Alexis Vannett
Mural Art in Mexico & U.S.
Professor Moody
11 January 2017
Modern Migration of the Spirit
Orozco’s famous work in Dartmouth, The Epic of American Civilization, is one that evokes an incredible amount of emotions. From the very beginning, viewers of this piece are taken on a journey—one full of hardships and triumphs. Orozco intends to evoke all kinds of reactions in his viewers, both positive and negative. He wants his audience to think about the story he is trying to tell. He wishes to take his viewers on a journey through time, and ends his story with an incredibly inspirational piece: Christ the Lord standing victorious, alive from the dead.
This specific panel is known as the Modern Migration of the Spirit. It is impossible to just gloss over this panel as it contains the brightest and boldest colors of the entire mural. It is the most beautiful ending to the mural one could ever think of—and a powerful one at that. Orozco shows the hope of every single migrating person to the Americas through his image of the Christ figure. He does this by portraying Christ in a powerful way—a way that is not typical. There are many different aspects of this piece that showcase the power of Christ: the colors used to make up Christ, the contrast between the foreground and the background, the physical stance of Christ, and the holes in Christ’s hands and feet. Through all of these ways, Christ is a symbol of hope for the people migrating. Orozco depicts Christ in a way that shows anything is possible.
The first part of this particular panel that is noticeable is the bold yellow color of Christ’s chest. Yellow is a color most often used to depict light, and that is just what Orozco does with this particular image—biblically, Christ is known as the light of the world. What is also interesting about this image is that we see Christ’s chest at all. Typical pictures of Christ usually show him nailed to a cross, sickly and dying, with his head hanging low and covering his chest. He is vulnerable in these instances. This panel shows Christ standing tall and strong, showing that even out of destruction, life can be rebuilt. A viewer can even see that his skin is tearing away, representing rebirth and new life. This is exactly what the migrating people needed to see—that even though they were going through extremely tough times, they had the power within themselves to rebuild and start their lives once again.
Looking closer at the figure of Christ, the holes from the nails are seen in his hands and his feet, but that is not what catches the eye first. What was once the most notable feature of Christ is now pushed to the background of the viewer’s mind. This in and of itself is a very powerful part of this panel. In the one hand Christ holds an axe, a destructive weapon that He Himself used to chop down the cross under Him. The other hand is held in such a way that the hole is not seen at all—it is held in a raised fist, a symbol of power and strength. A migrant seeing this image again sees the hope of Christ. If He can overcome something as great as death, then anyone can overcome the things they go through.
The rubble behind Christ also plays a major role in the symbolism in this picture. The contrasting colors represent light—Christ—and darkness—the death and destruction shown in the background. He stands in front of weaponry, death, destroyed buildings, other gods, and fire. Christ is bigger than what is behind Him and stands ready to take on anything that might come His way. Fearless is the word that best describes this. A viewer seeing this cannot help but feel that same way too.
Looking to the base of the image, the viewer sees the cross. Orozco goes further than just showing Christ standing after chopping it down—Orozco shows that Christ absolutely conquered the cross and the destruction behind Him. This is a symbol of incredible strength and leaves the viewer completely awestruck and inspired, believing that anything is possible if you have the courage to rise up and fight. Over and over again, Orozco is showing his audience that there is power within each and every person. If Christ can rise from the dead, defeat the cross, overcome destruction, and still have the strength to raise his fist and challenge whatever comes next, then there has to be a piece of that in everyone. Anyone standing before this image gets a glimpse of this, and walking away will hopefully remember that feeling.