Rene Magritte - The unrealistic reality

To start off, here's a video showcasing Rene Magritte's works:

A quote from youtube:
 Surrealism is based on the belief in the omnipotence of dream, in the disinterested play of thought and incongruous juxtapositions. Surrealism is the dictation of thoughts in the absence of all control exercised by reason, beyond all aesthetic and moral preoccupation.

PERSONAL VALUES (1952)

To start off, I must say that I really like this work! I love the intricate brushwork and the usage of symbolism in this piece! The placement of colours are very accurate and the pastel colours make the work look very aesthetically appealing! (: Ok, now to the main post!




This painting takes place within the confines of a bedroom. However, something seems to be very unusual about this room. The room is fully occupied with personal, everyday objects. Strangely, that's not all. The supposedly small and unnoticeable personal values are blown out of their usual proportions, such that they are magnified to human size, occupying the room as if they are the room's main occupants. They dominate the room like a pack of unwelcome guests, like an army, which transforms this usually innocuous collection of household items into ones which invade one's private territory, threatening our comfortable familiarity. This makes the room seem strangely sterile and devoid of human touch and it lacks the normal human warmth that is usually associated with a sleeping quarter. In this work,Magritte paints an exaggerated reality,which differentiates him from the other surrealists. Other surrealists such as Salvador Dali and Joan Miro, paint images from their minds, so their work contains a touch of imagination and creativity. However, Magritte paints the surrealistic reality, and in the context of this work, he paints everyday objects such as the bed, armoire and grooming objects. He wants his viewers to question their everyday interaction and routine with these supposedly common objects and he positions the objects out of their normal context, so that the objects assume a "super-real" importance. The small grooming objects are magnified, such that they become the main occupants of the room. The bed and armoire, which are the furniture pieces in the room, are the only objects that are not enlarged. It is like a role reversal. The usually small objects become bigger than the large pieces of furniture, warping reality into an unrealistic, foreign world. There is a uneasy sense of dead calm in the room. The room is too silent and still, such that it exudes a sense of creepiness and eeriness - it is like a ghost room.
The items are arranged such that they are in a seemingly accidental and arbitrary position, but it has actually been carefully planned by Magritte. Unrelated objects are juxtaposed together to give the objects another meaning (for example, the bed is placed with the suggestive matchstick). The objects are enlarged greatly so as to draw the viewer's attention to the objects, asking them to stop and access the values they represent.

The painting is photorealistic, with very accurate placing of colors and each detail is captured meticulously- from the smooth reflection of the wine glass' curved surface to the intricate details of the carpet on the floor. The objects are so realistically depicted such that they look like reality themselves, but the strange juxtaposition and arrangement of the objects contrasts with reality, creating a sense of tension and irony in Magritte's work. It is hyper-realism versus the distortion of the objects' placement.
The pastel colours contribute to the softness of the room and there is a nice balance between the amount of warm and cool colours. However, there seems to be larger areas of blue(cool colours) as they seem to be the more conspicuous colours. The warm colours are in darker tones, so they fade in comparison to the baby blue dominance(the background of this work--> the sky wallpaper, is in baby blue, such that the blue looks relatively overwhelming). So cool colours stand out more prominently as they are in brighter tones. This contributes to the lack of warmth and comfort in an intimate bedroom.
There are positive and negative spaces present in the work. This creates a sense of visual space and depth in the work.
In terms of its composition, it is quite a balanced painting as there is equal weight distributed to every corner of the room. The number of angular, straight and rounded,curved surfaces is fairly proportional, so it adds to the sense of balance in the work. The armoire, bed, matchstick, comb and the room itself make up the angular and straight lines in the work. The brush, soap, glass and clouds on the walls make up the curved lines. So Magritte has successfully achieved a sense of balance and harmony between the forms, interlinking these unusually juxtaposed objects together such that they fit in quite well with the room. There is the presence of both vertically and horizontally placed forms in the painting too. There is also a balance between the number of objects in each specific "group". For example, the objects can be mainly be classified as a piece of furniture, a grooming item etc. and the number of objects in each "group" is around the same.
Overall, I can just say that it is a visually paradoxical world. Magritte's a genius. (:

SYMBOLISM

Magritte employs the heavy use of symbolism, so his entire work is laden with objects that are juxtaposed together to convey a hidden message.

Bed and Matchstick- The bed is neat and the tightly made bed reflects the same formal rigour as the rest of the painting. It also reflects the fact that the room's inhabitant is a very neat and organized person, most probably of a high social status. However, even though the bed looks neat and reflects a very serious personality, its proximity to the matchstick suggests a play on the French phrase, "You turn me on". This adds a sense of humour to this seemingly invasive work and lightens the still and somewhat heavy mood of this painting. This visual pun also conveys Magritte's appreciation of the Surrealists' appreciation of the erotic, grouping Magritte with the surrealists.

Comb - The comb is placed in an upright position on the bed and it has been blown up such that it's length is as long as the bed. This is to suggest the importance of grooming to the room's inhabitant. In Magritte's middle-class society, individuals are pressurized to present a socially acceptable exterior. The placing of the comb on the pillow alludes to the idea that they are the objects which touch the head of the occupant. At night, the human inhabitant will rest his head on the pillow to rest and in the morning, he will wake up to comb his hair so as to present a neat exterior before he steps out to work in society.

Soap and Shaving Brush - These are typical grooming items that are necessary for a person of upper class social status. Soap is commonly associated with cleaning oneself and this shows that cleanliness is very important to the inhabitant of this room. The shaving brush is also associated with keeping oneself neat and tidy, which shows that there is a need for the individual to present himself as a neat and tidy person once he steps out of the comfort of his room. This alludes to the need for an individual in Magritte's society to present a socially acceptable exterior to the society when he steps out for work. Yet, the shaving brush is placed on top of the armoire and the soap is placed on the floor, which is out of their usual context. This careless placement of the shaving brush a top the armoire alludes to the inhabitant's desire to live freely in one's mental interior under the constant pressure to present a socially acceptable exterior.

Armoire - Based on my interpretation of this symbol, I feel that it reflects vanity, as there is a mirror on the armoire and the armoire is a place to store clothes right? So I feel that the armoire is like a reflection of oneself, and in the context of the painting, it is a reflection of the current state of society - the society has morphed into one that has placed too much emphasis on the outward appearance. Overall, the armoire suggests a psychological interior, perhaps holding clues to the life of the room's inhabitant as it most likely contains the clothes of the inhabitant and one's dressing style can reflect one's personality and lifestyle. The armoire suggests a psychological  Magritte uses the iconography of the mirror to represent psychological space and the realm of fantasy, which is further enhanced by the sky reflected in the armoire mirror. The use of the mirror also adds another viewing perspective for the viewers, so that they can see part of the room that extends out of the physical boundaries of the painting. It also stimulates the viewers to imagine beyond the painting.


Sky Wallpaper - The sky wallpaper contributes to the surrealistic element of Magritte's room. Well, the setting of this work is definitely in a bedroom as it is bounded by the 4 walls, however, the sky painted on the walls and reflected in the armoire mirror challenge this assumption, turning inside out, and the sky wallpaper seems to extend the boundaries of the room outside of the 4 solid walls. Magritte plays with the notions of mental and atmospheric space, using the sky to suggest that this scene is somewhat taking place in the inhabitant's mind as the sky-like setting suggest the idea of dreams. The breadth of this room is unbounded by its physical limits as human imagination is limitless and it extends to infinity. The sky wallpaper may also symbolize the fact that the bedroom is for the inhabitant to sleep and dream, so it is like the place of imagination for the room's inhabitant.

Wine Glass - The wine glass stands tall and still at the center of the painting, dominating a large part of the composition. The curvature of the glass can be linked to the figure of a woman, and this also shows Magritte's sense of erotic humor and link to the surrealist's sense of humor. The wine glass is not an object that is commonly found in one's bedroom. But the wine glass is linked to high social status as only the rich can afford to drink wine with such a high-class looking glass. So this also reflects the inhabitant's upper class social status in society. Furthermore, the central placement of the wine glass may also mean that the wine glass is of great importance to the inhabitant of the room as it stands eerily at attention, at the center of attention.

INTERPRETATION AND EVALUATION

The objects are magnified so as to draw the viewer's attention to the objects, asking them to stop and access the values they represent. At first glance, we are only concerned about the "outer appearance" of the painting. So we have to stop and think about what it represents, which makes the work quite thought provoking in a way. I believe that Magritte's work is reflective of the current modern society(well I mean the society in Magritte's time). It shows that the people are too preoccupied with the exterior and judging based on first impressions due to outer appearances, such that people are pressurized to present a socially acceptable exterior. But sometimes, society neglects the interior, which makes society a cold place to be in, like Magritte's Personal Values room, which looks cold and devoid of human touch and warmth. This shows that society is somewhat shallow to place so much emphasis on appearance and forget what matters most is inner beauty. It is like how we see neatly arranged and fine looking objects in the painting but when we look deeper, the painting feels empty, lacking of human warmth.


This work is visually provocative, and even though it has no discernible narrative(it is not exactly telling a story), I believe that it serves to bring out what Magritte was trying to convey. He had used each and symbol carefully and they are all there to serve a specific purpose and to convey a message. Well, to tell the truth, I feel that the meaning behind the symbols can be interpreted in different ways, unlike Lucia Hartini's Spying Lens , which conveys her feelings of terror and her unease due to her surroundings. This allows the viewers to interact with the work as they will pause to ponder over the meaning of the work. Each person can interpret every symbol in a different way. For example, for non-French speaking viewers, they may not know that the placement of the matchstick beside the bed has a suggestive meaning to it and they may just think that it is a coincidence. Some may even ponder over what the matchstick is doing there as it stands out from the other grooming objects in the room. This also allows the viewers the freedom to imagine so that the work interacts two-way with the viewer, unlike Spying Lens as Spying Lens tell a specific story. This is a prominent trait of the Surrealists as they paint images from their imaginative minds and the message behind their works may seem ambiguous. But to me, because the message behind it is ambiguous, it makes it fun to look at the Surrealist's works. That is why I particularly like the Surrealists' works(it is my favourite movement) and I enjoy viewing Magritte's works.  Personally, I admire his skills as an artist as his painting skills are as good as old masters. However, he dares to paint something different, something that fuses reality with the dream world, so I admire the fact that he is talented in painting and that he has a wild imagination. I believe that artists should let their imagination run wild so that they can create the best of works. The best works are created from a spark of instantaneous imagination and inspiration.

In this work, Magritte plays with the different scales of the objects, manipulating and warping the whole idea of reality, so he has successfully created a surrealistic piece. I believe that Magritte creates his works in a slightly humorous way, and like the other surrealists, his main intention is to create a surrealistic scene which looks relatively light-hearted and somewhat humorous. His works have a tongue-in-cheek, sarcastic and in some, erotic humour to it, which is completely appropriate to the surrealists. However, he also stands out from the rest of the Surrealists because he paints reality in the surrealistic way. As quoted from an art book, titled ART: The Whole Story:

"Rene Magritte's quixotic and naturalistically painted images are not a product of dreams or self-induced psychological states. It springs from contemplation of the phenomena of everyday life."

Yes indeed, Magritte is has established the everyday connection to the increasingly judgemental French society in his time.

This approach towards painting is also shown in other works:

In these 2 works, he also dresses his subject matter up in smart suits, completed with bowler hat and combed up hair, which reflects the upper class men in the French society. But I guess it also reflects himself as he often wears a bowler hat and dresses up in smart suits. He also uses objects that are found in real life and he does not distort the objects like how Dali elongates and exaggerates the forms. However, he juxtaposes unrelated forms together like how he places the apple in front of the man with the bowler hat. He places many forms out of their usual context such that they look normal at first sight but upon closer inspection, we can tell that there is something wrong with the scene.

This is a somewhat humorous depiction of humans turning into fishes and blending in with the rocks. Magritte's famous sky motif is repeated here. Somehow, I would interpret the work as one that is mocking human existence as he compared us to fishes. >.<

This is yet another painting of how Magritte incorporates Surrealism into everyday scene. It looks like it is raining man with bowler hats! O.O

 Even though I believe that art should contain a deep hidden message and that all good art should be "meaningful", I feel that Magritte is one successful artist who never fails to impress me with his stunning skills and out-of-the-world ideas and thinking. He is one artist who dares to try, and one that is not bounded by what he sees, but instead, is trying to challenge the boundaries of his imagination. That is why I credit him for being able to create such a paradoxical image.

My own version of "Personal Values"

I tried editing in photoshop, but it still looks blurry...>.< I think that my lines are too sketchy! The original looks much nicer though...

Bed
I love my bed - it is where I end my day peacefully. It is my resting place and a place of comfort. It is significant to me as it is an integral part of my life(in fact, everybody's lives) and I have been sleeping on the same bed ever since I was a kid. I like to daydream on my bed and my bed is important to me as it is where I retreat to when I am tired. However, I have been sleeping lesser and lesser for this past 2 years, and even lesser due to the ongoing NY 95th Anniversary musical, which makes me miss my bed a lot. So in comparison to some other objects, my bed looks smaller as I am spending less time with it now. How I wish I can go back to the times when I can lie on my bed for one hour to daydream. ):

Spectacles
I cannot survive without my specs! I must say that I am quite short-sighted-with a degree of 400 or higher. :/ Even though I routinely put in on and take it off, without any conscious thought, now as I reflect of the objects that matter a lot to me, I think that my specs is under credited. It has always helped me in my daily life and it gave me a clearer vision of my surroundings. Without it, I feel lost and kind of blind as my vision becomes blurred, which will hinder me greatly. Well, I cannot survive without my specs, so I shall list it as one of my most important personal items.

iPod
Well, my iPod allows me to have my everyday dose of music, so it is like providing a constant source of support. Music is like my vitamin and I think that my reliance on music has grown throughout the years. So I need my iPod everyday, to play the music that I need. I can also play with games when I am bored, like when I am on the bus or something. Well, lately, it has accompanied me throughout the long musical rehearsals and it is like my "watch", so that I can keep track of time! And not to mention, I can play with my iPod while waiting for the full runs to start. It can also help in my note taking as when I visit art exhibitions, I can record down information with the note-taking application. It is something that I must bring with me everywhere I go. I can choose not to bring my phone, but I cannot not bring my iPod along! (:

Guitar
My favourite music instrument of all! Even though I started playing the piano at like 5 years old, I don't exactly love piano as much as I love guitar, which I have only started playing last year. Playing the guitar can be quite addictive sometimes and I love the beautiful tones that it produces. Well, I still play it a lot even though I am very busy, as I like to slack off my time with it. When I am sick of doing work, I will just automatically take out my guitar to pluck and strum. It is one personal value that I will treasure forever as I enjoy playing the guitar so so so much(although it leaves me with painful fingers :/ ). It will be the musical instrument that will accompany me throughout my life.

Biology Textbook
Haha, some of you might think that I am a little crazy for putting this in. Well, I must say that Biology is my favourite subject and one that I will never fail to study because I rather study bio, more than any other subject. I bring it with me to school almost everyday, unless my bag gets too fat and heavy to stuff it in. I really think that Bio is fun to study and I just love flipping through the colourful diagrams in my textbook. (: There are nice little panda pop out stickers on its cover page and they are so cute! I just love my bio textbook!

Pencil and Eraser
They are two separate items but they can be classified together so I shall just put them together! Well, I will bring them everywhere with me, because I will feel kind of insecure when I do not bring them. :/ The pencil and eraser are considered to be the most important pieces of stationery in my pencil case. For me, I prefer to work in pencil as I can get quite messy when I use pen(but I think I use pen more because of school work) and it is the fundamental medium for my art making. I tend to be someone who makes a lot of mistakes when writing and I like to correct my lines when I draw, so I really need an eraser in my pencil box(but I lose it a lot...). Well, I treasure the pencil more than a pen anyway! Pencil is also the medium of this piece of work, so there is a great significance to it too!

Fluffy the Bear(?)
I don't even think that it is a bear cos it is an ambiguous little animal. :/ Very simplified version of a bear I guess! Anyway, it is the white little soft toy sitting quietly on my table in my room. I don't exactly take much notice of its presence because it is always there. But it is important to me as it was a gift from one of my best friends in primary school. She gave it to me last year for my birthday. We still keep in touch as of today(even though we are in different schools right now) and I am really glad that we have sustained our friendship for so long. Fluffy is like the symbol of our friendship, a friendship which I treasured a lot. I sincerely hope that our friendship will be a long lasting one. (:

The extra symbol (not exactly a personal value)- the sky wallpaper :D
This is the connection between Magritte's work and my work I guess...Well, for me, the notion of the sky is important to me as it appears in my coursework too(under the influence of Magritte). It also represents my wish to have an endless stream of imagination and creativity flowing through my brain as I believe that it is a gift to be creative! However, after decorating the walls with clouds, I realised that it looks quite distracting so oops, my bad. >.< But I still like clouds!

EVALUATION
As usual, it is a piece of work that is nowhere near the fantastic master piece of Magritte! It would take years of hard work before I can reach Magritte's standard! (I hope that I can) Anyway, as I said, the clouds look quite distracting and it will be better if I colour my work so as to differentiate between the background and foreground. But I am a little short of time so... >,<

But anyway, I feel that this mini assignment has allowed me to pause and ponder about the value that are important to me as I hardly stop to think about these things. The values shown here are not representational of all the things that matter to me though. For instance, I value relationships more than any materialistic good - be it kinship or friendship. I believe that having nice relationships with people around you is the most important thing for me. And Fluffy the Bear is only representative of one relationship - which is the nice and friendly relationship between me and one of my best friends! Well, I treasure all relationships and well, they cannot all be represented in this work! >.< But I thought that I this friendship means a lot to me as it is a somewhat "distant" relationship with someone that I don't see very often!
Anyway, bringing back to the topic on personal values, I believe that I have too many important personal items to fit into this small little work! There are just too many items that I interact with every day, such as my toothbrush and wallet(which is not in the work). So I would like to say that many items in daily life actually matter a lot to us, it is actually up to us to notice them. The question is not about how many personal values we have, but rather how many personal values we actually treasure.

02/08/12 - Happy Birthday Mrs Soh (:

This is the card that I made for Mrs Soh's birthday on the behalf of my class. (: Rushed it out in like 4 hours the previous night>.< But I think she likes it very very much so all the effort was worth it! :D I think it is a very nice thing to use one's artistic talent to make another person happy! Well it is using your art to spread happiness around! (I think Mrs Soh was very very happy when she received the card along with 36 balloons and a birthday cake) I should make cards more often. I have not been making as much cards as I did before. Well I did make a lot of cards for people in basketball and my parents and friends in the past, but I did not bother to photograph them. ): I shall remember to photograph my works in the future.

p.s. pardon the reflection of the words "Mrs. Soh"! >.<

 

For those who have seen my Nanyang 95th Anniversary card, you would have noticed that it bears much similarity with the 95th birthday card! The concept is the same and the style is very much like my kimono(with the handmade flowers, buttons and sequins --> Very intricate and delicate stuff). I guess the main difference is that Mrs. Soh's card is more feminine, with pretty colours such as red and pink dominating the whole composition. (Mrs. Soh ♥s PINK!! :D ) I didn't take photos of the NY 95 card because I was too tired that night after completing the card. :/ but I remember that the 2 main flowers are blue and green, so the whole card looks more multi-coloured but not as feminine as Mrs Soh's card.

Close up view of big flower! (: Well, the tracing paper flower is handmade and like last year's kimono flowers, the red layers are formed by tracing paper which are dyed with red ink. That is why the red layers look crumpled.

I am quite satisfied with how the card turned out as I like how there was a combination of so many different textures to give the card its unique feel! Most materials are recycled from my kimono! Like the buttons and the flowers. I added some blue items and a little of green to balance out the warm tones of the card, but the overall colour tones are still very bright and feminine(like Mrs Soh!) It is quite a meticulous process but I don't mind as this card made her day on 02/08/12! I hope the gems that I have stuck on don't fall off though. Fragile. :/

Looking at the card, I think that I should have included one more layered handmade flower(this is just a personal opinion).... but overall, I think that it still looks beautiful!

Somehow, it reminds me of the days last year where I had to rush my kimono like crazy(ok, not rush, but work on it right through the late night). I remember trying to perfect the placement of every little thing. Well, pasting on things are more meticulous than it sounds, like how time consuming it is for Miss Michelle to arrange the art pieces for display in the art gallery. Overall, art is time consuming, but the sense of achievement after completing the work is simply overwhelming. I thought that after every little art piece that every artist makes, he/she will grow a little as an artist. So we should try to do more art, no matter how busy we are, to keep our artistic juices flowing and let creativity live on. (:

 MAIN CARD CONCEPTS

It is like a present, you can untie the ribbon to open the card(or else you can't open!) so in this way, the card is interacting with the receiver(Mrs Soh). (:

This is the external layer of the card. It acts like a "mini folder"(like a school file). So when Mrs Soh opens the card, she will see that there is a booklet on the inside of the card, which can be taken out. It will contain messages from each individual of 404 to Mrs Soh! Well, the present concept is not new as I have used it for birthday and teachers' day cards ever since I was sec 1, but the folder concept is new! I got this inspiration when I looked at my fat file. -.-

The cover of the booklet. Well, not the completed one. When I brought to school the next day for 404 to write their messages before recess comes, I realised that the cover was a little too plain. So I added the big text: "To: Mrs Soh" in silver bold outline so as to complement the silver ribbon. (: Oh and I glued down the folded flower petals later cos as you can see from the photo, some petals are folded. Well, but I did not have time to take pics of the improved version cos well, it was a mad rush to let 404 finish Mrs. Soh's card before we surprise her.

Well, The booklet looks empty the night before(when I took this photo), but now it is filled with nice little birthday messages from 404 and it is residing in Mrs Soh's house now! Haha even the pages of the booklet are pink(Mrs. Soh's fav colour as usual)! (:

Anyway, Happy Birthday Mrs Soh! (: Hope that 404 has made this birthday a memorable one for you! (:

The Potato King (:

This little clay piece is like my first ever clay piece that is fired in the kiln! I don't think it is graded and this is a little activity to let us try out pinch pot making! I had loads of fun making this as clay is quite a fun material to manipulate! To tell the truth, I personally prefer this work to my Wild Animal. I like the simplicity of this work, and the potato guy is quite cute! (: Many people prefer this work too, including my physiotherapists at SGH! It is like a prep work for the wild animal by the way. We had also done another prep work, by making a pot, but I think I threw it away. ):

Sigh, its left leg broke off, and it is (quite carelessly) glued back by my maid, so the angle of the leg is quite off, but I still like it anyway. It is now sitting on my study desk. :D

Light

Browsing through my com's pictures and found this:

I made this for our sec 2 AEP SIA exhibition! My group's theme is Light.

Created this poster in photoshop. I remember that I chanced upon this tool in photoshop which can created the "light" effects and I happily used it. -.- Well, I can't exactly do photoshop(ok, I am kind of bad and inexperienced at it as I know less than 1% of the tools in photoshop) so I shall consider this attempt a good one! But I would say that this poster pales in comparison as compared to other AEP SIA groups' posters! I remember that there was one group with a very colourful poster! Oh well, the difference between a photoshop pro and a photoshop beginner. >.<

Sec 2 life brings back good memories! (:

Xiao Hei

NY 5 animation piece

Combining the drawings of Pang, Hsi Chien and me. (: We spent more than just a few weeks on it.
Haha we are supposed to do the animating part too but in the end, Mr Chang did it.
Enjoy! :D
R.I.P Xiao Hei ):

Lucia Hartini & Frida Kahlo - Inspiring Female Artists

Lucia Hartini

Lucia Hartini is a female Catholic Javanese artist living in a Muslim dominated society, and where men power over women . From the beginning of her career in 1970s until 1993, she paints works which include powerful symbols to convey a complex narrative to her viewers. Her art is an interpretation of herself and her surroundings. Hartini's earlier paintings depicted cosmic landscapes and humans(children and later, grown-ups). In later paintings, Hartini often painted female figures which reflects her current situation. Her figures often look powerless, vulnerable, passive and obedient. In 1986, when Hartini painted this painting, she was struggling to be herself, so she has decided to depict her sense of terror in Spying Lens. This is a quote from Lucia Hartini:

 "It tells of my obsession with eyes, especially human eyes, which frighten me very much. They follow me wherever I go and they always want to watch my business."

SPYING LENS(1986) - Lucia Hartini


Principles of Design, Elements of Art

The orange-red brick walls that zig zag like a maze and the blue, fluid drapery cloth both dominate the whole composition, suggesting the notion of infinity and endlessness. The brick walls extend out of the frames of the whole painting while the cloth extends out of the composition after looping over the walls. In the foreground, an Indonesian woman clad in dark royal blue cloth can be seen. She is lying down, curled up in a fetal position,looking helpless and tired, seemingly engulfed by her threatening surroundings. She floats among the clouds, defying the usual notion of gravity. In the middleground, there are a few eyes shooting beams of light at the woman, scrutinizing her, watching her every move as if a surveillance camera. The glare of these few eyes have caused the woman to cower in fear and she close her eyes in a submissive pose. In the background, purplish red clouds can be seen. The clouds look ominous and foreboding due to the unusual surrealistic colors that the clouds are painted in. The clouds seem to be travelling into the maze, occupying the space inside the maze and they encroach towards the woman, suggesting the approaching danger. The composition of the painting is quite nicely balanced as each symbol contributes an equal weight to the whole painting.

Lucia Hartini has painted this painting using realistic, fine and detailed brushstrokes. She depicts the forms in a photorealistic manner, capturing every detail and tone of each and every form to portray an accurate looking, but fantasy-like world. However, as much as the forms are photorealistic, the forms are also very subtly exaggerated and "distorted" in a way. The folding of the woman's cloth is heavily exaggerated, which distorts the usual form. She also uses complimentary colors of bright orange and blue to contrast the woman and the brick walls, juxtaposing them starkly, so that they seem to be placed together in harmony on the surface, but a sense of tension is hidden underneath this seemingly harmonious setting. The complementary colors also serve to bring out the fact that the woman is most probably different from others as she stands out, which contributes to the tension in the work as it suggests that she is a misfit in society. The rigid and angular brick walls also contrast with the fluid, flowing lyrical quality of the woman's cloth, which also serve to emphasize the point that this woman differs greatly from her surroundings and this also creates a sense of uniqueness in the work as it means that every form is important and different from the other. The background, which is dominated by dark clouds is in a darker tone as compared to the foreground and the middle ground. This serves to bring out the presence of the brick walls and the woman, thus drawing the viewer's attention to the main subject matter of the work. The darkness of the clouds suggests the notion of approaching danger, contributing to the ominous presence of the clouds.

SYMBOLISM

Lucia Hartini is unable to directly portray her frustration towards the oppressive nature of her Indonesian society as by expressing her feelings directly, she will only be subjected to increased scrutinization from the society. That is why she must hide her intended message cleverly in her paintingss. That is why she employs the clever usage of various symbols, and due to the juxtaposition of the symbols and the heaven-like setting of the work, her work is being categorized as a "Surrealistic work".

The symbols in the painting relate to the personal life history of the artist, but the symbols are actually based on imagination as they are not commonly found objects that we will see in our daily lives, which contrasts to the symbols used in Rene Magritte's Personal Values. Nevertheless, these symbols are juxtaposed together to reflect Lucia Hartini's terrified state of mind, her status in society, and the nature of the oppressive Indonesian society.

Her symbols are relatively accessible as they together, tell a story - Lucia Hartini's life story. The symbols that she use actually have a literal meaning. For example, eyes relate to spying and the foetal position of the woman relates to the idea of being helpless and scared. Due to this fact, the viewer is able to decipher the symbols rather easily and be able to read the narrative behind the painting.

Lucia Hartini includes herself in the work, and the surrounding symbols actually alludes to her personal life experience and her current feelings of the things that surround her in daily life.

The cowering woman represents Lucia Hartini 's state of mind and the woman's pose suggests that she is fearful, afraid of the evil watching eyes of the Indonesian society. As an aspiring female artist, she feels suppressed by society as in the Indonesian society, the common believe is that a woman should work in households, supporting her husband and children. She is also a catholic in a Muslim-dominated society, which just emphasizes her difference from others. She strongly believes that women can achieve so much more and that they have the rights to accomplish what they want, but she is unable to voice out her views directly as this may cause society to scrutinize her even more. Therefore, she employs the use of symbolism to convey her hidden message to the viewers.
The brick walls and the watchful eyes represent the society and its fixed mindset. The walls are zigzagged in a way that they seem to form a maze, an endless labyrinth, entrapping the helpless foetal like woman. This shows that as an aspiring female Indonesian artist, she is trapped and suppressed due to society's mindsets. The eyes represents society's watchful eyes on her, scrutinizing her moves, so she can only succumb to the eyes of society as she cannot face the society alone. The colors used also represent a certain message that Hartini hopes to convey.
The blue cloth represents Lucia Hartini's desire to become as strong and tough as the female warriors who protect the sultan. The female warriors are usually clad in blue and by allocating this color to the woman's clothing, she expresses her wish to become as brave as the female warriors, so that she can stand up to society to fight for woman's rights. The wrapped cloth is also symbolic of a safety net to hold and support her, like the umbilical cord for the foetal like woman. It protects her, which symbolizes her wish to be protected from the dangers that surround her, which includes her society and this also stems from her history of being a domestic violence victim.
The clouds represent the approaching danger as they seem to be crawling towards the helpless woman. It can also represent Hartini's fear of the unknown - she does not know what lies ahead of her and she hopes that all this horror is just a mere dream.
The use of colour also adds to the symbolism in the painting.
The strong and bold orange colour of the brick walls symbolises society's power over her. Orange is a brighter colour as compared to the dark navy blue, so it is like society exerting its power to suppress her. This shows the unbalanced powers of the woman and society, which shows that she is weak and powerless as compared to society. Through this painting, Hartini conveys her struggle for self-empowerment and  desire to attain freedom from the norms and judgement of her society.


HER OTHER WORKS:

I would say that Lucia Hartini has a distinctive style. She paints with photorealistic brushstrokes but in each painting, there is the notion of exaggeration and slight distortion. But I would say that her paintings are definitely surrealistic due to the unusual placement of symbols and the symbols themselves look out of usual context. Her painting is often dominated by a woman figure, who is most probably Indonesian as suggested by her skin colour. Hartini paints her paintings to convey a serious message like her current state of mind and in some, she criticizes the society in which she is living in. There is the repeated use of clouds too as clouds make the whole composition look surrealistic. She especially like to exaggerate and elongate the woman's clothing and the clouds that surround the woman. The cloud symbols in her paintings look bold, unlike normal clouds, which look soft and fluffy. In her paintings, the clouds look very solidified and outlined, suggesting a menacing presence.

Her paintings also have a common colour scheme - the widespread usage of the colour blue. And in most paintings, she contrasts blue with other complementary colours such as orange. So I would say that her colour palette is somewhat more limited as compared to some other artists, such as...Frida Kahlo.

Frida Kahlo's biography(in 6 parts):

COMPARISON WITH FRIDA KAHLO

Both are self-taught female artists who have suffered a lot and they have gone through the turbulence of life. Lucia Hartini is an Indonesian artist while Frida Kahlo is a Mexican. Both artists show the clear influence of Surrealism in their works and both artists like to paint their personal reality in their works.

 Lucia Hartini paints often paints a woman(which seems to symbolise herself) in her paintings, among the clouds and other unusual symbols. This symbolises the suppressed female artist living in a male-dominated society. She, like Frida Kahlo, had suffered miscarriages and lost her child in the process, which had scarred her emotionally. Like Frida Kahlo, she has painted "self-portraits" to depict her pain of losing her child, which shows the motherly sides of both artists.

In this painting, which is titled "Communication Between Mother and Child"(1989), she depicts herself as a helpless mother who is searching for her lost child. She felt sorry that her child's life cycle had ended so quickly and that how she did not have a chance to hold her baby in her arms. She depicts her child as a baby who is now in heaven, but still protected by the amniotic sac and the umbilical cord, which shows how much she loves her child and how she longs for him/her to be born. She is portrayed as a mother who is chasing after her baby and trying to connect with it, but her efforts are futile as heaven and earth separates them. So now, she can only express her love and longing for her unborn child through this painting.

In "Henry Ford's Hospital"(1932), Kahlo depicts herself as a naked, bloodied and crying woman. She had just lost her child and she seems to be in severe pain while the rest of the world can only sympathise, watch and just move on. However, Kahlo herself was unable to let go of the jarring pain that she felt, which caused her to paint this self-portrait, so that the world will forever be reminded of her pain and her tortured existence. In this painting, she holds on to 6 red threads(which may symbolise the umbilical cord) which connects to symbols that are related to her miscarriage. For example, the baby that she was unable to keep, the cruel and cold machine that snatched her baby away from her, her pelvic bone which was damaged during the fatal bus crash, her injured uterus which caused her infertility and the snail, which symbolises her slow and painful recovery from this incident.

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Frida Kahlo often paints her self portraits, which are heavily laden with symbolism to depict the sufferings in her life. Kahlo has met with an accident when she was very young. Another major obstacle in her life would be the volatile relationship between her and her husband, Diego Rivera. Frida has also had 3 miscarriages and had gone through many operations which include knee operations and spinal operations. Both of them had affairs and the most devastating fact was that Rivera cheated on her for her sister. This incident had left Frida brokenhearted. They divorced and after one year, they got back together again. 

COMPARING SPYING LENS AND SELF PORTRAIT WITH THORN NECKLACE AND DEAD HUMMINGBIRD

Self Portrait with Thorn Necklace and Hummingbird(1940)

Both works are depicting the sufferings in life that the artists are going through at that point in time. Hartini is being oppressed as an aspiring female artist while Kahlo is suffering from a heartbreak. Kahlo's self portrait has a central focus and the central focus is the artist herself, while Hartini juxtaposes the woman against her surroundings. Frida Kahlo's style is more primitive and native as compared to Hartini's, which is more exaggerated. In Hartini's Spying Lens, complementary colours such as blue and orange are used and her colours are in darker tones as compared to Kahlo's self portrait. In Frida's self portrait, the colours are excessively bright. Both works contain the notion of exaggeration. Hartini exagerates the foldings of the cloth, contributing to its flowing fluid quality. Kahlo exaggerates the textures of the succulent leave, which reflects Kahlo's interest in native Mexican art. Kahlo places her face at the central focus of the painting, such that she dominates more than half of the composition, making her presence felt, whereas in Lucia Hartini's case, she places the woman as a small figure, surrounded by foreboding and overwhelming clouds and brck walls. Therefore, the focus of each painting is different, so as to convey each artists message more effectively.

In both paintings, each artist has employed the heavy usage of symbolism to convey their personal struggle. Hartini struggles from suppression of the society and aims to break free while Kahlo wants the viewers to see herself as a tortured existence. The symbolism they use to represent their state of minds are also different. Since I have already discussed the use of symbolism in Hartini's work, I shall just discuss the symbolism in Kahlo's work.
Kahlo's face and upper body dominates the whole composition and her face is the central focal point of the painting. Her hair is dressed in a traditional Mexican style, which reveals her strong sense of Mexican identity and her pride in being a mestiza, a Mexican of mixed European and Amerindian ancestry. She depicts herself as a combination of a Christ-like figure and an Aztec goddess here. In this painting, she is depicted as a strong, resilient woman who is broken on the inside, as her unwavering gaze suggest sadness but the desire to stand strong. She stares at the viewer with a strong and seemingly bold gaze, but on the inside, she is suffering, hurting as suggested by the thorn necklace that she wears. This suggests that she is suffering in silence and can only convey her emotional and physical pain through her paintings. The dragonflies and butterflies around her head are Christian symbols of resurrection, representing hope and her desire for rebirth, to free herself from her mental and physical suffering.
There is a black cat peering over Kahlo's left shoulder. It is traditionally a symbol of bad luck and it watches the dead hummingbird hanging beneath Kahlo's throat with unfriendly eyes, as if ready to pounce on it. On her right shoulder, her pet monkey is playing withher thorn necklace. Monkeys are mostly symbolic of the devil or lust, but to the artist, this monkey symbolises the love that she was not receiving from Rivera. The monkey looks playful, which may also represent the child she could not have because of her ill health and bad physical state. Frida Kahlo is wearing a thorn necklace which is piercing into her skin, causing blood to trickle down. This allude's to Christ's sufferings and also to her own pain, and it also reveals her roots and patriotism. A hummingbird hangs from the centre of her necklace. In Mexican tradition, a hummingbird represents luck in love, but hers is dead, which means that she has lost all her luck in love. The usage of animals as symbolism in her self-portrait also reflects Kahlo's love for animals. Kahlo had many pets to keep her company as she had sadly realized that she would be unable to bear children for a lifetime due to injuries in her uterus, as a result of the bus crash incident which has led to more than thirty operations in her life.


My personal preference

I would prefer Frida Kahlo's painting as I think that it is a very open reflection of her suffering and emotional pain. Lucia Hartini's work does not convey the strong sense of suffering as the woman in her painting is passive, weak and she is even wearing a smile on her face!  Both artists have gone through a lot of sufferings but I think that Frida's life story is a more painful and dramatic one, so I sympathise with her. She has been through physical sufferings ever since she was young - she has contracted polio at the age of six and met with a fateful bus crash which has left her with serious injuries in her uterus, spine, ribs, pelvis, collarbone and right leg. Later in life, due to gangrene, she had her right leg amputated in 1953. She then died of cancer at the age of 47. She has also been emotionally scarred throughout her life by her husband, the womanizing Diego Rivera.

"I was born a bitch. I was born a painter."

"My paintings carry with it the message of pain." - Frida Kahlo