This part summarizes the original ideas that supports my paintings and relative theory towards the establishment of the core thoughts, and I started to exploring the concept of the alienation, the term that could be seen as the new aspect throughout my entire works. In terms of my works that shows in the former pages, the core notion of the paintings should be the illustration of the term “Alienation”, which means the separation of what can not be separated with distortion, the loss of the perception of affiliation and the sense of incapability comprehensively reflects the essense of the life the real world. Nowadays, the committed suicide and other psychological diseases ruined millions human beings, the core intentions of my paintings were aiming at exploring the essense of the reason that caused the unexpected problems, and explored he theories behind the life-and-death matter.
Apart from the core ideas of the term “Alienation”, the theories of existentialism and absurdism also need to be taken into account through the Unit 1. At the beginning, I started to exploring the ideas that Albert Camus and Jean-Paul Sartre came up with at the first time and tried to comprehend the connection between alienation and absurdism under psychology matter, the illustration of the thoughts from Albert Camus was later unscrambled by Genovese (2010), the sense of absurd in human life connected with the direct life experiences, which concluded the difficulties, inanity and even the emotions after despairing and exhausted. The life experiences that connects the term of absurdism from the Albert Camus were generally emerged throughout my first works. In addition, the speech of the “L'Existentialisme est un humanism” from Jean-Paul Sartre also reminds me of the freelance of the human and the freedom choice that people could handle under different circumstances. But, the so-called “freedom choice” wouldn’t be random and people are likely to responsible for their choice and any actions they take under different situation. Therefore, people will feel painful and the sense of alienation when they have to consider the social responsibility as matter and set the pattern for the society after making any choices(Sartre& Mairet, 1960). In my second paintings in Unit 1, enlightening by concept of existentialism that Sartre proposed, I tried to reveal today’s human life by endowing the ability of making voice for a people under pressure, the pressure was caused by his responsibility for the society and any essenses of his actions. The terms and concepts constituted my paintings “Urban Depression”, and whether the essence of the pressure was caused by human, society or any other external forces need a further discussion by exploring the forms of arts.
Absurdism in Arts World
Absurdists usually consider their life to be frozen, visible with frequent burning, and absorbed the power from the weird life thoughts (Pölzler,2014). Starting from the basic belief of absurdity, Camus changed philosophy from learning death to learning students, which is a life philosophy of actively understading the world. According to the understanding of absurdism, the world people live in is a huge absurd world, and human history is developed in the continuous confrontation of this huge absurdity. People must try their best to overcome the threat of death and emptiness to resist the heavy pressure brought by the nothingness and absurdity of the world. Although some people sometimes don't know it, this is an objective fact (Shobeiri,2014). According to Adler (1980), giving meaning and purpose to the original meaningless and purposeless life, so that we can slowly overcome absurdity and nothingness, get rid of the trouble of death and emptiness, and then sublimate ourselves into an individual full of hope and rich life. Above that, my paintings from Unit 1 will follow these thoughts from the relative conclusion of the Albert Camus and other psychological expert to prove that people could overcome the death and other fear of the life pressure by endowing the value for the meaningless matter.
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“Untitled (Glass on Body Imprints—Face)”, 1972 Courtesy of Ana Mendieta
The photo shows Mendieta twisting her face with a glass plate. The bones become malleable, the eye sockets become strong, and the chin becomes fragmented. It is an uncomfortable scene for people to accept, which raises the uncertainty about the surrounding atmosphere.
Persistence of Memory, 1931. Museum of Modern Art (MOMA), New York, USA by Salvador Dali
According to Camus, people questioned the world, but the world did not give clear and irrefutable evidence. The absurd experience is the disconnect we feel between the need for a place in the universe and our inability to find it. Clinically, this confrontation is manifested as existential anxiety, neurosis or simple incomprehension.
Absurdity is an uncomfortable, disturbing consciousness. There is an inconsistent or wrong connection between an experience and its meaning. It happens in the most common activities, such as walking to the prayer room, standing in the medical emergency room or waiting in line for the bus. One becomes aware of one's actions, thoughts, or love as if viewed from a distance, but it doesn't make sense. This sense of absurdity is experienced as disharmony and, in extreme cases, may manifest as psychosis.
Absurdity is also a moment when we look at ourselves without emotion and understand our pretentiousness in confusion. The reflection on absurd experiences reveals how short the illusory is and illusory the activities we cherish. The appearance we build in life, a great resume, impressive lecture credits, an amazing income, is futile because the objective universe makes our efforts meaningless and insignificant.
The Lovers, 1928. Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), New York, USA, Rene Magritte
Existentialism does not encourage individuals to feel compelled to act in a certain way because of social or cultural influences. It urges people to create themselves according to their feelings and ideas, and then take corresponding actions. Surrealist art also breaks the art Convention and aims at creating "reality" under the sense of existentialism. Surrealist art puts forward the same problem of life and death, which faithfully reflects the experience of existentialism and absurd philosophy.
Rene Magritte's painting the lovers arouses the disgust. It depicts a fear and paradox that a couple is castrated and incompetent at a passionate moment. People might be frustrated because the lovers were estranged from each other and looked ridiculous when trying to express themselves. This classic surrealist image, without emotion, represents absurdity.
The Utilization of the Existentialism
Speaking of existentialism, Jean-Paul Sartre brings me ideas and thought, which I could use as the psychological theory through my works. Sartre talks about personal freedom from human subjectivity. He believes that people have absolute freedom when they choose their own essence. Freedom is the essential attribute of man, and all human actions are the result of free choice. This freedom is absolute and unlimited (Sartre, 1974). The core thoughts of Sartre’s philosophical theory is to emphasize that philosophy should study people's problems, recognize that people live in a certain "environment", and emphasize people's value and responsibility. From this point, it is very valuable. Sartre's "existence precedes essence" denies the existence of God and breaks the idealistic view that God creates human essence. At the same time, he also opposes the fatalistic view that human essence is doomed. Sartre noticed the great role of people's subjective efforts and subjective initiative in determining people's essence, which helps to highlight people's personality and enhance people's self-confidence(Webber, 2009). Therefore, in my later works, I would see the painfulness of the people as the major source of creative painting, and concentrated more on the human and its impact that brought for the society and the whole world.
First of all, COVID-19 has destroyed millions of businesses, and people lost their jobs without any premonition. The situation that we are suffering is difficult and unprecedented. But many people will eventually regroup and reorient our lives to other purposes. Sadly, some people can't do that.
"Existential anxiety" or existential fear is a common term used by many existential thinkers. The reason for this negative emotion is the fear of exercising your freedom of choice, anxiety, and the fear of making mistakes.
It is generally believed that the negative emotion derived from the experience of human freedom and responsibility. If Sartre and his existential predecessors and peers are really stage fright, rather than just posing to modify their existential characters and improve their book sales, frankly, they are neither prepared nor emotionally or psychologically mature enough to make such a decision.
Dan Herschlein, By a Tender Process, 2017
This picture is deeply disturbing, but it is very appropriate, especially considering the era in which we live, more and more people are isolated and alone in dark rooms, only related to a luminous blue screen. This intentional separation is its own beheading form and a kind of suppression of neurons, which is conducive to number of brain numb images to appease and soothe the confusion of modern thinking. Nevertheless, in 2017's "Tender Process", the central figure finally established a connection with another headless body outside the window. When the other person's face looked back at us, the psychological pain of the broken encounter was captured. Now, we need artists who are not afraid to tear their own flesh, and to show their uncertainty and the inherent fear of living.
Milos Kalisk, untitled, 2021
This image is illustrating a man living in a colorful room sitting on the coach with shape of whale, it shows that the human is dreaming of himself in an abundant life before going outside. The desperate outside dark images shows that people are freedom enough to live in the lighten Utopia, but the consequences of living inside the Utopia need to be considered since the darkness would be come randomly.
Alienation
The sense of alienation represents a person's "sense of powerlessness" and "sense of belonging" when facing others and the outside world. It seems that his subjective can not exert influence the world, so as to produce a meaningless feeling. An alienated person cannot actively influence the world, but as a passive object affected by the outside world. This problem seems to be diversified. A person's understanding of the world largely determines his attitude towards alienation. Alienation itself is a trend, but the feelings of helplessness, anxiety and depression behind it will affect our individual development. How to deal with the sense of alienation need a further expertizing.
The problem seems unsolvable and the alienation faced by mankind is largely reflected by reliance on technology, and the alienation brought by technology cannot be solved at present. It is impossible for people to decide their own life independently under the huge utilization of technology. Technology undertakes the function of expanding comfortable life and improving labor productivity, the completion of this function will lead to people's obedience to technology and equipment. Therefore, the alienation of man himself, the alienation of the relationship between personality and others, between man and the world, is a topic of amazing significance in today's globalization and survival vitality.
In here, I read and collected the works from Edward Hopper, a prominent American realist painter and printmaker. Instead of following the paradigm of his peers and Mentors who detailed crowded and bustling spaces, Hopper shifted the focus of social realism into encapsulating the loneliness of living in the city. What Hopper have brought coincidentally connects with the current human life, which concludes the loneliness and exclusion. Therefore, I tried to explore the life of Edward Hopper and tried to analyze his works in terms of the concept “Alienation”
Edward Hopper, Office in a Small City (1953)
Edward Hopper, Automat (1927)
Inspired by French realists, Hooper uses his observation to show the bland isolation hidden in the background of constantly bright lights and urban noise. His famous works, such as Automat (1927)
and Office in a Small City (1953), brought collective pain to capitalist modernity. Hopper shaped the outer space in these portraits to represent the internality of the theme. In Automat (1927), the light green background sets off the outline of a female subject, who studies the content of the drink alone. The city streets and women's clothes behind the cafe were shrouded in darkness, which linked the atmosphere of the city to her depression.
Hopper depicts a minimalist sitting in an office and observing the city skyline absently. From men's blank response to daily business tasks, a monotonous and unrelenting sense of confinement is concretized. In this picture, the claustrophobic boredom of ordinary people implies the pale price of perusing the American dream, which is the dull routine of modern life. Hopper conveys a realistic effect of being artificially and limiting oversaturation the spiritual rigidity or lack thereof in capitalist modernity.
References
Genovese, M. K. (2010). Meaningful Meaninglessness: Albert Camus' Presentation of Absurdism as a Foundation for Goodness.
Sartre, J. P., & Mairet, P. (1960). Existentialism and humanism (p. 28). London: Methuen.
Becker E. The Denial of Death. New York: The Free Press; 1973.
Lifton RJ. On Death and the Continuity of Life: A “New” Paradigm. History of Childhood Quarterly. 1974, 1:681-696.
Camus A. The Myth of Sisyphus and Other Essays. New York: Vintage Books, 1991.
Pölzler, T. (2014). Absurdism as self-help: Resolving an essential inconsistency in Camus’ early philosophy. Journal of Camus studies, 2014.
Shobeiri, A., & Shobeiri, A. (2014). Samuel Beckett’s absurdism: pessimism or optimism. International Journal of Humanities and Social Science, 4(11), 1.
Adler, T. P. (1980). The mirror as stage prop in modern drama. Comparative Drama, 14(4), 355-373.
Sartre, J. P. (1974). Between existentialism and Marxism.
Webber, J. (2009). The Existentialism of Jean-Paul Sartre. Routledge.