What compelled you to make this image? Why did you choose the particular inanimate object?
What compelled me to make this image was based on a news article that I read a year ago on Singaporean overworking beyond the maximum work hour imposed by our government. This triggered me as I could relate as a student who was overwhelmed with school load. To make matter worst, we need to juggle our social life with work at high opportunity costs too. If every single one of us are overloaded with tasks, wouldn’t we end up spending more time to think of completing them? Secondly, If we die, wouldn’t we have many unfulfilled thoughts and tasks? Hence, the message that I want to bring across is that many people in this world has too much thoughts and tasks in their mind and when they die, many of the thoughts are still incomplete hence they are represented by the incompleted Jigsaw puzzles.
The incomplete jigsaw puzzle is a very effective tool to depict the message of incomplete thoughts and tasks of human being as they both can form an exclusive mutual relationship to let audiences understand the content instead of the initial sign that audience may think the deceased died from objects dropping from the head.
The puzzles used are world map puzzle as I felt that completing all the tasks at once is like conquering the world, which signifies to me that it is impossible to conquer the world at once. I felt that completing all the tasks at once is like conquering the world with each task representing a country piece to be complete, it boils down to signifying that it is impossible to conquer the world at once.
The used of coffin symbolises the effect of death directly without any words or symbols like blood. I personally felt that it is the best sign to capture the attention of the audiences and set the atmosphere of death as there are no living soul in the picture instead of the initial sign that audience might think it is set in a funeral parlour with the deceased’s families, love ones and friends.
The used of Doraemon doll lies in the size of it’s head, the large head to small body ration symbolise the effect of overthinking in many people, the doll was purposely selected to exaggerate the idea of how overthinking will caused our head to grow too big and burst with too many thoughts beyond our capacity. Secondly, as it was once a living robot cat with human intelligence and emotions with the capability to store interactive memories, but when it dies, all memories are stored within it’s head forever, audiences can relate to the incomplete tasks and thoughts that the deceased will bring with them to death that no one will find out. Instead of the initial sign that audience may think it represents a random deceased subject as it body composition resembles a human.
Recognize and explain the various elements in your work (Subject, Form, Context, Content)
Subject – The subject is the jigsaw puzzle. The incomplete jigsaw puzzles are best used to represent and portray the idea of incomplete thoughts and unfulfilled tasks, with them being arranged untidily, it relates to the thoughts of human mind, with too many thoughts at once, it is very difficult to keep them organize in sequence as we have to be constantly occupied with different tasks as once.
Form – The mediums used in the picture are pine wood for the coffin, compressed paper for jigsaw puzzles and cotton for the Doraemon doll. The art piece is represented as a single photography picture under media.
For the execution of craft, the picture is taken at a closed-up angle of part of the coffin to allow the focus to be set on the spilled contents out of the doll’s head as I do not want to take the whole portrait of the coffin as the jigsaw puzzles will not be obvious. Secondly, the photo is taken at the direction of the light source to divert the audience’s attention directly to the puzzles first before they look at the doll’s head and coffin.
The composition of the signifier jigsaw puzzles pieces is arranged untidily to symbolise the content of a brain bursting out of a head. The lid of the coffin is purposely covered till the face of the doll as I want to ensure that the main focus is on the slit on the head to dramatize the effect of bursting. Secondly, the light source is focus directly onto the puzzles and doll’s head to make it prominent amidst of other objects and in the dark background.
Context – The picture is set in dark room which resembles a mortuary, the idea of setting the picture in a dark environment is to further enhance the atmospheric setting of death, it also works in a secondary factor that with a dark background and the light shining directly at the coffin, audience’s focus will be drawn onto the subject which are the incomplete jigsaw puzzle pieces. The intend of this work is to be produced as a Fine Art and I would like it to be represented in Newspaper as it can holds and triggers many discussions from readers of all age.
Content – People in this world has too many thoughts and tasks in their mind that were left incomplete when they die which they would bring with to death.
What are the semiotics of your image? The signifier and the signified?
The semiotics of my image are the Jigsaw puzzle, Coffin and Doraemon doll. The main semiotic are the Jigsaw puzzles and the secondary being Coffin and Doraemon.
The Jigsaw puzzles’s messy scattering signifies symbol of incompletion of tasks and thoughts that the deceases have in their mind when they die.
The Coffin’s confine square corners signifies the symbol of trapped tasks and thoughts that will be kept and lost with the deceases as they die without anyone being able to know are what.
The Doraemon’s big round head signifies the symbol of overthinking with too many thoughts and tasks being build up in the mind of the deceases over the years.