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the lamb was sure to go

For the English nursery rhyme, i decided to settle on Mary had a little lamb, focusing on the lines “everywhere that Mary went, the lamb was sure to go”. I chose this because the thought was hilarious in a ridiculous way. So i wanted to bring that kind of ridiculousness out in my visual.

I started off by bringing forward the image of the sun compass from my previous halftone idea because the compass symbolises direction and the sun shows that its…sunny. Then I read the rhyme and thought oh ya…the setting of the rhyme is in a school. So i decided to put two teacher figures at the sides because i thought it would be hilarious to set a contrast between the lamb and the figure of authority.

To further express the sense of ridiculousness I decided to put in a few of the seven wonders of the world to exaggerate “everywhere that Mary went” which I thought was really funny. Then to add to that ridiculousness, I enlarged the head of the lamb because I remember how from the previous assignment, I found that enlarging spontaneous images can make things look more nonsensical and i thought…lol, this is pretty retarded…which is good!

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Hannah Hoch

Hannah Höch. German, 1889-1978 Cut with the Kitchen Knife through the Last Weimar Beer-Belly Cultural Epoch in Germany (Schnitt mit dem Küchenmesser durch die letzte Weimarer Bierbauchkulturepoche Deutschlands). 1919-1920 Photomontage and collage with watercolor, 44 7/8 x 35 7/16” (114 x 90 cm) Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Nationalgalerie © 2006 Bildarchiv Preussischer Kulturbesitz, Berlin, © 2006 Hannah Höch / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn, photo: Jörg P. Anders, Berlin

Hannah Höch. German, 1889-1978
Cut with the Kitchen Knife through the Last Weimar Beer-Belly Cultural Epoch in Germany (Schnitt mit dem Küchenmesser durch die letzte Weimarer Bierbauchkulturepoche Deutschlands). 1919-1920
Photomontage and collage with watercolor, 44 7/8 x 35 7/16” (114 x 90 cm)

There is a lot of content on this piece by Hannah Hoch but in my opinion, it is basically a representation or even an expression/statement of political issues. I think the impact of this work to me is how she has arranged her photos into a montage; the content that each photo represents is not simply put together at random, but each photo reacts to another in the way she wants it to.

 

 

Kleine Sonne (Little Sun), 1969

Kleine Sonne (Little Sun), 1969

I find this one interesting because it plays wish what I recognize forms to be. Its an image of a sun that has been changed because of additional facial features. It changes what I know the images to be.

Da-Dandy, 1919

This collage makes my eyes move around the space. I think the queer placement of the images make me think what the composition is about.

Seeing how this image affects the way I look at it, I realize how interesting it can be to put “separate” images together. They don’t have to directly interact with each other in a single image. Just by placing them side by side or up and down or in whatever way, my mind chooses to make the connection between the images. Its an effect I’d definitely consider for my own rhyme composition for the second 2D assignment.

Dadaism

Fountain

Rotative Demisphère (Optiques de précision) (Rotary Demisphere [Precision Optics]), 1924

Rotative Demisphère (Optiques de précision) (Rotary Demisphere [Precision Optics]), 1924

Both of these pieces are done by one of the founders of Dadaism, Marcel Duchamp.

I personally do not like Dadaism, at least when it first started off. It might be too avant-garde for me in the way the messages make almost no sense to public and in the way that its definitely not comfortable visually or conceptually. I do understand that this form of “anti-art” art arrived due to the first world war so many political and social issues would arrive from that and messages can be quite aggressive. The whole chaos in the early stages of dadaism is too formless for me to take on as a basis of my art.

But I would still take something away from Dadaism. One thing that intrigued me was the use of ready-mades as how Marcel Duchamp has; how ready-mades are used to create a function to an art piece to convey a message. For example, Duchamp’s Fountain. The message may not have been stated but the take away from historians and viewers is that his message was one that insulted the concept of art in that current time, that art is something you piss on.

If I could use an image in my second assignment that holds a meaning that connects with my story, it may be visually out of place but it could hold a stronger meaning or message that punches through.

 

 

My Rhyme

I hope you can read the song from the image!!

The song is from the book, The Lord of The Rings The Two Towers

It is about the story of the Ents and the Entwives. In the movie, it is mentioned by Treebeard (if you don’t know who that is its the Ent of the above image) that the Ents simply “lost them” meaning the Ents simply lost the Entwives. In the book it is explained that once, long ago, the Ents and Entwives were together. However, they preferred to live in different areas of nature: the Ents preferred the woods of the mountains and the Entwives preferred the gardens away from the mountains.
In the first age of Middle Earth, Sauron burned and destroyed the land of which the Entwives dwelled at. Upon crossing the land of Anduin to visit the Entwives, the Ents found a desert in place of the gardens and the Entwives were lost. So they searched for them for many years. The searching of the Ents inspired the Elves to write a song that was translated into common tongue.

 

Just had to give the rough content of the story so that everyone can appreciate it better. Hope people would enjoy reading this song.

Anyway apart from sharing the Rhyme, I wish to be able to capture or reproduce that sense of wonder and fascination from the song in this project. I am more inclined on having a more story telling composition with more content but I am still open to more abstract representations on my take of this rhyme. But whatever it is, it would have to have the tragedy and romance of the story, and/or the fascination and wonder of the story telling.

 

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A paper being comes into creation. This is the beginning of his journey into a new world.

 

A paper man comes alive and realises he is alone in this new world. However he finds a pen which is a means of creating another paper being.

He tries to click open the pen but fails in all of his attempts. While attempting to open it for the last time the pen slips off his hands and falls off the table. He jumps for the pen.

He falls with the pen and blacks out on the floor.

Miraculously he wakes up finding that the pen has somehow clicked open after falling from the table.

He draws another being, ending this chapter of his journey in this new world.

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TASK ONE: ME

Hello everyone! This is me. For my first task i did a story-like sequence of photos containing visuals and symbols that represent my idealistic values in disagreement with the realities that are part and parcel of society.

In my first photo I am completely bare-bodied facing the sea. This represents my surrender to nature. Surrender in a spiritual sense that has become a physical exposure in the image. Yet I am facing the sea, which gives a sense of connection to nature and at the same time, distance to the viewer.

 

Here in the second image of task one, I am carrying a bag of plants. Literally, carrying nature on my back while in the midst of people moving to and fro, following signboards and directions. The plants on my back symbolically  represent the belief of nature ideals i try to hold on to while being a part of society in its busyness (busyness represented by signboards and directions and people).

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In the last shot of the first task, I leave the plants on the beach as I walk away into a distance. This represents my need to leave my own ideal values behind at times. Leaving nature where nature is and walking away from it into reality. This image is also captured in the ending afternoon where the sun also acts as a symbol of nature.

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TASK TWO: MY OBJECT

In my second task, i wanted to choose an object that i frequently interact with. My piano is a personal object that i can easily interact with at a deeper emotional kind of level.

In the first shot of this task, i wanted to introduce the piano as the object. I took the inside of the piano because i wanted to show the softness and nakedness of the piano contained in its hard exterior. Here you can see that multiple piano keys have been played causing these few hammers to move forward. I hoped that the awareness of the moving mechanisms inside the piano would further enhance the value of intimacy when one plays on it. Being aware of how the sound travels in the piano connects you better with the instrument. It is like the passing of energy into the object. (Another similar example could be driving a manual car as compared to an auto car)

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In the second image, I did not want to interact with the piano in a conventional way. I wanted to make the interaction almost surrealistic to show how interaction with the object brings me out of reality. The bright background  brought out in the hope of creating a dreamlike space in which the image is set. I was trying to pose my hand in a way where it looks like a person is walking on the keys, hence the image did not capture my wrist to make it look less like a hand and more like a person, further adding to the surrealistic intention as its not usual.

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Contrasting to the second image, my third image of the second task was shot capturing the movement of my arms. I wanted to show that while I may be gentle with my piano, I may also be more aggressive in expression. That my piano may take my more aggressive rants.

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TASK THREE: MY WORLD

For the third task, Haji Lane was a personal place of mine. The things in this place that intrigue me may be its culture, or people, or its activities, or its lights. However, what brings me back again and again is the night here, which seems to drown me in its atmosphere.

The first shot, very much like the first two tasks, is the intro. The introduction to the night in Haji area. In the first picture you see the mosque which many people associate as a landmark of Haji area. The picture sets as an introduction to the night as the sun is no longer visible at dusk. The alley lies below the mosque in welcome of those who wish to go in.

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In this image, I took a shot of an intricate looking lamp, followed by other lamps along the sides of the passageway, leading the crowd into the night of Haji. The light itself is intricate full of patterns that represent the culture influence there that intrigues me. The colour of the image, like the first shot, is quite saturated in blue. I wanted the colours to be more saturated as I wanted to express that drowning atmosphere there.

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In the third shot, a man is simply placing a drink on the table of a customer. The image again is saturated with heavy lights giving the effect of a drowning atmosphere. The image captures a simple thing happening. But at this instance of time, I am at my table looking across and time seems to stand still like how this photograph stays still; in my mind at that instant the tray of drinks is suspended in the air; the people seem to come to a stand still as the atmosphere of the night there is weighted on me. It was a moment i wanted to capture on camera and I hope the shot has given some of that effect here.

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Aside from the assignment, this place holds many great memories for me. The people are different here somehow. We could talk into the night and pass the night over drinks and smoke. Also, there is a culture here that I like which sadly, will end. Its one of those places you’d one day only remember and never again experience.