We as the creators of the Digital Pictionary Collages know that we are not the conventional artist, such that the processes of art do not drive us as painters. In theory, our art was predetermined and already made up for us and we were forced to create a collage representing a particular word. Even though we can use the receptionist theory to approach these works, we cannot specifically identify the word the artist meant to convey through his work by using this approach (unless we are preposterously lucky). After cumulatively analyzing Mike Virga’s I concluded that his word was based around disbelief, irony, or both. The first collage first brought to mind destruction, mayhem, and Armageddon; however, all the destruction lies in the background and in the foreground is a man getting incinerated by Godzilla. Next to the man on the ground lies one of the protester signs. Seeing as the man being incinerated is wearing trashy robes, I thought the man is one of those crazy people in cities (such as New York) preaching “the end is coming” sermons. The calendar in upper left indicates that on this day, the world does end. So connect the dots and one could only conclude it is ironic that the crazy preacher is right, despite how crazy he was- he is right. The next collage clearly depicts an audience watching the horror film, “The Strangers.” In the film, a couple is terrorized by three psychopaths in masks (I won’t spoil the movie for those who haven’t seen it, mainly because I haven’t either). As seen on the set, the woman in the picture does not know that one of the psychos is lurking up to her. Far in the background behind the theater, is small text reading, “this year? Nope, nope, nope, etc.” The text is threaded through the screen in a way to imply that the woman in the film has a certain belief that nothing wrong can happen to her. She is almost thinking, “Will someone break into my house this year? Nope, nope, etc.” Regardless what she thinks, the audience knows that she is wrong. So in totality she is deceived, making the situation incredulous and ironic, because the unthinkable happened. The third collage has a very different approach at representing the word than the first two collages. As seen, the first two collages use one vantage point to tell their own specific story; in this third collage, the word is presented through several vantage points creating several different stories that are all similar. So in this third collage, you have to separate the images. The most apparent image is the one of the seagull standing on top of the no-seagull-sign. Clearly, this picture is an ironic juxtaposition for there is a seagull is on top of a sign that reads, seagulls are not allowed here. Just as ironic, is a snake eating a horse. What is just as ironic is Gene Simmons shaking the hand of the Devil’s. Gene Simmons maybe not considered a liar but I assume his long tongue is a reference to the saying, “long tongue liar.” In contrast, the devil’s fingers (in the hand behind his back) are crossed, showing that he is also lying. Through this ironic situation springs dishonesty or at least the disbelief that either the Devil or Gene Simmons will hold their part of the word in their deal. Furthermore, the blue and black gradient background evokes a sense of a looming, ominous darkness which heightens the sense of disbelief of the Devil and Simmons scene. In regards to the other two scenes, the background actually takes away from them and activates the Devil and Simmons scene that much more making me think the word focuses more on disbelief than irony. In spite of this, I am partially indecisive of what the word could be. The word is either personified by disbelief or irony or both.
We as the creators of the Digital Pictionary Collages know that we are not the conventional artist, such that the processes of art do not drive us as painters. In theory, our art was predetermined and already made up for us and we were forced to create a collage representing a particular word. Even though we can use the receptionist theory to approach these works, we cannot specifically identify the word the artist meant to convey through his work by using this approach (unless we are preposterously lucky).
ReplyDeleteAfter cumulatively analyzing Mike Virga’s I concluded that his word was based around disbelief, irony, or both.
The first collage first brought to mind destruction, mayhem, and Armageddon; however, all the destruction lies in the background and in the foreground is a man getting incinerated by Godzilla. Next to the man on the ground lies one of the protester signs. Seeing as the man being incinerated is wearing trashy robes, I thought the man is one of those crazy people in cities (such as New York) preaching “the end is coming” sermons. The calendar in upper left indicates that on this day, the world does end. So connect the dots and one could only conclude it is ironic that the crazy preacher is right, despite how crazy he was- he is right.
The next collage clearly depicts an audience watching the horror film, “The Strangers.” In the film, a couple is terrorized by three psychopaths in masks (I won’t spoil the movie for those who haven’t seen it, mainly because I haven’t either). As seen on the set, the woman in the picture does not know that one of the psychos is lurking up to her. Far in the background behind the theater, is small text reading, “this year? Nope, nope, nope, etc.” The text is threaded through the screen in a way to imply that the woman in the film has a certain belief that nothing wrong can happen to her. She is almost thinking, “Will someone break into my house this year? Nope, nope, etc.” Regardless what she thinks, the audience knows that she is wrong. So in totality she is deceived, making the situation incredulous and ironic, because the unthinkable happened.
The third collage has a very different approach at representing the word than the first two collages. As seen, the first two collages use one vantage point to tell their own specific story; in this third collage, the word is presented through several vantage points creating several different stories that are all similar. So in this third collage, you have to separate the images. The most apparent image is the one of the seagull standing on top of the no-seagull-sign. Clearly, this picture is an ironic juxtaposition for there is a seagull is on top of a sign that reads, seagulls are not allowed here. Just as ironic, is a snake eating a horse. What is just as ironic is Gene Simmons shaking the hand of the Devil’s. Gene Simmons maybe not considered a liar but I assume his long tongue is a reference to the saying, “long tongue liar.” In contrast, the devil’s fingers (in the hand behind his back) are crossed, showing that he is also lying. Through this ironic situation springs dishonesty or at least the disbelief that either the Devil or Gene Simmons will hold their part of the word in their deal. Furthermore, the blue and black gradient background evokes a sense of a looming, ominous darkness which heightens the sense of disbelief of the Devil and Simmons scene. In regards to the other two scenes, the background actually takes away from them and activates the Devil and Simmons scene that much more making me think the word focuses more on disbelief than irony.
In spite of this, I am partially indecisive of what the word could be. The word is either personified by disbelief or irony or both.