Music Culture

 

 

(N/T, acrylic on canvas, 130 x 89 cm)

For this painting I decided to investigate identity and culture through a means of music. Music is ever developing as is culture and someone’s identity is often influenced to some extent by these two factors. Music can be the essence of an era and the culture they are associated with and therefore I decided to investigate what music and the culture that surrounds it has influenced my identity as a young person. I took particular interest in the movement and energy that is created through music, in particular club culture and the coming together of young people in large numbers to share their enjoyment and express themselves through music creates a strong and colorful vibrancy, of which I think represents not only a young persons identity but an identity in itself. I have tried to express this energy and color in my paintings using a minimalistic approach in order to express not ones identity through what they look like or what they are made up of but through the energy and vibrancy that in fact these people give of, the coming together of people to share in their enjoyment for a particular music unites these people in a culture of their own.

(EGGS IN SEA, 73 x 100 cm, acrylic on canvas)

This painting is a further study of music and culture, looking into the drug culture associated with clubbing. Instead of painting the figures in a club or a place we recognize I have given this painting no known whereabouts and therefore these people could be anywhere. The colors I have used are also very strong and almost unrealistic and therefore we get a strong feeling for the surreal. The reds used for the people in the background bring them forward compared to the blues used in the foreground and therefore, the perspective in the painting is distorted, it is almost flat yet isn’t because of the obvious overlapping layers. There is calm in the picture yet at the same time there is also chaos, the dark blues and simplicity of most of the figures are meant to be somewhat calming compared to the bright reds and oranges in which almost look like a blazing fire. I am trying to transport the onlooker to a place of almost unwanted intensity and a feel for the unknown, yet at the same time a place of warmth, energy and happiness.

(MORIBAYASA, 73 x 100 cm, acrylic on canvas)

This painting depicts an African music scene. I chose to do the painting in black and white and with little detail in an attempt to depict the authenticity of the subject and to show the simple beauty of this African women dancing. Upon first glance the painting may not be obvious as to what it is and although not a completely conscious decision to begin with, I chose to stop at this point because I liked the interest in which that created. People then therefore take pleasure in not necessarily the painting as a whole initially but different parts of the painting become more interesting, and in the process of working out what it is the onlooker in the end perhaps takes more pleasure in the painting.