Reassigning Project

When an image is created, meaning is constructed from the images and symbols that the artist provides. Sometimes the artist gives the answers without giving a chance for the viewer to think. Other times, the artists leaves his or her pieces of art to the fate of the viewer's own imagination. For Edouard Manet, this was the case, as he layered his art with mystery of iconographic images and untold secrets that were dared to be unlocked by the viewer. In many of his works of art, he would take from the past and create them to be his own creation. Contemporary artists have discovered the value of looking into the past for art. Artists, like Jeff Wall, have set the contemporary view of life with the context of history and those that came before them. I, too, have fallen in the footsteps of these creative beings and am taking from history Manet's Bar at the Folies Bergere and resigning its context to a more relevant and present day work of art.

 I have captured three pieces of different workers in an ordinary jobs.  They are positioned like the woman, face forward. The chaos of their work is facing the viewer behind them. The un-attachment of the workers is something that I attempted to portray as they stood at their posts. I wanted the colors to also express an abundance of things going on just like the bar scene in Manet's piece. Rather than commenting on the male and female, like Wall, I decided to focus on the un-attachment and disillusionment of each subject in the photographs. I also used the scale of the images to before more profound, as if the viewer is engulfed into the world of the image. 

 Throughout this year, I have dealt with complacency and struggled in every aspect of my life. There were many times when I felt like giving up and losing the hope I had amongst all the chaos of change and pressures of day-to-day responsibilities. I felt like the lady at the bar, disillusioned and unattached from the world and those who were around me. In this art study, I hope to have succeeded in showing these workers in everyday life amongst the chaos of their jobs. Without Hope, I could not have made it through this year. Hope is still my companion in this season of learning and growing. When people look at these photos it is my hopes that they can see a part of themselves. Though the people do not have lockets hung around their necks, a mirror reflecting the surrounding environment, or a person standing in the background, I have been able to carry the message that Manet was portraying in his art piece by reassigning it for our culture can better understand his meaning. 

Photographed with a Pentax Film Camera