Group Presentation Project, by Water and Deja

Original Artwork

Artist: Pablo Picasso 

Year:1903

Media: Oil on panel

Dimensions: 122.9 cm × 82.6 cm

New Creation

Artist: Water and Deja

Year: 2011

Media: Mix-media (Watercolor painting and digital Photoshop)

Dimensions:  42 cm × 29.7 cm

From “The Old Guitarist” to “Uniped Artist at Central”

by Water KWONG Ka Ming and Deja Chenyang DU

This essay is based on the research expression group project in which a “Hong Kong update” of Picasso’s Old Guitarist is created, namely the Uniped Guitarist at Central. Largely inspired by the Old Guitarist, we try to reflect our re-observation of the phenomena in Hong Kong through symbolist aesthetic. The Uniped Artist at Central is highly consistent with the Old Guitarist in the melancholy state of mind expressed mainly by the mood-creating color. However, we had made a variation in terms of the subject matter, the medium and the style. And the essay will disscuss in details in the following focused areas: subject matter, composition, color and medium.

First of all, the subject matter we depict is attributed with a multi-layered identity. Unlike the old guitarist, he is disabled at the same time, with his right leg gone. Here he is, at the corner of a wall, sitting on the ground, prosthesis fallen, contrasting with the undamaged bended left leg in front of which it lies, roughly in parallels, symbolizing the unsheltered vulnerability. The vulnerability is also illustrated as his left foot is bared whereas ironically the fallen prosthesis on the ground has one on. No human would be willing to expose one’s weakness and pain to the strangers on the street. How much he must have been struggled to bear people’s eyes glancing over his damaged body with pity, scares, and despise. But he needs to do that as a common manifestation by the disabled street mendicants as if saying, “See? I am not faking it”, in order to make a living. Unlike the old guitarist, he sits straightly on his back, with his hair neatly cut and shirts clean. If we focus at his upper body, we would probably think he is any different from other young artist who actually likes to perform on the street more. The contrasting of the upper and lower part of body symbolizes the cruelty of the real world where people tend to only identify and label you based on what they see on the surface and most often by amplifying your weakness. It seems doesn’t matter much how elegantly his long and slim fingers move flexibly and how he is immersed in his music, he is still an uniped street guitarist after all, who belongs to the little corner at the wall. His guitar stretches out of the wall into the space on the right symbolizing his latent yearn towards the “outside world” which will be explained more detailed later in the essay. The guitar is aligned with the direction of the disabled leg, supplementing his disability and even extending as an extra limb of his body. The facial expression of the young artist is not as melancholy as the old guitarist, but similarly with eyes closed. He is probably immersed in the lyrical guitar melody, and by closing the eyes, all the material reality is closed out, his damaged leg and prosthesis that constantly remind him of great misery could not be seen. As eyes closed, purity and peace inside the mind achieved, temporarily, at the moment.

Together with the change in subject matter, we give Uiped Artist at Central a different composition. In the Old Guitarist, Picasso casts the subject matter with the whole attention where this old man occupies the whole canvas, even kind of squeezes into the spaces. Our uniped artist is sitting at the corner of the wall which takes around one third of the canvas, and is kind of pushed to the corner of the left bottom. The wall is surrounded by skyscrapers that occupy the rest of the space, causing some sort of tension and pressure to the space where our artist settles. The wall now looks like a strong and protective shelter, supporting up the space the uniped artist need. But the blurry edge of the wall and the surroundings suggests the intruding erosion from the material world. What is interesting is that we can only see the modernity through the setting of the background of skyscrapers, huge advertisement of digital products, and commercialized square promotion activity; there is no sign of ages by looking at the artist. The composition also shows our focus of the inward focus of the subject matter, though compared to the Old Guitarist, our work is more balanced in terms of providing a detailed background setting, making it specifically apply to Hong Kong, where arts are under-appreciated and led by the commercialized functions, materialism pervades and the disadvantaged group unprotected and edged by the society.

Moreover, consistently using the cold and dark color, blue and black to express the somber mood. Also, we do make some difference in the medium we use. The subject matter and the left corner are water painted, different from the oil painting of the Old Guitarist. The background is the central street view photo, and it is edited by Photoshop to transform into the watercolor painting to fit the style. The work is combined these two different media into one with the computer, Photoshop, and we edited it, use some effect to make the painting style consistent with the harmony mood.   

In conclusion, Uniped Artist at Central mainly expresses the struggle of the disadvantaged group and the struggle and persistence as an artist in the materialism driven society. Our main claim is especially illustrated through symbolizing the subject matter and depicting the interrelationship between the subject matter and the surroundings.