Joseph: The Bull and the Rose

Joseph: The Bull and the Rose

A certain number of years ago the country of Mexico had its very own Revolution, or rather should I, the Big Brosky, allude to it as the “Revolucion.” In essence, in order to celebrate the historical event, the Mexican Consulate General didn’t call for another Revolucion or any of the stereotypical stuff people encounter in Hollywood films, nah…they didn’t do any of that, no. They held an exposition: “Joseph: The Bull and the Rose.”

Si si, that’s right…an exposition and it just wasn’t any exposition it was an expo of Mexican – Jewish – artist Anette Pier. For those who have absolutely no clue of who Annette Pier is, well she strongly takes pride in her Mexican Jewish identity for beginners. She presents what is a contemporary approach to the ancient twelve tribes as a universal concept of "the first diverse society."

Now, myself, Big Brosky, the Muslim, looking into Pier’s works had me looking through much introspectively within my mind. Questions of the likes: indeed there are Jews in every nation, of course, but how do Mexican Jews live? How did they end up there and what exactly does being Jewish mean to Annette Pier?

Pier’s work, “JOYS OF TOLERANCE: REFLECTING DIVERSITY THROUGH THE TWELVE TRIBES CATALOG” can answer many of these questions in full, no doubt. What intrigued me was that out of all the Mexican artists and the aspect of the Revolution, Annette Pier’s work was chosen.

The Exhibit

Walking through her exhibit, as a monotheist myself—however from the people of Ishmael (Peace and Blessings upon him)—I was without doubt feelin’ the pieces. Pier used metaphors to portray the life and times of the biblical prophet Joseph/Yusuf (peace be upon him) in a rather “Mexican” context.

Pier is a Mexican. Is Pier Mexican before she is Jewish…or…is she Jewish before Mexican? I don’t know, you’d have to ask her. My understanding was that, and still remains that, she is a Mexican before Jew, but if one would pass through a bazillion Jewish tribunes and Haretz, you’d prob get the opposite analogy; she is a Jew before Mexican.

Forget the Jew Mexican/Mexican Jew dyad for now. Pier has the bull fights of Mexico and Mexican culture clash and blend with the story of Joseph/Yusuf (Peace be with him).

To Pier, Joseph/Yusuf (peace be with him) is seen as the innocent bull, the powerful epical Bos Taurus. She sees the bull as mythical, graceful, robust, powerful, innocent and undeniably, sincere. Working from within her Mexican tradition, she builds upon the image of the bull as a metaphor for Joseph's/Yusuf’s (pbuh) magnetism, charisma, and acquired identity. She visually demonstrates how bullfighting is a dance and power-play with the matador paralleling Joseph's/Yusuf’s (pbuh) relationship with his brothers.

Aside from the fiesta Brava and the exhibit opening in Yeshiva University Museum, Pier sees the bull as gallant and attractive. To her, everyone loves Yusuf (pbuh) and Yusuf (pbuh) to her becomes the Rose, rather, the fleeting Rose whose aroma and scent sweetens the lives of everyone who surrounds him.

Despite such given, the flower’s aroma and sweetening scent is also perceived as toxic as it is able to arouse the most despicable of ill feelings within one’s very own siblings who became an embodiment of jealousy and malice. Pier brings in the fiesta Brava here: the struggle between the matador and the bull. The brothers being the matadors obviously.

Standing in my Keffeyeh – Solidarity in my Palestine Mind

So here I stand, a Muslim man, activist, photographer and hip-hop artist at an exhibit with a Keffeyeh wrapped around the jugular looking straight at this ingenious exhibit no doubt and simply bridging a contemporary gap on Palestine. So in this contemporary dance, I’d say Palestine is in the struggle with the matador who tries so very hard to subdue and control the bull.

The only thing I was seeing in Pier’s exhibit was Palestine and its walls set up by the matador as the global arena watches from satellites above diffusing a struggle. Is this what Pier wanted from me? Did Pier want me to interpret her art in the mannerism I did and still do? I am rather doubtful, but this is the way I saw the world that day at Espacio Mexico in downtown Montreal (2055 Peel St.)