment recommends that although western culture has essentially progressed in our open politeness and measures for socially and ethically satisfactory treatment of other people, westerners themselves might not have changed their individual inclinations as much as we might want to accept. With the implementation of cultural appropriation, the themes of different cultures have heavily influenced and instigated a reverse social examination of today’s society.

        In this video, we saw the entire range of reactions from the spectators. In spite of the fact that we saw a consoling measure of very much established shock, there was additionally an astonishing measure of captivation, pleasure, and disparaging. Some treated the "Indians" likewise to how many would anticipate that one will treat an exotic creature. The most disturbing was the point at which a man appeared to remove a considerable measure of delight from feeding the “indigenous couple” bananas through the confine like creatures. Shown in the exhibit, the couple performed “customary tasks,” which run from sewing voodoo dolls to sitting in front of the TV. A donation box was placed in the front of the cage, indicating that for a small fee, the female Guatinaui would perform a “traditional” dance, the male Guatinaui would recount real American stories (in a made-up dialect), and they would both stance with guests. Through the made-up traditions, the audience succumbed to the authenticity of Guatinauis. Through an article about the performance, Fusco states that the gathering of people’s immediate reaction uncovers their true convictions. Making a similar presumption, the film introduces the crowd’s responses as verification that racism — non-Western individuals are archaic, and basically unique in relation to Western individuals —still exists in our postcolonial society. Regardless of whether this is valid, “The Couple in the Cage” powerfully contends that frontier thoughts keep on influencing our way to deal with non-Western societies.