Just what is it that makes today's homes so different, collage, 2011

Group project

Just what is it that makes today's homes so different, collage, 2011

Before photoshop

After photoshop

In order to fully explain the comparison between our 2011 Hong Kong Pop Art piece ‘Just what is it that makes today's homes so different, collage, 2011’ and   ‘Just what is it that makes today’s home so different, so appealing’ this essay shall discuss and define key elements of pop art movement, Richard Hamilton’s collage and his views on what constitutes pop art and finally how these influence our piece in terms of subject, form, media, colour and composition.

The Pop Art movement used images of popular culture, mass media, consumer society and commercialism to make a commentary on a cultural atmosphere and way of life within western culture in New York and London during the sixties. “It was born in an entirely a Western phenomenon, born under capitalist, technological conditions in an industrial society” (Osterworld, 2007). The subject matter is rooted in everyday life; it mirrors contemporary reality and provokes and reflects upon cultural change- this is also shown through the forms and media. For example Pop Art’s media sources included the comic strip, the advertising blow-up, the famous-name-brand package, and the visual clichés of billboard, newspaper, movie theatre, and television. “It strove for an ‘objectivity’ embodied by an imagery of objects, what contributed to the special impact of Pop Art was the main mundane character of the objects selected. As a result, Pop art was regarded by many as an assault on accepted conventions and aesthetic standards.” (Schneider- Adams, 2003) Pop art often consists of bright, quirky, neon colours, ordinary objects turned into art, different hues and focused on the contours, shapes and basics of a picture. These elements can be seen in work completed by Andy Warhol, Richard Hamilton, etc. All of whom who have influenced our work to a certain extent, however, Richard Hamilton was our main influence.

Richard Hamilton’s collage, titled, ‘Just what is it that makes today’s home so different, so appealing’ was very influential in shaping our 2011 Hong Kong Pop Art piece. By using every mass media element he was able to create with his collage using “a hilarious parody of the superficiality and materialism of modern popular culture” which we believe is very similar to the attitudes and beliefs of Hong Kong today, in which we have striven to make a comparison within our work. Hong Kong is often describes as materialistic and perceived as putting up a front. For example people buy designer handbags rather than other essentials needed as they care what people think of them. There is an obsession with commercialism and shopping which is perceived as a ‘serious sport’ (Gershman, 1997) and people have a cult like obsession with their designer labels. There is also a huge desire to fit in due to the homogenous population and the identity crisis that Hong Kong faces at the minute (as there is a rupture and discontinuity between what they really are and what they are becoming) therefore people have a desire to be part of a homogenous group rather than to stand out and be different. There is also a new bred of people emerging from Hong Kong who are not as conventional as the others. They worship the western way of doing things yet maintain certain Chinese moral ideas, they often end up being in an awkward position. But Hong Kong is like any other East Coast cities, diverse and generous enough to embrace culture of all kind. Our piece tries to illustrate things that make the new breed of Hong Kong homogenous in hope that people can identify with this Hong Kong way of living. City University Hong Kong states that this country is a ‘social and cultural phenomena in this place where East meets West where metropolitanity, juxta positions with parochialism, where nationalism and individuals grow simultaneously, where traditions are constantly negotiable and remade’

However it was not only his artwork that influenced our choice of subject, tone and media but his writing on Pop Art also. Hamilton stated that for art to be considered pop art it should be popular (designed for a mass audience), transient (short-term solutions), expendable, low cost, mass produced, young, witty, sexy, gimmicky, glamorous and a big business. All of which helped us shape the subjects and media chosen.

In terms of our piece, our "Hong Kong Update" shares several characteristics with the renowned collage. For instance, in terms of style, both artworks are collages, a variety of pictures and photos were selected and cut from magazines and newspapers (Davletkaliyev, 2009). They then were assembled together with right proportions, which created realistic, three-dimensional scenes of modern living rooms.

The images that were juxtaposed in both collages are partially similar. They both depicted a common living room with domestic artifacts such as coffee tables and sofas (Davletkaliyev, 2009). Similar to Hamilton’s version, our collage has a figure at the left hand side of the picture. However, we also used the photoshop changing some part of the picture's color, in order to make two pictures more similar. The naked man transferred to a pretty lady in business suit, stretching for an iphone 3. To replace the man by a woman is not just because women are playing a more and more important role in the Hong Kong society, they are smart, successful and independent, gregarious, especially in the business field. This woman also represents the “Hong Kong woman” phenomenon nowadays – women that are self-glorifying, materialistic, xenomania and neglectful. They are interested in new technological development, or interested in owning new electronic devices as well as fancy clothes. They have sex casually and are reluctant to commit to long term relationships. They are both street smart and book smart, getting along well with others and take no major responsibilities in office. This is depicted in our collage as the woman steps on a boxer and a sexy purple bra.

In the middle of the picture floats a panda, we see it as the China factor together with the big Putonghua signs that are growing in popularity, as well as the social networks symbols, mashing together in the air, like they do in Hong Kong.

Besides, images of different brand names were placed in Hamilton's collage, such as the Ford insignia and the Hoover advertisement. In our project, we also juxtaposed a wide variety of labels. Nevertheless, they are more relevant to the present experiences of Hong Kong people. For example, there are the logos of   Hermes, Chanel, SaSa and 7-11, which are common places Hong Kong people enjoy going and shopping. Interestingly, there are two other logos right above the half-naked man - Bank of East Asia and the Citibank, which are the quintessential examples of where Hong Kong people spend most of their time at- in the bank or on the way to the bank, or at least the ATM machine. The old lady at the upper platform epitomizes the aging problem in Hong Kong as well as the importance of social welfare for the elderly. Though raring the young and caring for the old is still the traditional function of the family unit in Hong Kong, most elderly felt left out an isolated (Chow). In order to find things to do, also to find a way to please/help their children, some uneducated elderly would seek ways to create money- usually by participating in the stock market, or buying some mini bonds. Due to the Subprime crisis in 2009, lots of the mini bonds they bought have defaulted, swallowing all their savings which were supposed to be their pension. Therefore, the old lady in our project looks very distressed and frustrated, unable to find a solution because an irresponsible business woman is messing with her money, thus she is beside a stove used to burn money to give a sense of irony in the picture.

We can see that a modern Hong Kong house has both western and eastern elements, the tea pot sits together with a cup of take-away Starbucks Coffee, the car and the tram, the modern house design with Buddha as decoration. After introducing the three typical figures in our Hong Kong idea house, you may wonder why there’s no baby in this house if Asian people cherish family this much. Well, not just because of the universal trend of being a DINK, we don’t put a baby in this collage because, after all, Hong Kong has one of the world’s lowest birth rates.

In a conclusion, both collages have shown us the popular culture of their time and countires, and what is needed in order to be in a perfect, appealing home (McHale, unknown). Our piece is an epitome of the materialistic society and the superficial human relationship jeopardized by social networking sites. The home setting is certainly different from what it was considered appealing 55 years ago in America, what matters most is the new psychological aspect of our subject in modern Hong Kong popular culture. It is indeed what makes today’s home so different.

References:

City University

Gershman, Suzy (1997) ‘Shop in the name of love’ in ‘Hong Kong: True Stories of Life on the Road’, San Francsico: Travellers’ Tale Inc. http://www.cuhk.edu.hk/ant/publish/culture.pdf
T. Osterworld, Pop Art, 2007 Taschen GMB

Nelson Wing Sun Chow, “The Chinese Family and Support of the Elderly in Hong Kong” Oxford Journals
Schneider- Adams, L. (2002) Art Across Time Vol II, 2nd Edition, Boston McGraw Collegehttp://www.cuhk.edu.hk/ant/publish/culture.pdf

http://gerontologist.oxfordjournals.org/content/23/6/584.extract (access Apr 11th, 2011)

 McHale, John (unknown) Mchale Interview http://www.warholstars.org/articles/johnmchale/richardhamilton2.html (access Apr 11th, 2011)

Sunderland, MJ (2010) Just What is It That Makes Today’s Homes So Different, So Appealing? http://quazen.com/arts/visual-arts/just-what-is-it-that-makes-todays-homes-so-different-so-appealing/ (access Apr 11th, 2011)

Davletkaliyev, Rakhim (2009) Just What is It That Makes Today’s Homes So Different, So Appealing? http://css.freetonik.com/wiki/visual_art:just_what_is_it_that_makes_today_s_homes_so_different_so_appealing?do=backlink (access Apr 11th, 2011)

by

Chan Yee Ching, Luna

Sarah Hamilton

Yang Xiao, Sunny

YANG Wen, Sabrina