Comparing “The Old Guitarist” and “The Crazy Otaku”
Venus Li Ka Ching
Jimmy Li Kam Fung
Artist: Pablo Picasso
Year:1903
Media: Oil on panel
Dimensions: 122.9 cm × 82.6 cm
Artist: Venus Li, Minnie Cheng, Jimmy Li
Year:2011
Media: Water colour painting
Dimensions: 26.5 cm × 18.5 cm
The original work that we have chosen is “The Old Guitarist” painted by Pablo Picasso in the year of 1903. And the title of our own work is called “The Crazy Otaku”. The similarities between the original work and our own work are the composition, the perspective and the colour tone. And the differences are the subject matter, the medium and the message brought by the painting. For the composition, both include a man who is holding an object. Also, both use similar colour tone, there are only two contrasted colours used in the paintings, blue and brown for the “The Old Guitarist”, green and pink for “The Crazy Otaku”, the colours used are monochromatic. And for the difference in medium, the original work is an oil painting but in our own work we use water-colour.
In the following essay, we would like to focus on the composition, subject matter and the message brought by the paintings. Firstly, the composition of the two paintings is similar. The perspective of depicting the paintings is similar that the men and the objects held by them occupied the largest area of the painting. Both men are sitting on the floor with the head looking downward and holding an object with the same posture. Also, the objects of the two paintings that are the guitar of the original work and the Lang mo cushion held by the otaku are also facing the audience.
In addition, the subject matter of the two paintings is different. For the original work, “The Old Guitarist”, there is an old, blind, pale man with shabby clothing weakly sits beside his guitar. But for our own work, “The Crazy Otaku”, there is a crazy otaku with glasses holding his Lang mo cushion with 1:1 size tightly. “Otaku” is originally a Japanese term used to refer to people with obsessive interests, particularly anime, manga, or video games as defined by Wikipedia, and it is also widely used in Hong Kong to describe those men who are crazy for the Pseudo-models or Lang mos. Lang mo is a Cantonese slang term used to describe a type of models in Hong Kong who appeared in the late 2000s, and became popular in Hong Kong in 2009. Lang mos refer to young “models” with no professional model’s training and who do not have the fit bodies to perform high fashion catwalk, as they do not have a minimum height of 5'9". Lang mos usually work as promotional models at fairs and expositions. They often attract media and otaku by welcoming photo-taking of their beauty and body figures.
Furthermore, the message brought by the two paintings is different. For “The Old Guitarist”, the soft and mixed blue palette highlights a tragic and sorrowful feeling. The guitarist is nearly dead, representing that he is not so satisfied with the world. Simplified details and elongated proportions are found to emphasize his quiet meditation and a sense of spirituality. Moreover, the dull brown guitar fills up the area around the guitarist in both symbolical and physical ways. It is also the center and focus. The guitar indicates the guitarist's isolated world and the only wish to survive. A guitar, as a musical instrument, is a natural mean for expressing emotions so this allows the guitarist to share his loneliness. Some art historians believe this painting expresses the lonely life of an artist and the automatic struggles that are brought by the profession. Therefore, music, or art, comes as a burden and a dividing drive, isolating artists from the rest of the world. Art itself is a symbol of rejection and solitude. Although the old man is as poor as Picasso that they could even hardly make a living, they still continue to pursue their hobby, playing music and painting respectively. It implies that what Picasso chases for his whole life is something spiritual and intangible.
However, the message brought by our own painting “The Crazy Otaku” is about the present day Hong Kong. In these days, there are lots of Otaku who are crazy for the Lang mos. They only focus on their Lang mo idols and go to all of their functions. Those otaku will buy the sexy items of their Lang mo idols, just like the cushion with 1:1 size, bikini’s photos and photos album, etc. Those models are usually beautiful with good body figures, they become a kind of wish-fulfillment for the otaku as most otaku are those who are not good at communication and socializing, they are afraid of making friends with girls, so they have to buy the 1:1 sized-cushions to fulfill their wish of holding a girl and have the sexual imagination. We painted “The Crazy Otaku” not only for criticizing the unhealthy situation of those Otaku but also the Lang mo in Hong Kong. Many of them have now issued 'albums' which are launched at book fairs and sold at newsstands. These have been generally criticized as 'low-class' and 'inappropriate'. A famous social critic Chip Tsao, said: "allowing these vulgar photo books to be sold in the book fair reflects a wide spread of stupidity in Hong Kong." Also, they appeared in the annual Hong Kong Book Fair and signed for their album, this caused a media stir and a chaos of otaku. Therefore, our own work “The Crazy Otaku” probably shows the phenomenon of otaku and Lang mo in Hong Kong nowadays.
In conclusion, “The Crazy Otaku” is a work criticizing the corrupt condition of the otaku and the Lang mos in Hong Kong. We think that Hong Kong people should not provoke the harmful trend of the Lang mos as they twist the original nature of models’ career and affect the attitude of teenagers towards money since Lang mos give a wrong concept for them that they can earn money in that easy way by showing off their body with scanty clothes. Instead, we should face this problem squarely and stop the prosperity of Lang mos’ business in order to help those otaku to return to society.
References:
“Pseudo-model – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pseudo-model (accessed Jul. 2, 2010).
“Otaku – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Otaku (accessed Apr. 14, 2011).
“The Old Guitarist – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Old_Guitarist (accessed Apr. 9, 2011).
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