Comments on: A Steady Living http://interpretation.scene360.com/popart/15/ From Renaissance to Pop Art. See, feel, and interpret! Wed, 20 Aug 2008 20:35:06 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.2.2 By: Moy http://interpretation.scene360.com/popart/15/#comment-2055 Moy Mon, 21 May 2007 17:43:50 +0000 http://interpretation.scene360.com/popart/15/#comment-2055 El ser humano ridiculiza a la naturaleza, abusando de ella como si tuviera el control, olvidando que su gran fuerza impredecible, terminara por invertir los papeles. <strong>Translation:</strong> A human can ridicule nature by abusing it with power and control. Nature is a massive, unpredictable force that can easily reverse our purpose and roles on Earth. El ser humano ridiculiza a la naturaleza, abusando de ella como si tuviera el control, olvidando que su gran fuerza impredecible, terminara por invertir los papeles.

Translation: A human can ridicule nature by abusing it with power and control. Nature is a massive, unpredictable force that can easily reverse our purpose and roles on Earth.

]]> By: S. Kartsonis http://interpretation.scene360.com/popart/15/#comment-1010 S. Kartsonis Thu, 19 Apr 2007 18:52:13 +0000 http://interpretation.scene360.com/popart/15/#comment-1010 The blue gorilla of our own circus, escapee of the zoo of surreal loneliness. A ringmaster smacks red stars into our backs, the sting a plump asterisk of emotion, and nothing to the weeping wrung from the accordian's plaintive breath. We are primitive in our pain, painted with a child's palette of primary colors, we are primal, we are prime for the last act where three rings spin with burdened beasts: the defeated lions, the kneeling elephants, the joyless motions of a dancing bear. The blue gorilla of our own circus, escapee of the zoo of surreal loneliness. A ringmaster smacks red stars into our backs, the sting a plump asterisk of emotion, and nothing to the weeping wrung from the accordian’s plaintive breath. We are primitive in our pain, painted with a child’s palette of primary colors, we are primal, we are prime for the last act where three rings spin with burdened beasts: the defeated lions, the kneeling elephants, the joyless motions of a dancing bear.

]]> By: Jenny Eng http://interpretation.scene360.com/popart/15/#comment-989 Jenny Eng Thu, 19 Apr 2007 02:52:05 +0000 http://interpretation.scene360.com/popart/15/#comment-989 The clouds in the sky part with the sun peering from behind, just like the ringmaster stands behind the gorilla he whips. This is a painting in layers about control, dominance, and veneers. Each of the four colors in this image--blue, red, yellow, and white--carries with it a different meaning. Blue is the color of sadness, as evidenced by the blue-furred gorilla crying a blue teardrop as he mournfully plays the accordion, its notes flowing out a confusion of all colors. The ringmaster's whip, hat and pants are all blue as well--the means of inflicting "blueness" upon the gorilla. Also, instead of silver lining on the parting clouds, we see blue lining, which indicates that the gorilla has only sadness and oppression in his bleak, hopeless future. Red symbolizes anger, blood, and aggression here. The lashings from the ringmaster's whip cause bloody welts on the gorilla's fur, further accentuated by the crack of the whip (the red-edged starburst around the whip’s tip). This shape mimics the sun, but the similarity only serves to contrast the disparity between the sun (warm, life-giving), and this whip-crack shape (slowly sapping life from the gorilla). Red masks the gorilla's frown in a painted smile; red-ringed nostrils suggest pain with every breath. Finally, the red of the flags bleed in stripes along the circus tents down to a red ground--a makeshift graveyard of rent notes. Yellow should be the color of happiness, but here it's always infected with red except in the instance of the sun. White should be the color of pureness and clarity, but here we see it is instead the color of masking. This painting begs the viewer to look beneath the surface at the underlying costs, motives and messages of the things we are told is entertainment. The clouds in the sky part with the sun peering from behind, just like the ringmaster stands behind the gorilla he whips. This is a painting in layers about control, dominance, and veneers.

Each of the four colors in this image–blue, red, yellow, and white–carries with it a different meaning.

Blue is the color of sadness, as evidenced by the blue-furred gorilla crying a blue teardrop as he mournfully plays the accordion, its notes flowing out a confusion of all colors. The ringmaster’s whip, hat and pants are all blue as well–the means of inflicting “blueness” upon the gorilla. Also, instead of silver lining on the parting clouds, we see blue lining, which indicates that the gorilla has only sadness and oppression in his bleak, hopeless future.

Red symbolizes anger, blood, and aggression here. The lashings from the ringmaster’s whip cause bloody welts on the gorilla’s fur, further accentuated by the crack of the whip (the red-edged starburst around the whip’s tip). This shape mimics the sun, but the similarity only serves to contrast the disparity between the sun (warm, life-giving), and this whip-crack shape (slowly sapping life from the gorilla). Red masks the gorilla’s frown in a painted smile; red-ringed nostrils suggest pain with every breath. Finally, the red of the flags bleed in stripes along the circus tents down to a red ground–a makeshift graveyard of rent notes.

Yellow should be the color of happiness, but here it’s always infected with red except in the instance of the sun. White should be the color of pureness and clarity, but here we see it is instead the color of masking.

This painting begs the viewer to look beneath the surface at the underlying costs, motives and messages of the things we are told is entertainment.

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