First of all, congratulations to my collaborators Livio Forza, Siobhan Owen and Mark Sandon for their talented efforts, in achieving a fantastic night of musical and artistic flair. Furthermore, many thanks to Livio for organising the showcase and inviting me to be a part of it. Lastly a big thank you as well to those who assisted in preparations and of course to everyone that supported us and attended the showcase. We greatly appreciate it.
In addition, as I previously stated here, on my Facebook page and the showcase concert’s Facebook page, below are the final iterations of my artworks that were presented on the night.
To expand upon the works, included are extracts from the concert’s program booklet of my exposition for the art:
Requiem Binary
(As is already present in my portfolio, under the "scenario scenes" heading tab)
Requiem Binary is a concept art/design piece which depicts an original narrative I’ve been conceptualising for a few years, as the proposition for a new game or film. The story centres on a deceased soldier whose mind and soul are surgically manifested into the body of a bipedal mech in order to create the world's first autonomous machine. Despite this breakthrough for humanity it however creates torment for the protagonist, as upon awakening he initially thinks he has been brought back to life. Instead he witnesses a shattered reality, caused by the surrealism of the mech's interface and mainframe that distorts his perspective. The story is intended as a social commentary about our ongoing consumption of technology and dependence on it. It expresses that technology could fatality harm us mentally and physically, while removing the primal instinct of man to progress in life.
Concerning the palette, I utilised warm colours in the form of a lens flare that is cast over the mech’s shoulder which signifies the illusion of the character’s initial belief of being resurrected. Furthermore, the remaining objects are rendered using cool hues to signal the foreboding truth and dissolution of the human mind into the machine.
In essence, this piece visualises the birth of autonomous mechatronics, created by the manifestation of the human mind, while hinting at the possible issues that could arise from such a life threatening procedure. This notion is explained, through this art piece’s intentionally cryptic title: Requiem Binary. Requiem - The loss and remembrance of the deceased and Binary - The computational code that dictates a machine’s programming. This contextually means a machine that is the surrogate of an organic mind, connected neurologically with its human host, which causes conflict of remembering a forgotten past in an ulterior life, whose recollection is now translated into broken binary.
Extraordinaire
This artwork visually portrays Livio’s tribute to Claude Debussy. More specifically, I aimed to convey Debussy’s promiscuous desire for women, by making it evident in the artwork that Debussy has only one thing on his mind at all times.
To capture this idea, Livio supplied me with an image of Debussy, who exhibits a subtly satisfied expression that suggests perversion combined with a look of pride. This suitably reflects the personality of Debussy who is an illustrious figure within the music history but has an amorous side to his character. Through observation I recreated this photo, but altered it to include a glimpse inside the mind of this man. Included is a faded sheet of music, which he famously wrote that recedes into the background of this portrait. This helps people who are unfamiliar of Debussy to assume that he is a composer, but more importantly this particular piece was used, as it's arguably his most well known and controversial composition. Moreover it implicates hedonistic meanings, which hints at his persona.
In terms of colour, no higher purpose was considered for this piece apart from selecting tones which closely resembled and appropriately captured what was drawn i.e. colour that resembles skin colour, garments, and the architecture displayed in his imagination.
Ultimately this piece strives to illustrate the dichotomy of Claude Debussy's reputation, a highly regarded composer and womaniser.
Theme and Variation of Dies Irae
To elaborate and paraphrase Livio’s intentions, Dies Irae is supposed to embody our feelings of uncertainty about death. To visually portray this notion, I extended this concept to a brief narrative scenario that involves a surreal scene of a deceased woman.
This woman is the wife of a beloved husband and is forced to part from him. As she ascends to the after world her partner tries, with little success, to keep her. In the end her fate is impossible to reverse and so he says his last goodbye and watches her leave him. Their memories however will never be forgotten as I incorporated a staircase into her form, which symbolises a binding spiritual and mental connection between the lovers.
Regarding the palette, the colours I chose each hold significant purpose. Hues of black signify the western funeral tradition of mourning while white tones represent purity and celebrating life. In this case, the form of the columns and mist that portray heaven, merely serve to replicate the now pale skin tone of the wife who is now deceased.
Spiralling into the Looking Glass
The popular fables 'Alice in Wonderland' and its sequel 'Through the looking glass' are the inspirations for this art piece and Livio’s related composition. I wanted to showcase an image closely related to Livio's composition, but further embodies the sensation of descending into madness in the form of cowardice. More specifically, Alice escaping her miserable life and mentally forming the exotic yet dangerous world that is “wonderland.” It is this wonderland that Alice escapes from her harsh existence.
To convey this escapism and its lasting severity, I illustrated a composition that demonstrates Alice from her time as an infant to a young woman. The major influences of her psyche manifest into the popular supporting characters that surround her: the Mad Hatter, White Rabbit, Cheshire Cat, and the antagonist the Queen of Hearts. I was aiming to reflect the fear and anxiety that has engulfed her from birth, signifying that her whole life is terrible and that she repeatedly escapes to this evocative and surreal wonderland. The particular manner that I’ve adopted to compose this image is inspired by the works of Drew Struzan who is known for creating posters of famous films such as: Star Wars, Indiana Jones and Back to the future.
The palette contains many cool colours that I utilised to portray the foreboding mood with contrasting warm colours to signify feelings of explained escapism. In the end my ambition was to create a piece that is magical, confronting, and alluring to the viewer. Although it inhabits sensations of augur, my hope is that my piece instills the possibility that escapism is possible and to not forget to return to reality, where support is guaranteed.
Overall I hope you have all enjoyed this body of work and please look forward to the next given post.
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Thank you.
