The aim of this lecture is to study a wide contextual range of image making process and artists who creatively uses different styles which can be applied to the design development of our ideas so that our artwork reflects the power of visual communication.
Spiritual superiority
Our ancestors used paintings as a medium to connect with the Gods, which makes their painting magical and possess shamanic power to be feared. Shamans also did some mark making activities while unconscious as if they are possessed by spirits from another realms. Such rituals are still apparent in modern paintings despite the ongoing cultural appropriation.
Rothko is one of the artists who applies shamanic power into his artworks as they are capable to influence people to be emotional. For instance, visitors cried as they view Rothko's artworks at the Rothko Chapel opened in 1971. The backstory of his artwork is reflected on the artwork itself, showing a great power of visual communication. His artworks evolves from a rather flat and monochrome paintings to more and more black and painted with wax towards the end of his life, so that any light cannot be reflected. It is a statement of his exasperation to life which implies how will he end his life by committing suicide.
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| People at the Rothko Chapel, Texas |
Another use of image to show spiritual superiority is seen at Basilica of San Francesco d'Assisi which is visited by people from different parts of the world on their pilgrimage to seek higher religious state. The walls of this basilica are painted with religious paintings which signifies the sacredness of the place.
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| Interior of Basilica of San Francesco d'Assisi |
Mona Lisa is a really famous painting by Leonardo Da Vinci which has a mysterious power of visual communication because there are no theories to explain its fame. It tells us what avant garde art is all about; bogus religiosity. We should not embrace bogus religiosity, instead, we have to be suspicious about it.
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| Mona Lisa at The Louvre, Paris |
Art, especially images, has high degree of influence and persuasive power
1. Mona Lisa
Many people took pictures of Mona Lisa at the Louvre in Paris shows evidence that human's cultural anxiety keeps the avant garde art business alive. However, what will happen if people can reproduce images of original artworks?
The control of Mona Lisa, which is previously at the hand of the elite, is now in the hand of everyone. It means that people can domesticate the painting by making prints and merchandise of it. Many artists use this opportunity to tweak the painting and change its meaning. Marcel Duchamp created L.H.O.O.Q in 1919, inspired by Dadaism, he ridiculed Mona Lisa by drawing on a Mona Lisa postcard by adding mustache and goatee on her face and writing L.H.O.O.Q which translates to 'Hot Ass' in French if pronounced quickly. He uses Mona Lisa as a statement to attack the social elitist. It continues as Banksy, a British graffiti artist, created Mona Lisa Mujahideen in 2013, on a brick wall in London. He did this to challenge the elitist purpose of traditional art by taking avant garde art out of the exclusive context to represent the view of the black underclass. Ironically, most of his works are drilled out from the walls and sold in high prices in galleries which defeats his original purpose of creating the artworks.
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| Marcel Duchamp (1919) L.H.O.O.Q |
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| Banksy (2013) Mona Lisa Mujahideen |
2. Cultural imperialism: Does the West enforce ideas to the East?
However, there are some countries which are trying to deter the cultural imperialism of the West. Most of them are the communists such as Soviet Union. The repressed mind of the Soviet Union, led by Stalin, cuts bound on visual communication to just avant garde painting of propaganda posters to establish his superiority as a leader. It is also known as socialist realism, and characterised by the red flag or colour which is adopted during the Russian revolution to signify martyrs to revolution.
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| Roses for Stalin (1949) Vladimirski |
Image-making immortalises cultural icon
In 1960, Alberto Korda took a photograph of Che Guevara, a Marxist revolutionary, titled Guerrillero Heroico to preserve history of the struggle against the Western Imperialism. He has become a cultural icon that symbolises revolution. However, these photos of Che Guevara has become so commonly used in the present that it loses its value.
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| Alberto Korda (1960) Guerrillero Heroico |
An artist can have the different approach to create similar artworks. Shepard Fairey created a commission for Barrack Obama's election campaign, and he produced similar artwork after a few years with the same template but change Barrack Obama into a person wearing Guy Fawkes mask. The Hope poster has become iconic to Barrack Obama, therefore Fairey uses this to raise his political support on faceless anarchy.
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| Shepard Fairey (2008) HOPE |
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| Shepard Fairey (2011) HOPE |
The newspaper is also a platform for artists to express their views on political issues. They draw political cartoons in response of those issues to fight against the 'fake' publicity campaign and cultural bombardment by the media.
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| Steve Bell (2015) on David Cameron |
Image making have the capacity to change the course of history and to indoctrinate culture
Prints and billboards contains messages which holds power to enforce ideologies on people. For example, L'Atelier Populaire protests against the exclusivity of education post World War, and influences people to think that education only grooms people for a job. This results on the occupy university strikes by students to reoccupy and to fuel revolution by displaying and circulate prints and flyers at the print studio of an art university in Paris.
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| (1968) L'Atelier Populaire |
Images are nothing without context
Ut took a picture of a kids running away from the Napalm bombing sites which is published in an American newspaper in 1972. This picture helped end the Vietnam War despite the speculations made by the publishers before they published it. Without context, it will raise controversy due to nudity. The context empowers images so that it influences people to voice out their opinion and solve political issues.
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| The Terror of War (1972) Nick Ut |
Visual lie has become perceived truth
1. Art can manipulate and remake history
The 1821 is actually a period of massive unrest where peasants are rioting because the government expropriated farms and lands. However, The Haywain portrays a peaceful countryside in Great Britain which conceals the truth of the ongoing havoc during the time when it is painted. This painting set an image of what we perceive as 'English-ness' greenery and pleasant land which is actually fictional. The painting is actually commissioned, so it is drawn based on the request of the client.
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| John Constable (1821) The Haywain |
2. Self-aggrandising
Another famous commission painting is Mr and Mrs Smith which heavily influences the portrayal of aristocrats in the TV Series Downton Abbey. This painting does not just moves us in an aesthetic way, but also shows wealth and power of the people who requested the painting. Paintings are certainly about aesthetics, but they establish superiority of certain group of people too.
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| Thomas Gainsborough (1750) Mr and Mrs Andrew |
3. Editorial Pictures
Advertisements tend to display perfect life, and suggests that our lives are incomplete if we do not use their products. It ignites our desire to consume as the advertisement promises that we can do better by buying their products.
Another technique used to promote certain brands is to sensationalise their advertisement. For instance, Dolce and Gabbana uses a professionally composed photograph of gang rapes to promote high fashion which raises controversy revolving around the objectification of woman and patriarchal structure, therefore making it effective to draw people's attention to their campaign.
However, people mistook genuine campaigns as notorious because they often misread as sensationalism. The United Colours of Benetton editorial pictures by Oliviero Toscani is an example of such misconception. It is meant to raise awareness of the public by giving an honest view of the unpleasant things that are happening in the world but many mistook it as a cynical exploitation of tragedy to promote the brand.
Image making is all about life, death and frailty of existence
Images are used to immortalise the tragedy of an individual to the tragedy of humanity. The last moment of David Kirby, an AIDS patient, is captured and publicised to represent the sufferings of all the AIDS patients on Earth.
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| Death of David Kirby |
Victorians took photos of the dead, believing that the ones captured cheated death as they are immortalised as images and they will live forever more. This give rises to an idea that a dynamic of life captured as an image is death. Roland See Barthes wrote a book titled Camera Lucida which explores this idea of pictures and death.
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| A Victorian Post Mortem Photograph |
Robert Haeberle took a picture at an instant before the innocent villagers in the photograph were shot dead by the US militants. It suggests us the frailty of life as many innocent lives are killed during the war. Moreover, it also tells the audience about the choice made by Haeberle to let the militants take the innocent lives to do greater good for humanity. He uses this photo as a form of activism to deliver the message across wide range of audience, so that the war can be stopped.
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| My Lai Massacre (1969) Robert Haeberle |
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