On December 6th, I also went to visit the James Welling Exhibit. His exhibit was expansive, spanning many decades and experimenting with many different mediums and style of art. It is actually quite impressive, and a bit overwhelming for someone who had no idea who he was. While Welling experimented with many things that I could discuss, the coolest part to me was his work on the Maison de Verre.
Welling took pictures of the house which he found to be dark and depressing. The above left photo I believe captures the scene he saw. However, using photo editing technology, Welling was able to radically alter the color and space of the house in his photos. He was able to make the the dark, depressing house look elegant and bright (pictured on the right). He was able to completely misrepresent what he saw and turn it into something completely different. This got me thinking.
Above as I hope everyone knows, is an image of Darth Vader. I wanted to discuss an idea that most people don't associate with art: the dark side. Most people associate art with good, creative, emotional. It's basically only seen in a positive manner. Art is usually seen as the artists representation of what he sees. Few consider that art could also be used for more devious, darker purposes.
Take a look at the Augustus Primaporta. It was common during this period of Roman rule for leaders to appear both strong and youthful. It instilled fear in their enemies and confidence in the citizens of roman. This is one of the earliest examples of propaganda. Even during his old age, Augustus still commissioned sculptures that made him look as if he was still a young adult. Here he was deceiving his enemies and his citizens to portray an image which he clearly could not truthfully maintain. While not the most evil of purposes, it still shows arts ability to deceive.
Take a look at the art above. That is an example of Nazi propaganda. The essence of the piece is to instill hate in the Jews by demonstrating that Jews only cared for money. Now everyone knows that this isn't necessarily true, but it was effective in Nazi Germany. This piece demonstrates art's dark side. It was used to manipulate reality and portray Jews in a negative light. This style of art doesn't only occur in stringent governments or things of that nature. It occurs everyday, especially in media.
A quick google search found me this anti-gay book. This is just one example of the potential media has to shape the way society thinks. With new technologies like photoshop, videos, etc, art has a greater potential to misrepresent reality. Its ability to confuse/manipulate has increased exponentially.While we like to think that no one would manipulate people using art, it is always the possibility. We also consider the great potential art and technology has, but we never consider the darker side. This idea hit me as I walked through the Welling exhibit.
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