themes in contemporary visual culture

the following would be a short essay on 2 themes in contemporary visual culture

Memory and Monument & Social Relations

Memory is defined as the mental capacity or faculty of retaining and reviving facts, events, impressions and other things, or the recalling or recognizing previous experiences. It can be basically said as remembering things from past. Monument is defined as something erected in memory of a person, event. It can be in the form of a building, statue or a pillar. It is usually regarded as of historical or archaeological importance. Mankind has used various methods in trying to capture the past both as individuals and as a whole society in the form of monumentalizing past events through such means of commemorative works of art, photography narrative and rituals. To record the past will allow us to be able to learn important lessons and study our own ancestral histories. We must know about our past to be able to learn lessons from it, to make sure that we will not repeat any past mistakes and improve on ourselves.

Artworks from the past will allow us to know more about the lifestyles of the people living in the past, so that we will be able to make comparisons and see the differences in the ways of living. From the ‘Oath of the Horatii’ by Jacques Louis David from the neo-classical movement to the ‘the painter’s studio: a real allegory’ by realist Gustave Courbet to ‘Luncheon on the grass’ by impressionist Edouard Manet. From ‘La Grande Jatte’ by George Seurat to ‘We hail thee Mary’ by post-impressionist Paul Gaugain to ‘Harmony in red’ by fauvist Henri Matisse to Dadaist artworks such as Marcel Duchamp’s ‘Fountain’ to ‘Full Fathom Five’ by abstract expressionist Jackson Pollock. All these pieces of art are real records of our past, of how our world was like before we existed. They are not only pieces of artworks, like what we deem them to be on the superficial level, but also genuine records of the past. Like the great scientist Albert Einstein once said, “Art is the expression of the profoundest thoughts in the simplest way.”

third class carriage

image source: web museum

For example, ‘third class carriage’ by Honoré Daumier depicts the down-to-earth observations of the people on the third class carriage and clearly showed us the sufferings of the destitute. The people in the painting are quite packed together which probably the artists made use to show that the people in the third class carriage are so poor that even when they are traveling from place to place, they couldn’t have a space of their own. He maybe also trying to convey the social state’s difference in the painting by showing that the poor had to travel on the third-class carriage. This painting shows us how the society was like during Daumier’s times and allow us to examine our pasts, and the social problems which came along with it.

Besides paintings, other mediums of art can also be used. Some examples would include the Washington Monuments and closer to home, the Kranji War Memorial. The latter would help to remind Singaporeans of our painful past and the massive destructions which are caused by wars. This will also serve to remind people of the importance of a peaceful society and how lucky we are to be able to live without the fears of getting killed any moment.

Although some people say that we should not dwell on the past, we cannot deny a fact that it is very important to know our own history. It is through these histories we are able to learn our lessons. To have an example closer to home, we have the oil on canvas painting ‘Sentosa Island’ by local artist See Cheen Tee. In a manner of speaking, changes can occur in a blink of an eye, especially if one were to consider the speed at which changes have taken place in the last 40 odd years in Singapore. Through artwork and text, we are being presented with a perspective of the physical and social changes of the major nation building years just before 1965 to the present.

In short, art has always played an important role in connecting human beings with the past as well as social relations. Human beings are social beings, and we tend to live in groups rather than existing as individuals. The same person can behave very differently under different circumstances, to an extend that is completely opposite. Some may call this hypocrisy, but we always behave different in specific social settings. There is no exact good or bad in this world, but rather to which side one tends to belong more to. The definition of art is an example. Can anyone possibly give a definition of art which will be universally agreed upon? No, people have tried over centuries, but no one can do so. Some view art as perfection, as an imitation of the real world out there while others just view art as an idea, as a way to express one’s thoughts. There are always ambiguities. Thus, it would be rather impossible to define what exactly art is. Different individuals would have different perceptions and almost everything on Earth is measured in a continuous scale rather than distinct scale. Good and bad, beauty and beast, right and wrong are all examples of the dichotomy of the human individuals. Art especially, is something very subjective. Like the old saying goes, ‘one’s food maybe poison to another’. Many of us also tend to have dual personalities, just that different people would have to a different extend how differently they behave under different circumstances. This is related to the studies of contemporary visual cultures. Visual culture is a field of study that generally includes some combination of cultural studies, art history, and anthropology, by focusing on aspects of culture that rely on visual images.

Although memory and social relations may seem like two complete opposite topics, they are actually closely inter-related. With memory comes the existence of the past and comes the social issues of the past as well. Dadaist art works are good examples. ‘Fountain’ by Duchamp for instance, is through one way which the artist tries to mock the serious artistic intention with the chance selection of objects like the urinal. They used their art to mock all the values of what they believe had gone mad. These artists are mainly refugees from World War I, and they cleverly protested against the madness of wars and their disgust with life. With this, it underexposes the social issues at that point of time. People are fighting and killing each other, causing harm to millions of innocents and doing indescribable damages to the world. Through looking at the memories of the past, we will be able to learn more about the societies of our past.

study of visual art

The deepest, most disturbing problem of the modern society is that individuals are losing their own unique characters.

Indeed, in today’s context, with increasing commercialization and prevalence of the mass media, almost everything we use is being produced in bulk. Being constantly bombarded by overwhelming external influences from the Ikea society which we live in, we are finding it hard to maintain our own individuality. Since all commodities are mass-produced, the cost to purchase them has also decreased greatly. Thus, everyone can now owe what once seemed to be a luxury that was only affordable by the well-off upper class. People also begin to spend their money on things that they want, rather than only those that they need. As a result of the mass production, modern men begin to have the same possessions and life has become a boring daily routine for the majority. This can be seen the symbolic artwork “100 cans” by Andy Warhol. As its name suggests, it is a depiction of 100 beef noodle soup cans, which are exactly of the same shape, design and size. The same-ness in the print signifies the repetitions in the life of a modern man, highlighting the problems of the American Dream. I quote from the text ‘The Metropolis and Mental Life’ by George Simmel – “the functional specialization of man and his work makes one individual incomparable to another”. Undeniably, the uniqueness of an individual in the society has been lost and everything seems to be just repeated in patterns.

This point can be further emphasized by “I love you with my Ford” done by James Rosenquist. This piece of artwork is rather “tongue in cheek”, as normally we would love someone with our heart and not with our possessions. Love is supposed to be something abstract, something which cannot be measured in quantities. This depiction shows that to be able to owe a Ford has become so common that it is like having a heart, which is the most basic component of life. Everyone can afford to buy commodities that people have already lost their distinctiveness from the rest. We can also see it in “Flag” by Jasper Johns through his use of found materials like newspaper and cardboard. We all know that we have to respect one’s nation by respecting the national flag, but what about flags which are made of disposable materials? Do we still have to show our respect? From afar, the artwork looks no difference from just any ordinary flag. However, upon taking a closer look, we will be able to see the range of materials used in the making – such as encaustic, collage and found materials. This is a representation of the socio-cultural problem in the post-industrial age. Though the society may seem to be a homogenous one in terms of characters, there are people who are struggling to keep their individuality underneath.

Moreover, there are other problems which come along with the evolution of the idea of “modern life”. There is also a lack of face-to-face, intimate communications between the individuals and among the groups. The improvement in the technologies have helped to bring people of distances closer to each other by enabling them faster and more convenient forms of communication. At the same time however, ironically, this also caused them to distant apart as people are having less and less face-to-face communications and they tend to take interactions to be granted. Though we are satisfied materialistically, there is a sense of spiritual emptiness. We can see this problem in all three artworks by the fact that none of them was actually signed off by the artists. They must have wanted to remain “anonymous”, not wanting to let the viewers know their identity, isolating themselves from the rest of the world. As quoted from the text, “Through this anonymity the interests of each party acquire an unmerciful matter of factness; and the intellectually calculating economic egoism of both parties need not fear any deflection because of the imponderables of personal relationships.” Modern society, in this sense, causes men to lose their soul, providing them with material euphoria but simultaneously, depriving them of socialism and leaving them in existentialist solitude.

As a response to the post-industrial age, people also begin to have desires for the sumptuousness in life, with the belief that the capitalist mode of production and economy is based on the political ideals of meritocracy. Te painting, “I love you with my Ford” for example, makes us critically question how we take in and process perceptions in an image world. It makes us wonder about the montage of the American values, of automobile, sex and fast food.

To sum up, with industrialisation come along problems such as the preserving the autonomy of the existence of an individual, lack of face-to-face communications between parties and the desires for luxuries in life. All these problems are either shown, clearly or brought out subtly in the three pop-art artworks.

flowers and twining plants

medium:ink on paper

Here is what I have done as part of the sketch book for coursework! Just some observational drawings done on the plants around my house. Both are twining plants, nature’s beautiful (: