The Guy With the Funny Moustache

Last year, I went to the Art Science Museum to see the Dali exhibition there. I've always liked most of Dali's works ever since we--the AEP students--learned abut him in AEP. I only took pictures of the artworks I liked better, and you may notice that I do not take entire pictures of some of the artworks, and that's because I only focus on the part of the artwork I like. I know that may spoil the beauty of the artwork, but I prefer to avoid taking pictures of any nude figures. 

I won't be introducing the pictures I took in the order I took them, but according to how I classify them. The first five pictures are of Dali's famous melting clocks. There were many of such sculptures, but I chose to take pictures of only two to represent the rest. I like the idea of melting clocks and relativity of time. Like the warping of time. Melting time: The first picture depicts a green and gold melting clock by itself, while the second picture shows a bronze clock melting on some tree branches. The third picture is more contemporary. It depicts a  dark blue melting clock with golden numerals hung on a clothes hanger. 

Horse Saddled With Time: The fourth picture depicts a green and gold (this seems to be Dali's preferred color for his melting clocks?) clock melting on the back of a horse where a saddle should be. Its like the horse is carrying away the burden of time and time passes quickly (since the horse is a fast animal). Woman of Time: In this picture, a woman is dressed in flowing robes, holding a rose in one hand and a melted clock is draped over the other arm. The clock alludes to the woman's awareness that beauty can be independent of time, whether it is corporeal grace or an ethereal rose.

 

The next few pictures have been classified by me under the category of women and angels. Woman Aflame: this picture is of a woman, almost entirely composed of flames and combines a few of Dali's obsessions together (woman, fire and chest of drawers) The flames represent the erotic impulses of the female figure, and drawers are a representation of the concealed sexuality of women (eew!). Dali portrays many of the drawers to be slightly ajar, indicating that their secrets are known and no longer to be feared. Alice in Wonderland: In this picture, Alice's hands and hair have blossomed into roses and her jump rope has become a twisted cord. Hmm... Surrealism is about reality in dreams. Alice in Wonderland is about dreams too. No wonder Dali got inspiration from Lewis Carrol. Adam and Eve: In this artwork, the Garden of Eden is portrayed with Adam, Eve, and the serpent, capturing the very moment Eve offers Adam the forbidden fruit. In the artwork, the serpent tempts Adam, coiling himself in the shape of a heart, reminding Adam and Eve of their love for each other. I apologize for not taking a picture of the entire artwork (there was a lack of clothes).

Snail and the Angel: This picture is of a snail and an angel on top of it (the proportion seems weird). Paradoxically, the snail, the universal symbol of the idle passing of time, has been given wings and is riding fluidly moving waves. In the picture, the angel, a winged messenger of the gods, capable of limitless speed, bestows the snail with the gift of motion by touching down on its back for the briefest of moments. Vision of the Angel: In this sculpture, the strength and supremacy of God is represented by a thumb from which all life emerges (as represented by the branches). On the left is an Angel in The Thinker pose, with his wing resting on and supported by a crutch. To the right of this divine being is a man bursting with life's vitality, which represents humanity.

Last but not least are three (or four?) artworks under my category of animals. Lady Godiva with Butterflies: In this picture, the butterflies announce the arrival of Lady Godiva, hovering around her and her steed, as well as adorning her body as she plays her trumpet. Lady Godiva embodies earthly beauty, whereas the butterflies depict the ethereal otherworld. Once again, the picture is weird (having taken it from behind, because of Lady Godiva's lack of clothes). Unicorn: The unicorn is a mythical creature of legend representing virginity and purity. The horn of a unicorn is believed capable of neutralizing any poison. In this artwork, the unicorn's horn penetrates a stone wall through a heart-shaped opening, from which a drop of blood is slowly falling. There is nude female stretched out in the foreground at the hooves of the animal (which is not in the picture for reasons mentioned before) 

Swan-Elephant: I find this artwork one of the most interesting because its kind of optical illusion-ish. The sculptures displayed consist of a silver elephant and a gold swan. But they're actually the same thing. If you turn the elephant upside down, you get a swan. If you turn the swan upside down, you get an elephant. Cool right? 

Most of these sculptures are made of bronze (i think. At least their originals were) and all very surrealistic. I came to this art exhibition with my parents because my dad said it would be good for an AEP student. On that day, there were two exhibitions going on and he gave me a choice: Van Gogh or Dali. I chose Dali. 

SAM

I remember going to SAM at least three or four times before in the last three years, but I only have a record of pictures taken from the two trips in Sec 2. I took many pictures... pictures of the artwork I found interesting. the pics shown here are the ones I liked the most out of the several I took. The problem is, I forgot to record down the names/titles of these artworks and their artists and their mediums so I can't exactly label them... T^T 

This first art piece was done on a large piece of paper and stuck onto the wall in such a way that it looked like the picture was actually drawn onto the wall itself. I find this one quite cool, intriguing, creepy (ahahahaha... ^_^) and interesting (mostly because its creepy.) It's black and white and I think it was done using charcoal, which gave it a really haunted kind of effect... like the very picture of death or something. The whole thing depicts a hell lot of tortured looking people, limbs and faces merged together in a mass of twisted black and white. the contrast and shadows are nice. You can see where I get morbid inspirations from. hehe XD

This second art piece was done on a canvas, so I'm assuming that its either acrylic or oil (the latter being the more likely.) I was attracted by this piece of art because of its bright and vibrant colors and realistic depiction. At first glance, you could almost believe that this was a photograph of a boy sprawled on his table top, a glass jar in his arm with a study shelf in the backdrop. Upon closer inspection, you can see the various items that make up this almost realistic piece of work: the books (two of which looks like the science o-level text/guidebooks I bought last year), some cds and dvds (which can also be found at home) an alarm clock, spiderweb (which I have observed several times and have tried to learn how the artist painted them so nicely) and last but not least, various containers (cups, jars, bottles) that each contain a miniature version of the main (and 'original') boy sitting at the table. The mini-boys are mostly either  relaxing, sleeping, reading and they see to represent the main boy's various selves. One of the mini-boy is depicted punching a hole through the glass of the jar he is 'kept' in, and there is a mini-boy sitting in a flask with a starry night picture streaming into (or out of?) it from the illustration of a van gogh book. There's even a boy in a cup of water with a black goldfish in it! I love this sort of surrealistic stuff.

This third art piece consists of a sprawling rose plant cut out of one giant piece of white paper. It also occurred to me that the overall shape of the rose plant seems to form a double helix DNA-ish shape... hmm... anyhow, I was really impressed by how the artist cut out and form all those trailing leaves and rose blossoms. Just drawing a rose is hard. Cutting out a rose is even harder. using one giant pieace of paper to cut out a rose plant is nigh impossible for me. Origami rocks!

This fourth art piece consists of a circle/cluster of glass spheres hanging above a silver reflective mirror-like platform and shone upon by a spotlight. This causes each glass sphere to gleam like lanterns or shining globes/bubbles and due to the dark background, the stings by which the glass spheres hang are near invisible. below the glass spheres, the reflection of the spheres upon the silver surface resembles hundreds of black circles of different sizes. The effect was quite mesmerizing.

The last art piece is a shelf filled with bottles and bottles and more bottles. XD I'm not sure what could have been in those bottles... snuff? drugs? random chemicals? I like to think its poisonous... hehe. i think the designs on the bottles are interesting though and the overall look of the whole artwork. And after looking at all the above artworks... I'm stating to feel  stress and depressed about the thought of having to come up with a satisfactory coursework (yes friends, laugh all you want. i know you know by the time I really do feel stress, yo would be suicidal).