Project 2 – Forrest Gump – something fishy

“Land is a ship too big for me, it’s a woman too beautiful, it’s a voyage too long, perfume too strong .” (The legend of 1900, 1998)

Research:

Even though I resonate strongly with the quote, I couldn’t quite figure out what I was feeling strongly about. So I tried to unpack the quote and hoped to find my answer.

These are the things in my notes.

land as a vessel: Spaceship Earth is a world view term usually expressing concern over the use of limited resources available on Earth and encouraging everyone on it to act as a harmonious crew working toward the greater good.
land as an individual: Ocean’s Room, by Ashley Yeo and Monica So-Young Moon. Using an assemblage of objects, the two artists created a space which depicts the characteristics of ocean. It is Ocean’s room when she’s not around.
Ocean’s Room, by Ashley Yeo and Monica So-Young Moon http://singapore.coconuts.co/2016/06/07/pics-ocean-explorations-singapore-art-museums-new-odyssey-exhibition

Ocean’s Room, by Ashley Yeo and Monica So-Young Moon http://dessertingbeauty.blogspot.sg/2016/07/odyssey-navigating-nameless-seas-4-june.html

I like how the artist were able to depict the personification in a subtle manner instead of showing an actual figure of the personified ocean.

land as a plan: too much freedom, no sense of direction
land as atmosphere? spilled perfume, too strong, too much, too overwhelming, everywhere, hard to get rid of.

Working Process:

I started by collecting images relevant to the keywords in the quote, throwing them into the same file and see what I can come up with.

At this point I was still unsure about my concept, but with the deadline pushing closer I churned out some work to show, and the outcome is rather disappointing,

The idea was to make use of the scale and composition to show an overwhelming beauty. But this expression is too explicit for my liking.

the following are the other drafts I did:

(The small dot is actually the moon present in the original picture. )

Using simple icons to mark out the key words: landscape, beauty.

Juxtaposing woman figure and landscape together to draw the relation between land and beauty. The woman in her sleep – a beauty that is unaware of the gaze, that is in rest, too precious to disturb.

Depicting earth as just a small submarine in this big universe.

Using facial expression to bring out the strong emotion, to suggest the strong smell of the perfume. The gas mask on a perfume bottle brings out the irony.

Challenges:

Besides grasping the concept, another difficulty for me was to create seamless composition using different images. To me, for the picture to look surreal, the different component should merge naturally. if the picture is obviously photoshopped, it loses its magic. I had to spend some time working on each composition for the picture to look more natural.

Silk-Screen:

First time doing silk-screen printing! It was a fun exposure (HARHAR) .

From managing the amount of ink to lifting the frame from the fabric, every step requires careful execution that i was unaware of. The process also requires room for trial and error.

After a few working session I finally figure out my concept.

Talk about Contentment.
Evoke new perspective on Land.

The quote i chose is from the movie, The Legend of 1900. It depicts a man, left on a cruise ship when he was just an infant . He was raised by the crew of the ship, and never left the ship . At one point , he was preparing to leave the ship to go after the love of his life and to start a new life, experience everything that he had never seen before. But right before he stepped onto the land, he stopped and turned back to the ship. When his friend asked him why, he said:

“Land is a ship too big for me, it’s a woman too beautiful, it’s a voyage too long, perfume too strong.”

Final images:

Even with a big ship right in front of his eyes, the little boy is content with just playing with his toy boat. There are always choices for us, some are considered to be better, doesn’t mean it’s got to be. Learn to be content with what you have instead of asking for things that you cannot handle.

The most beautiful flower in the garden gets pick first. Marilyn Monroe is used as an icon of victim of celebrity culture and media to suggest how beauty often lead to exploitation, evoking thought about man’s exploitation of land. (perhaps think about how beautiful islands are now so commercialised for tourism? how land offers so much resources and we just keep digging and digging.)

Freedom and choice are overrated sometimes. With too many possibilities in front of us, we often feel lost instead. We are crowned the generation of choices, and yet we are so lost.

“Christ, did you see the streets? There were thousands of them! How do you choose just one? One woman, one house, one piece of land to call your own, one landscape to look at, one way to die.”

Land, supposedly an image of stability and serenity , can become chaotic and destructive(as suggested by the earthquake-meter). Just like spillage of perfume, the pleasant smell might become too overwhelming. And as the label suggested, use with caution.

Presentation:

I want to get the audience closer to the ground. Looking at the work, if your eyes follows the sequence of the quote and image, it leads you to look at the very spot of ground that you are standing on. I want to leave the audience looking at the ground and, after looking through these different metaphors about land, think of their own image of the land.

What is land to you?

Project 2 – Forrest Gump

Land?