'Don't take life too seriously, you'll never get out of it alive.' -Bugs Bunny
I say!
Saturday, May 8, 2010
The Lovers (2005)
Yue Minjun
Art Go (2006)
Wang Guangyi
Yue Minjun is best known for oil paintings depicting himself in various settings, frozen in laughter. He has also reproduced this signature image in sculpture, watercolor and prints. Although Yue is often classified as part of the Chinese Cynical Realist movement which was developed in China in 1989, he himself rejects this label. Yue was disillusioned with politics by the Tiananmen Square Uprising in 1989 and moved to an artists' colony outside Beijing in 1990. His signature style developed out of portraits of his bohemian friends from the artists' village.
Wang Guangyi was a leading protagonist of post 1989 political Pop movement. He is famous for his Great Criticism series of paintings which uses images of propaganda from the Cultural Revolution (1966-1976) and contemporary brand names from Western advertising. Classified in China under the genre of Political Pop, Wang’s paintings combine the ideological power of communist propaganda with the seductive allure of advertising.
I shall now compare these artworks based on their subject matter and aesthetic qualities.
Similarities
-Both paintings showcase men as the vocal point.
-There is a clear separation between the foreground and the background. Wang achieves this by using bold contours to outline the main subject matter in the foreground. Yue does this by amplifying the size of the 2 men in comparison to the smaller bridge in the background. Both artists cleverly makes use of proportion and perspective.
- It is interesting how in both artworks, there exists some form of ‘Anatomical Structuralism’ (bluntly jamming together icons from different cultures and eras). Although that term is coined by Wang, it can be applied to Yue’s work as well. This is because the 2 naked men in The Lovers look modernized and physically close to one another, which implies the openness of what used to be a conservative Chinese society. At the same time, they are wearing traditional theatrical Chinese hats, which only Chinese people in the past wear. This juxtaposition implies a clashing of the bygone era with the contemporary culture that exists now. Similarly in Art Go, there is a juxtaposition of icons from propaganda posters (used during Mao’s regime) and small numbers quoted from barcodes and serial numbers of merchandise. This symbolises China’s increasing obsession and consumption of excessive material goods.
- The way both artists put together elements of their cultural past in the setting of the present seems to reduce the worth of the cultural elements. The subject matters from the present seem to be dominating the elements from the past.
Differences
- Wang’s colour scheme is almost monochromatic, consisting of only red, blue and black. The red texts look dull and washed out. On the other hand, Yue makes use of bright and outstanding colours, such as pink, blue, white and beige. I find the shiny pink skin of the 2 men eccentric and unusual as Asians are commonly associated to yellow skin.
- The mood exuded from both artworks greatly differs. In Art Go, the 3 men look like ‘ideal labourers’ hard at work. They look serious and the way that the man in the foreground is looking ahead into the distance gives an optimistic feeling, as if they are working towards a better life. On the contrary, the two men in The Lovers seem to be lost in a world of happiness. Their mouths form wide semi-circles, framed with thin lips and more teeth than one would like to have. Their eyes are shut tightly from laughing so hard. There are deep folds on their cheeks, forehead and eyes as a result of laughing too much.
- Art Go has a graphic and commercialized look due to its unrealistic background which contains texts, numbers and a single colour, while The Lovers seems more realistic because of the bridge behind them. Furthermore, Yue makes use of sunlight and shadow to highlight certain areas of the men’s bodies. From the colour of the sky and the direction of the shadows, one can tell that it is in the early afternoon.
Arts refer to imaginative, creative, and nonscientific branches of knowledge, such as dance, literary arts, music, theatre and visual arts. Entertainment covers a broad range of topics; fashion, performances, theatre, comics, animation, television, sports, dance, magic and even reading. Art refers to the conscious production or arrangement of sounds, colors, forms, movements, or other elements in a manner that affects the sense of beauty, specifically the production of the beautiful in a graphic or plastic medium.
From these definitions and examples alone we can see that art, arts and entertainment are very much intertwined. In art and arts there is entertainment and in entertainment we see art.
Let's take for example Cirque du Soleil, a dramatic mix of circus arts and street entertainment (refer to pictures above). Generally, this human circus is arts, as it is a performance. It is also art, to have painted faces, colourful costumes, and to do acrobatic stunts on lightbulbs. At the same time, this human circus is entertainment to people. People pay to watch this event to be entertained.
Another example is soccer. Passing the ball, avoiding other players and running while directing the ball is an art. Not everyone is capable of doing it well. At the same time, it is entertainment that keeps the stadium full.
People also create art to entertain themselves.
Business simply means an affair or matter. science and technology refers to creations made that benefits mankind based on scientific knowledge. it can refer to anything, finance and investing, food and cooking, health and medicine, home and housing, gardening, labor, mathematics, pets, real estate and transportation.
Technology is built to ease problems that we face everyday. However, technology also has consequences that are bad for society and the environment. This modernisation and urbanisation has resulted in society being forced to adapt to changes. Many artists have worked on this theme, such as Nam June Paik the father of television and Dede Supria, who is concerned about the people living in poverty who are left behind in the rural parts of indonesia.
Business, science and technology has affected us in such a great scale that it is impossible to change or do anything about it. One way of reaching out to the masses is through art. in their paintings and installations we witness the development of science and technology. i feel that this is the relationship between art, science and technology. art is used as a tool to convey messages regarding how science and technology has taken the word by storm.
Communications and media involves interchanging or transmitting and receiving information. this includes books, journals, newspapers, other publications, radio, television, computers and information networks. Communication is crucial to pass information from one place to another. without information, we will not be able to do many things. it will be difficult to learn many things and to react to an emergency or an urgent matter in time.
on the other hand, the media has also brought about disruptions into our lives. it has inculcated a celebrity-glamour obsession in some people. as it is the most convenient form of communication to the masses, it is easy to get the wrong idea or impression about certain issues.
Art is a form of communication between an individual and the society. hence it is important that we fully utilise it.
Disadvantaged and marginalised to me refers to the outcast of society; the handicapped, the blacks, and the poor. there are of course more types of outcasts. whats important is that we understand the idea of being marginalised heavily depends on where we are. if a white man were to live in a black community, he will be the outcast. but my example may not be relevant today due to better equality among races.
the disadvantaged. what comes to my mind immediately are blind people, amputees, people living in poverty and people with illnesses. my heart goes out to these people. however usually the disadvantaged are blessed with extraordinary talent. armed with it, they will overcome odds to further polish their ability. some can paint like legendary artists, but using their feet!
many artists have worked with the theme of being marginalised, such as Duane Hanson.
In Singapore, education and schools are two things that are taken very seriously by the people and goernment. in primary schools, students create simple pieces of art work. they do collages, use poster colour paints and experiment with different materials such as candle wax and so on. i still remember having to decorate the cover of my art folio :) in secondary school, most students get exposed to more things. most students learn to use acrylic paint and oil paint at this time. most students will also discover their own style of doing art. for those taking o level art, it is optional to sit for the theory paper, the study of visual arts (SOVA) in junior colleges students taking H2 art study the history of important and significant artists. they learn about different art movements and more importantly students learn to appreciate artworks and learn to analyse and eveluate artworks at a higher level in SOVA.
Family gives each of us a sense of belonging. Family provides us with emotional and financial support, moral guidance and of course, love. our parents sacrifice themselves selflessly everyday to bring us up. home should be where one is most comfortable doing anything. with our family and at home, we are really ourselves. this is important as i believe our families can influence the kind of art we produce. in a broken and troubled family, the child will more likely produce artworks that are a reflection of his feelings, which are most probably negative feelings such as hatred and anger.
on the other hand, a happy family with happy children will not have very troubled minds. they will be able to explore more themes that require a lot of thought process, and open up a variety of opportunities for themselves.
The government is a party that has authority over most things. this includes the expenditure for art and events such as the singapore biennale and exhibitions. the art scene in singapore is expanding with local artists emerging and more art exhibitions. around the world, governments use art to persuade or convince people. since hitler and stalin's reign, art in the form of posters are used to change the mindsets of people. for example, these posters can show boys feeling proud to be part of the Nazi army and girls pushing toy prams and taking care of baby dolls.
even up till now, art is a tool used to convey messages to the masses.
i think the singapore government should be more supportive of art and not make it uneasy to be a successful artist in singapore, which currently is quite difficult to do.
For over decades, Singaporeans are accustomed to seeing plain white post boxes that are easy to ignore and walk past. Not any more! 6 post boxes nation-wide have been splattered, sprayed and 'graffiti-ed' with spray paint.
The parties involved in this recent project are Singpost and a local events agency A Group Of People who were engaged to carry out a marketing campaign centered on the YOG theme, Express Youself. And of course, no publicity stunt is complete without the public.
The local events agency apparently sent 'INKMAN', a shadowy masked figure, to do the spray-painting job. Some said that it was a waste of valuable resources, and that it might spark or encourage vandalism. I beg to differ. Singpost was only being supportive of the YOG, and took into consderation the theme of self-expression. Graffiti is a form of self-expression. This publicity stunt is evident that Singaporeans lack a sense of appreciation towards self-expression. Isn't it ironic then that the international event YOG, which will be held in Singapore, is given that theme?
Furthermore, the aim of Singpost was to make post boxes more relevant to the youths in today's society, and also to garner publicity for itself. I do not quite agree with the author who labelled the project as 'a publicity stunt that backfired'. There is no such thing as bad publicity. There can only be good publicity. News about Singpost's publicity stunt flooded newspapers for weeks. Isn't that good publicity?
Most Singaporeans think that the publicity stunt was a bad idea to begin with. True, there are many other ways Singpost could have garnered attention, and many other ways it could have expressed itself. For example, sending a simple postcard to every household or organising a sports competitition to warm up for the YOG (Singpost can engage a sports organisation to liase with).
Graffiti is indeed art. Graffiti existed since cavemen engraved figures and characters on cave walls. In our society today, graffiti is associated to rebellion and the hip hop culture. People create a work of art on public property to express themselves to the public. if they do not want their work to be seen by others, i'm sure they have sufficient coloured markers and paper at home.
Many artists have pulled publicity stunts to draw attention to a particular issue. Let's take Tang Da Wu for example. In August 1995, the President of Singapore, Ong Teng Cheong visited an exhibition by Singapore artists. Tang wore a black jacket emblazoned on the back with "Don't give money to the arts" in yellow and handed a note to the President that read, "I am an artist. I am important." Although Tang was prevented from speaking to the President by an aide-de-camp, he later told the media he wished to tell the President that artists are important and that public money funded the "wrong kind of art", art that was too commercial and had no taste. Since art is about expressing oneself, sending a message across and bringing light to a particular issue, the publicity stunt pulled by SingPost can be considered as art.
We often hear about how the art scene in Singapore is growing. What better way of doing it than literally bringing art to the people? rather than bringing the people to art in the form of museums and exhibitions. If society itself cannot accept this small artistic gesture, the relationship between art and society in Singapore is precarious.
This incident has revealed that Singaporeans are non-tolerant and conservative. No surprise there. The public rarely reacts positively towards public art gestures. Society either ignores or makes a big deal out of public art. Remember when millions of dollars went into 'renovating' the Orchard Road area? with huge frosted glass every now and then along the stretch of shopping malls? Initially it was criticised for its insignificance, now its just ignored.
Back to the topic, yes, some people believed that the publicity stunt could have sparked off more vandalism. However, this does not mean that we are distrusting of one another. Being Singaporeans, we are naturally concerned about such things and prefer to be safe than sorry.
