Hidden Figures | Foucault and the Las Meninas

This week’s discussion about Michel Foucault’s interpretation of the Las Meninas made me realize the importance of unearthing the hidden figures that are not being represented in our society. These hidden figures are the ideas that create seemingly miniscule contributions to the history of human beings but as Foucault noted, have in fact created the very cultures and ideologies that we subscribe to ‘till this very day, which then contributed to how our society is ordered. 

The artwork that I chose features a broken magnifying glass which signifies how we should shift our view to the different perspectives that are available to us from those of the sovereign, just like how Velázquez let us experience through his painting, while also expressing the different interpretations that the painting can produce. By taking the role of the spectator, we are able to find and examine the different rules and the set of knowledge that reigns over us within and outside the government, up to how we live life on a daily basis and how it affects us and how we function as a society. This then will expose the effects of the continuous centralization of power—which is also the very source of knowledge of a society at a particular point in time.

Foucault’s use of the word “archaeology” interests me because it isolates what was previously established in order to understand it and takes history’s ongoing theme of focusing on a particular subject (the source of power or a sovereign) and setting it aside over the discourse of our history. By doing so, we will be able to unlock new truths because we are already seeing what makes up the episteme of our time, and we will be able to question its process and refine it to create a better future. I also realized that the sovereign usually is the one who is far from reality, so how are we able to just leave the act of governing to just one entity if it has not experienced what the minorities have experienced, and how can it solve problems that consists of the varied populace when it can only account to one and often old and inapplicable perspective?

The garnered insight from this “archeological” process will eventually shed light on the unrepresented entities that can change the status quo. We must open ourselves and accept that there is no definitive way to express and solve issues, and that the power that the multiplicity of representation holds can eventually lead us to equality. The rules of power must always be welcome to criticism and change because history, and the discourse within it does the same. It is impossible to live in a world wherein we are locked and grounded on something superficial because each and every one of us deserves the freedom to have a place in this society and a voice to be heard.