The original work
Artist: Edvard Munch
Year: 1893
Medium: Tempera and casein on cardboard
Dimension: 913mm x 737mm
The Hong Kong updated version
Artists: Leung Ka Sin (Margo), Ng Man Sze (Connie), and Seung Wai Lam (William)
Year: 2011
Medium: Oil pastel on drawing paper
Dimension: 600mm x 205mm
Introduction
The work we have chosen to remold is a painting painted by Edvard Munch, titled The Scream. This work is painted by tempera and casein on cardboard, made at 1893, length 913mm and width 737mm. The new painting we have produced is named Xiang Gang Ren. Artists included Leung Ka Sin (Margo), Ng Man Sze (Connie), and Seung Wai Lam (William). The painting finished by 2011 is an oil pastel painting on drawing paper with length 600mm and width 205mm.
Similarly, both artworks can be categorized as Post-Impressionism, Symbolism, and Expressionism, as the works contain those criteria. On the other hand, there are several differences can be observed. Different material has been used. The original painting is finished with tempera and casein, but we used oil pastel as we keen on using this medium, believing only it could achieve our expectation. Secondly, the style is different which generally includes brushstroke, colors, composition, dimensions, etc. This is due to other differences which are about the mood and subject matter. The mood should be expressed by colors, since we have different moods, we do not share the same colors. The emotion we would like to express is not only anxiety and fears, more than that, we felt depressed, confused and hopeless. Such emotions are provoked by our theme, the oppression from capitalism. It is different from the original work which simply means to express his sudden personal feelings. We have further thought about the social context.
In the following, we choose to focus and elaborate on the categories, style and subject matter.
Categories
Our painting refers to The Scream which can be fit into Post-Impressionism, Expressionism and Symbolism. Post-Impressionism does not interest in portraying the real world objectively. In The Scream, we can see that Munch wanted to express his individual expression rather than to depict the real world. Besides, the form in Post-Impressionism always uses the visible and distinctive brushstrokes. These all could be found in The Scream.
In our painting, we use the same idea and brushstrokes with Post-Impressionism in the original work. For example, not painting a real world, mainly focusing on how our feelings are expressed. In our opinion, we are oppressed by the Hong Kong financial community and the Capitalism. Most people in Hong Kong are influenced by the turbulent economy. In order to live in a better, people are forced to cater the social economy with no ends. Hong Kong is on the top of the problem of extreme disparity between the rich and the poor in Asia. No matter how hardworking people are, they can not reach the standard point. That’s why they feel disturbed, anxious and frightened. In order to express these emotions, we decided to use the visible and distinctive brushstrokes of Post-Impressionism which can emphasize and perform the feelings in an intensive way.
Similarly, both artworks can be categorized as Post-Impressionism, Symbolism, and Expressionism, as the works contain those criteria. On the other hand, there are several differences can be observed. Different material has been used. The original painting is finished with tempera and casein, but we used oil pastel as we keen on using this medium, believing only it could achieve our expectation. Secondly, the style is different which generally includes brushstroke, colors, composition, dimensions, etc. This is due to other differences which are about the mood and subject matter. The mood should be expressed by colors, since we have different moods, we do not share the same colors. The emotion we would like to express is not only anxiety and fears, more than that, we felt depressed, confused and hopeless. Such emotions are provoked by our theme, the oppression from capitalism. It is different from the original work which simply means to express his sudden personal feelings. We have further thought about the social context.
In the following, we choose to focus and elaborate on the categories, style and subject matter.
Categories
Our painting refers to The Scream which can be fit into Post-Impressionism, Expressionism and Symbolism. Post-Impressionism does not interest in portraying the real world objectively. In The Scream, we can see that Munch wanted to express his individual expression rather than to depict the real world. Besides, the form in Post-Impressionism always uses the visible and distinctive brushstrokes. These all could be found in The Scream.
In our painting, we use the same idea and brushstrokes with Post-Impressionism in the original work. For example, not painting a real world, mainly focusing on how our feelings are expressed. In our opinion, we are oppressed by the Hong Kong financial community and the Capitalism. Most people in Hong Kong are influenced by the turbulent economy. In order to live in a better, people are forced to cater the social economy with no ends. Hong Kong is on the top of the problem of extreme disparity between the rich and the poor in Asia. No matter how hardworking people are, they can not reach the standard point. That’s why they feel disturbed, anxious and frightened. In order to express these emotions, we decided to use the visible and distinctive brushstrokes of Post-Impressionism which can emphasize and perform the feelings in an intensive way.
For Expressionism, the art works always painted in exaggerated, unusual figures and expressive form or color to express their feelings and meanings. In The Scream, we can see that the sky and the screamer are in twisted and simplified forms. Also, the painter used red, orange and dark blue, such vivid colors to show his feelings.
The above-mentioned characteristics of Expressionism would also be seen in our work. For instances, we depicted the Hong Kong buildings in forms of vine. We also used many vivid and contrasted colors, such as orange and blue, purple and yellow, to express the intense feelings.
Symbolism works of art keep an eye on the dark side or the humanistic spirit, like anxiety and hopelessness. In the case of The Scream, it shows the anxious and fearful emotion of the Screamer that fit the characteristics of expressing the inside, surd environment. Similarly, we also use forms, colors, space to construct the state of mind including anxiety, scared, misgivings and hopelessness.
Through comparison, the differences of the forms are clearly observed.
Style
The Scream used both twisted lines and straight lines to guide the audience to appreciates’ sight to the work of art in a route, from background to the Screamer then to the men, which has a circulate cycle of view. It contained many curved lines in the sky and the sea. Also, the Screamer includes a twisted body shape. The purpose is to simplify the forms of the object which become unrealistic, and provoke a disturbed emotion. On the other hand, Munch painted the bridge on straight lines. This indicates the audience to pay attention to the men from far distance.
In Xiang Gang Ren, we mainly use curved lines and waves to construct the picture. Because using the curved lines is the best choice to perform the representations of buildings as vine and rotary. Curved lines provide a visual unbalanced to the audience, and can express the feelings of anxiety, scared and hopeless. Besides, it can make the texture like the vine and the brick as well. Finally, the curved lines guide audience to view from bottom to the top.
In terms of colors, although we used many orange, reddish, dark blue colors as same as The Scream, we put the position of colors in different directions. In The Scream, the sky mainly use orange, reddish colors and the ocean or land mainly use dark blue color ,to make a sense of psychological instability. However, we inverse to use the reddish colors on the bottom to depict the vine-like buildings, and we use dark colors to paint the well-like buildings on top. Usages of these contrast colors showed the meanings of wicked and dangerous like fire, and the ruthless and rigid like the stone of well.
Furthermore, we also added some green and yellow colors to show the variation and connection of the buildings. The grading developed a connection between the top and bottom. Additionally, those colors can make the painting to become more plentiful and dramatic.
Comparing the spaces, the space in The Scream develops in crosswise. However, our painting develops in vertical direction. We glance from middle towards surroundings horizontally when watching The Scream. On the other hand, the development of our painting is from bottom up. The wide space of The Scream developed an extend of ocean and the sky. However, we stretched the space to provide a narrow, crowded and deep space that means the Capitalism occupied our space and constrict our life.
Our visions
The original work of Munch is about expressing his anxiety and fears. Unlike Munch, we established and visualized a clearer subject matter that provokes our emotions, and Xiang Gang Ren would contain more social context. The main idea of this painting is the oppression from the upper class towards ordinary people in Hong Kong. Upper class includes the leading persons of Hong Kong which is highly materialism and consumerism.
Such inspiration came from our daily life. There was once a radio program that had invited the Financial Secretary of HKSAR, Mr. Tsang, one of the audiences phoned and told Mr. Tsang that she and her husband were not capable for a small apartment in commercial area, while they were doctors and lawyers who commonly recognized as elite professionals with high-income. Moreover, Mr. Tsang recommended them to reduce their criteria of housing choices or choose to rent rather than buy. This discourse has immediately become a hot topic for discussion within Hong Kong. The pressures and costs for a home is extraordinarily high in Hong Kong nowadays, leading the dream of owning a house becomes more difficult.
Even the government would not provide helps. Furthermore, the society keeps pushing and brainwashing working class to own a house or apartment, one significant example would be the advertisements. The advertisements usually broadcast in the golden-period on TV, brainwashing us that owning an apartment is a requirement for being respectful. More than that, they sponsored the TV station in many programs, in exchange, TV station established several programs discussing about buying a house, leaving us no room to escape from their marketing policies.
It is also essential to mention about the gap of rich and poor in Hong Kong is one of the greatest nations. Under the economic circumstances of Hong Kong, riches become richer and poor keeps being poor or worse. The upper class is empowered rapidly but the condition of working class is growing worse.
There is an issue that is equally important for discussion. Personally as an arts student, our future in Hong Kong is not optimistic, since art related career opportunities in Hong Kong are not enough for many students. The society is dominated by economy, or simply money. There are not enough places, spiritually or physically, for us to express our voices to the public. We have to sacrifice our interests for the society, for instances, many art lovers or talents were forced to enter business field to earn a living.
Our souls are represented as the “screamer” in the painting. The buildings symbolized the consuming, materialistic and capitalistic pressure. They became vines that captured and tortured our souls, not letting us to reach our sky, forming a well-like spiral, leading us to a depressed, hopeless, and insecure situation.
Conclusion
In conclusion, Xiang Gang Ren told the depressed, hopeless, and insecure situation and feelings of Hong Kong people under capitalism and consumerism. Although the only similarity is the categorization, the differences in style and subject matter made our own statement clearly.
Reference list:
Adams, Laurie. Art Across Time. Boston: McGraw-Hill, 2007.
Berger, John. Ways of Seeing. New York: Penguin, 1972.
This is my favourite so far from the series. I feel more of a sense that the group has absorbed the essence of Munch's painting but produced something that reflects their own experiences. I think it works well from the image I have seen. Congratulations to you Carol and the group for this interesting project.
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