EXAMPLE ANSWERS SOVA 2011
1 a) Describe the theme of the installation.
The theme of the installation Buffaloes from the Field to the Town is farming in South East Asia. This installation is an abstract buffalo form constructed from various objects and matter that are common to the farming process, such as wood in the stools, woven rice bags, long dried straws and a buffalo horn. That the water buffalo is instrumental in the process of turning these items from raw materials into the industrialized version seen here may also be reflected. The buffalo pulls the plough that the farmer needs to plant the seeds, pulls the wagon that the farmer needs to carry the raw materials into the town. Furthermore, the buffalo’s horn is sticking out of bag, representing the sheer physical sacrifice that the buffalo must make. The theme could also further reflect on the industrialization of farming as all the materials in the installation have been processed from raw materials into the objects for sale; stools, bags of rice, woven straw plaits and of course, exotic horns sold to foreign tourists. That farming is a hard life and farmers are generally uneducated and live a simple life is also reflected in this installation. The stools that are placed beside each other, could easily be found in farmers hut, serving as seating implements. They are unrefined, coarse and roughly shod. The rice is unhusked and packed in unbleached rough sacks. The whole composition suggests a rough, simple, poor way of life. The only words are faded on the sacks. There is no hint of higher education and or of lofty ideals; no hint of music, or t.v. or sophisticated past-times. If one came upon this installation alone in a room, one would assume that this is all the furniture and implements the poor farmer could acquire and this is all that exists to reflect of his life of tool and hardship.
1 b) Discuss how the artist has used the materials.
The artist has chosen to use rough coarse materials such as unhusked rice, straw, sacks, and wooden stools. It is interesting to note that all the materials are of the same brownish earthy tone, suggestive of close relationship farming as with the earth. Each material also is comprised of a different coarse texture, from the spiky straw sticking out from its woven form, to the rough woven sacs stuffed full with unhusked rice and roughly sewn with thick brown string, to the unsanded roughly cut boards of wood in the stool, to finally the graded tiles of the buffalo horn. The materials are not covered in any paint, or glaze and nothing is added to them to change or alter their appearance from their pure natural form. They are arranged in a way to represent the shape of a buffalo, with the two stools balanced beside each other on a slant receding back, as if the buffalo is facing away from us, possibly heading down to the river for a drink. The full rice sacs are balanced horizontally on top of the stools suggesting a feeling of weight and sturdiness, akin to the large form of the water buffalo. Each bag as a long faded line clearly placed in the middle of each stool as if providing an implied line leading up our eye down to the stools and up to the horn. The gathered straw creates a spiral shape in the front of the left bag, suggesting the buffalo’s tail, flicking its backside trying to dislodge the family of flies that forever torture it. The horn is placed sticking out of the right bag curving over the composition, leading our eyes back into the sculpture and creating an interesting implied figure eight with the straw spiral.
1 c) Do you think this installation can carry a message to the public more effectively than any other forms?
This installation is interesting, but only after much thought and understanding of the issues. I do not think it is the most effective form of communication for this message. At first glance, I thought this installation simple and irrelevant, and had I been in an art gallery and not forced to study it for my O Level exam, I would have walked past and not inquired further. Its drab colour choice and simplistic design would not have peeked my interest and I do not, like most of the general public, ‘get’ abstract art, especially installations. I think a series of heart-wrenching photographs or a graphic video installation of the bloody slaughter of a water buffalo would carry the message much more effectively. However, one also must keep in mind that I am a product of my generation, this being 2012, and this sculpture was created in 1988 when yellow walk-mans were still popular and rap music was just invented. So perhaps people had more patience with rice sacs and straw weaves back then.
Yes, the artist did put a lot of time and energy into his work and his message of the hard ships we as humans in our mindless industrial commercial march inflict on our poorer brothers on un-industrialized countries, on our environment and on the poor service animals we force to serve us till we work them to death is very deep. So deep, actually that this medium makes it cliché. In order to portray a water buffalo and the hardship of farming, I must display an abstract water buffalo made out of raw implements? Come on, so 1980. However, how much more effective would this message be, if the water buffalo was actually made to look realistic with tiny grains of rice piled on top of each other? Or created out of a planting of real seeds, formed and moulded for years like a bonsai tree to finally resemble a living water buffalo. Or piles of horns of dead water buffalos stocked up in a random pile as if just dumped off a truck with an industrialized bright piercing light shone on the precarious pile to create a reflection, with the reflection creating an image of a live water buffalo.
2 a) Describe the composition of the painting
Lucia Hartini’s Spy Lens shows a beautiful woman sleeping wrapped in a dark blue cloth which floats away from her into the background. It looks like she is sleeping comfortable curled up in bed, but in fact she is floating in the foreground with nothing but empty space below her. She is framed on both sides by red brick walls, that are slightly aged showing their wear with long cracks. The walls recede backwards in a parallel zig zag line diminishing as they recede in 1 pt perpective. The blue cloth that folds itself around the woman and floats back, meets another cloth of the same colour at the back. The other cloth snakes its way up and over the brick walls on the left side of the composition . Placed on top of the brick wall creating an implied triangle are three eyeball like cameras that shoot out laser like beams in blue, yellow and pink hues aiming at the woman’s sleeping head. Behind the woman’s head coming out of the brick wall is a flow of white smoke which snakes itself back into the background between the walls and flowing out over the walls creating a purple pink cloudy haze in the distance.
2 b) Comment on the artists’s use of colour and tone
Lucia Hartini uses a realistic style and so uses a wide range of colours to create highlights and shades and tones within the composition, in particular when creating the skin tone, the blue wave material and the brick wall, however the artist focused on the two contrasting colours of red and blue with a dark blue/black for the sky. The dark earthy tone of the red bricks suggests an idea of earth and provides stability to the painting. The bricks represent the traditional red bricks used in house building. This also provides the viewer a link to the past and to memories of old houses and buildings of the past. The blue within the material is bright and clear and rendered with realistic shades and tones creating the creases and folds of the materials that would happen as the material drapes over the walls and floats in the sky. It suggests the idea of rolling ocean waves to the viewer and gives the impression that they and the breeze that supports them are lulling the woman to sleep, keeping her afloat and giving her peaceful slumber. This blue also suggests ideas of intuition and magic to the viewer. The white of the smoke and cloudy atmosphere created by it as it flows over the brick walls in the distance further creates an aura of mystery and mystique to the composition, especially as it contrasts with the dark black nothingness of the sky beyond.
An interesting note added by the artist is the colour shooting out from the eyes. At first glance I thought it was the primary colours, but upon further study, it looks more like the new printing colours of cyan, fuchsia and yellow which could suggest that the lasers of the eyes could be creating the woman into reality, such as a printer creates a colourful realistic photographic image from a plain piece of white paper.
2 c) How does this work show influences from both Surrealism and Realism?
Surrealism means hyper realism, suggesting something more than what is realistic. It is commonly thought to be present works that are created within the imagination with a basis in reality. Salvador Dali is probably the most well known surrealist artist. Dali himself creates compositions of surreal landscapes and ideas in a realistic style. Realism then is something that is depicted as real. Since the invention of Photography, the goal of realism in painting diminished. Great masters such as Leonardo Da Vinci spent their life’s work in search of the perfect realist painting. So in reference to Lucia Hartini’s painting, it is more reminiscent of Dali, then of Da Vinci, as she represents surreal ideas within a realist style. She renders her brick wall, blue material and sleeping lady with almost photographic realism. But she creates a surreal composition of small computerized eyes creating a holographic image of a sleeping floating lady wrapped up in floating blue material framed in a labyrinth maze – like path of red bricks leading to nowhere.
3 a) Compare the composition and subject matter of these paintings
Both Indian Women and Workers in a Canteen are both oil paintings however, they are rendered quite differently. In Indian Women two women are in the centre of the painting, taking up most of the space. There is another woman in the background against a relatively plain wall. The women are dressed in traditional colourful Indian sari’s and standing in a relaxed counterpose as if chatting with each other. The composition is painted in bright primary-bright colours with strong black outlines which create a more emotional, sketchy feel. In Workers in a Canteen the composition portrays a large crowd of men in a canteen all sat down in rows of tables to eat rendered in a realistic perspective. All the men are clothed in similar drab brown or grey clothing with white hats which suggest a worker’s uniform. Most of the men are seated with their shoulders hunched, holding bowls and chopsticks in hand quickly shovelling their lunch into their mouths. Other men are standing up in jovial poses leaning over the crowd as if they are laughing or shouting out to friends. There is much noise and chaos that permeates the atmosphere.
3 b) How have the artists used colour, tone and brushwork?
In Indian Women, the artist has created a rather simple composition of 3 women. The colours used are bright and pure in hue, mixed not on the palette but on the canvas creating strokes and patches of various colours. The two figures in the forefront are dressed in saris, one in yellow with polka dots and one in white. The figures are outlined with strong black lines that create a sketchy expressionist type of feel. The folds and the creases in the sari are further delineated with some shading and thinner black lines. Brushwork is thick and passionate, reminiscent of the style of Van Gogh. The polka dots on the yellow sari give a good example of the brushwork as the dots are not clearly drawn or rendered in 3D but quickly dotted on creating random rectangular dots that suggest at the design.
Workers in a Canteen is rendered in a clear realistic portrait style. Brushstrokes themselves are not clear to the eye as the artist probably used a layering and glazing technique reminiscent of the great masters to great such strong realism. The colours are muted with light browns and greys with realistic shadows and highlights. A good example of the skill of the artist’s shading and tonal work can be seen on the left side of the painting on the back of the seated man’s back. He is slightly leaning over and the folds in his jacket are strongly defined creating a simulated texture that clearly suggests the cotton cloth the jacket is made of. The bowl on the table is rendered to simulate porcelain with a traditional Chinese pattern painted on the outside and wooden chopsticks are stuck in the rice inside.
3 c) What does each work suggest about relationships between the people who are depicted?
It is interesting to notice that although both paintings consist solely of figures, Indian Women consist solely of women and Workers in a Canteen is completely comprised of men. In Indian Women, two figures are in the forefront, wearing brightly coloured clothes and standing together in a seemingly relaxed stand, one facing the other and one almost looking out at the viewer, as if they are chatting about every day activities and inviting the viewer to join the conversation. The figures are depicted without faces, as if the identity of the figure is not important. It is the activity and the pose of the women that is the focus. The seated woman behind is leaning against the wall, but none of the women are engaged in any noticeable activity. In Workers in a Canteen, there is an uncountable amount of men wearing drab muted colours, seated together in a hunched group, rushing to eat their lunch. The atmosphere is one of hectic chaos. The men’s figures are all rendered in complete realism with all their faces rendered in such detail that they would be easily recognizable, however all of the men heads are bowed and none are looking out at the viewer. If we are to compare both works, can it be suggested that women’s identity is not important and their work is neither stressful nor taxing, giving them much time to wear brightly coloured clothes and stand around chatting together. However, men’s identity is important and their work is so important and stressful that they must rush so fast as if not even have time to eat, to get back to work in their official monochromatic uniforms.
4 a) Compare the treatment of the human form in both of these sculptures.
Both sculptures focus on the figure in though, but both render them differently. The Thinker is rendered with a strong realism, Rodin creating a very muscular naked man seated on a rock-like form that rests his head on his hand and creases his brows as if he is in deep thought. The sculpture is created in life-like proportions and meant to portray the ‘perfect’ male form. Meditating is created as an abstract form with two large balls, that are flat on the bottom with one arm (half arm only from the elbow) reaching up and grabbing a rounded head with minimal face details and a long extension behind (perhaps hair?), fingers entwined with another arm stretching out into space (again a half arm only to the elbow). The forms are textured with dents and bumps that give a strange scaly effect to the forms. The long extension behind the head also seems to suggest a scaled tail reminiscent of a dragon or lizard. It seems as in The Thinker, the man takes thinking very seriously and spends a lot of time to reflect. That the statue is life size it gives a sense of weight and seriousness to the act of thinking. Meditating however suggests that thought may be stressful or difficult, as the man is grabbing his head in pain, as if his thoughts are too much or too overwhelming for him to handle, his body as literally blown away.
4 b) Discuss the artists’ choice and use of materials
Both artists chose to use Bronze as a medium. Bronze is a strong metal that does not fade, crack or wear away as quickly as marble or cement (etc) so it is a practical choice for sculptures. Both artists also chose Cast Bronze which means that a model was created (with cement or plaster) and molten bronze was poured into the form and then cooled to create the desired form. The Thinker is a life size model so the process was probably very extraordinary, especially at the time of construction in 1880.
4 c) In your opinion which of these two sculptures is the most effective? Give reasons for your choice.
In my opinion, The Thinker is most effective as a sculpture. How can it not be? Its one of the most iconoclastic statues in the world? Rodin is a great master. The image of The Thinker has been re-created, copied, appropriated and juxtaposed so many times it has become a part of our psyche and identity as a human. Not just that, of course, if we analyse it in terms of Art Theory, The Thinker is awe inspiring. It is set on a pedestal up above the crowd. The size is larger than life size and the man is super realistic with muscles that would make any girl swoon. When the viewer looks at The Thinker it immediately brings to mind the act of thinking and its importance. It literally makes one want to find a rock and just sit and think. It glorifies thought. And it makes one wonder what great problems is this man trying to sort out in his head? And to top it all off, it is located in a Museum in Paris, the heart and soul of art. How can poor conflicted Meditating that to be honest, no matter how interesting it may try to be just ends up looking like a floating balloon head on two rounded humps, compare?
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