THE ABOVE IS REAL LIFE. THE BELOW IS NOT.
Red horizontal by Giesele Amantea is a piece of public art that stretches across the seawall in false creek. This piece specifically caught my eye amongst more common blasé concrete, glass, and steel structures of public art in Yaletown. Each tile contains a photograph of an interior room of the residents of Yaletown. I feel that the art piece is successfully executed with a brilliant red, yet a lingering feeling of dishonesty resonates in the photos. Each living space is organized, orderly and despicably spotless with beds made, books placed in shelves and unwanted unmentionables quietly tucked away. We lose a sense of transparency when we look at these photos. We lose a sense of realism. It is like looking into a glossy magazine with of course, the perfect lighting that correctly highlights the room furniture and no flaws that awkwardly distract the living arrangement. The coldness and stagnancy of the rooms leave something to be desired, as if they are "un-lived" in.
Presumably it was the home owners choice of how their living space was going to be portrayed. I can understand why they chose to tidy up though. If your living space was going to be immortalized in public, wouldn't you want it to look at the very least, decent?
And yes that is a picture of my room and it usually always looks like that.
Now to finish off with a haiku.
Red living room.
Is that chair from ikea?
I believe it is.
By: Crecien Bencio, the resident haiku kid
Love the haiku, Crecien.
ReplyDeleteI have a typewriter in my room as well! Found it on the side of the street a year ago.
Tiffany Choi
I love this post! I love how you compare and contrast your room with Red Horizontal; I love your honest critique of the piece and fairness in saying that anyone would want to make their living space look decent (I think I would break out in hives if someone came into my apt right now for pictures to be immortalized in concrete along a busy pathway, haha). And I especially love you finishing it all up with a haiku.
ReplyDeletePost more!!
Personally, I love the red but I'm disappointed. I want to see people in the pictures. Even though we can really feel that people live in the space and are probably standing just outside the shot, I want them in there, that's a better story to me. And to someone else it's probably way better that the pictures are without people. Thanks for this post!