A realization
Hi I’m back again. Just came back. Todae went to Eud’s house to do op preparation and wrap up the rest of pw stuff, such as organizing the group working file and stuff. Cosy but simple dwelling place. Nothing much to say abt pw, but got some comments abt her piano. Surprisingly felt at ease playing her piano although her’s is a different brand. Got quite sensitive touch, very good for playing the sentimental tunes, but when it comes to playing chao ji loud, the sound gets abit too harsh, like the piano cannot take it like that. I’m not saying that the piano is no good, I think it is definitely a cut above the rest, better than Kawaii or Yamaha, but for those people whose forte is in playing the more louder songs and banging the piano,(banging is not always bad) sorry la this piano is not for u.
Tmw got the real op. at eud house rehearsed twice, timing to fast. under 5 mins, so tonight better not practice, or else become too familiar wif the script already then tmw speak even faster.
And on to other things…
This may be abit boring to some, but since this blog is a personal diary, I can write whatever I want. I noe that becoz of my fascination wif such communist posters, I have been often branded by some friends as a “communist aminah”, whatever that means, I’m still trying to figure out. I wd like to take this opportunity to clarify that I am NOT communist! Socialism is quite an unrealistic concept if u think abt it, something that will never work in this world…or the next Even those leaders who called themselves helmsmen of the “socialist cause” all talk cock one. Bottomline of telling the whole wide world that they are running a communist state is that they want legal mandate for full power (socialism essentially means an egalitarian society under dictatorship of the proletariat) and employ a personality cult to make the people to kowtow to them like nobody’s business although in reality they suck (wif the exemption of Stalin. That man very clever one. Don’t play play).
What I’m interested in, rather, is the art produced to build up that above-mentioned cult. All the posters/art were painted super real, as though they were really a reflection of what was happening at that point in time, hence the term socialist “realism”, to make people believe that the socialist state was the best, the superior one, the ultimate, unequalled in all aspects. Ya I noe this is not new, u all probably already encountered this when u were studying history back in secondary school. “The tone and purpose of this source is to …” Sound familiar? I also took as given fact as true,…but its only now that I discovered that some of the subliminal messages these posters convey r more powerful than u think.
That day I was leafing thru this biography on Mao at kino(Mao: A Life by Philip Short, I think), then as usual flip to the center glossy pages where they have a lot of pictures. Look see look see, hmm not bad some of the pictures quite well taken...I always was conscious that Mao in posters always portrayed as a great leader and father figure, always smiling to show off his white teeth, and strong and healthy, towering above the masses like some demi-god. Then flip flip flip suddenly stumbled on this picture of mao in his last years. WAH LAU AEI! His eye bags were saggy and black, clothes were too big for him, got black teeth somemore, and skin like everywhere got orr ba kak like that. Nao hia like decomposing from inside like that! LOOK LIKE MR BEAN! Dam disgusting. Then somemore the caption said that Mao never bathed or brushed his teeth in his dong noe how many years in power, from the time when he led the Red Army during the Long March (1934–35) up til his death.
Goodness, I was like totally stunned…For months I’ve been admiring these communist posters, marveling at now zai the artists’ skill is, how dynamic and well structured the composition is, and after a while I really began to slowly accept these images that paint a rosy picture although somehow I’m still consciously aware that life there was shit…. I always thought that figures in the posters looked so real because they were painted from life. That despite having a failing system, there were still some strong and healthy ones who modelled in the posters. Same thing goes for mao. I accepted all his painted features copied from a real photo… then see a real picture of him in real life really puts u into stun mode…something like people telling u that now Muslims stop praying to mecca like that.(just an analogy. I’m not being racist) It was that sudden shock that jolted me up and made me realize firsthand how powerful such posters were.
Wow, to think that art was so powerful, unconsciously manipulating the way u see things.. such that fiction becomes fact and fact becomes fiction. It was this fascination with propoganda employed across the communist bloc that inspired me to begin on my June painting this year, The Window. Of course there are other influences to the window, such as Orwell’s 1984 (in the later stages, that shifted my focus from doing something abt life under communism to a focus on life under a super oppressive dictatorship described in the book.). Then another influence was of an open window wif a view of the Kremlin in Moscow (of which a color-edited version appears as my background here).
So there u have it, how 3 supposedly unrelated sources of inspiration combine into producing one work. The human brain doesn’t work in isolation. Quite amazing how the mind works isn’t it?At this point I seemed to have completely digressed from my original point, but never mind.
alvin ong dozed and watched the sawdust trampled night @ 10:57 PM
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