1. What and when was the Industrial Revolution?
The Industrial Revolution began in the 18th century and continued into the 19th. It was an era inwhich began in the United Kingdom and from there on spread to Europe and so on. What the Industrial Revolution is itself is the huge changes the began in the fields of agriculture, business, technology, manufacturing, and transportation. These changes had huge inpact on all aspects of the economy.
2. Research both Modernist paintings in order to comment on the subject matter, form and style used to celebrate the machine and motion in each painting. Answer the question in 2 parts for each painting.
In Boccioni's work 'The City Rises' we see a city in quite clear uproar. The subject matter consists of what looks like some sort of fox-like beast taking over a city. The fact that our attention is drawn to the subject matter of the background, in which is an array of buildings, we can tell that Boccioni's work is intended to be in a Modernist style and we can therefore relate this work to industrialisation.
The reason for this fact we can refer this work to industrialisation is because the subject matter is harsh and dirty. The fact the work refers to the destruction of the city through motion, we as viewers get a sense of the work being some what machine-like, because it is often that machine is seen as something dirty and destructive. Boccioni as indeed intended for this in his work as we see here.
The subject matter of Balla's work features a dog quite clearly in motion. The way he has painted it leads us to believe that this is true, he has painted the dog itself and then continued to turn it on an angle and keep painting it this way. He has used a classical form of painting and then added an industrial twist to the work.
This work portrays the movement of the city and the harsh reality which is that of the city. We can relate this work to industrialism because it shows the nature of the new industrialised city in which Balla was clearly influenced by.
3. Research Cao Fei's RMB City (2007-9) in order to comment on this work in more depth.
RMB City was a work created by Fei as something the viewer could actually go and interact with themselves. It is said to be known as a type of 'online city' which one can go and push the boundairies between the physical exsistance of ones self as well as pushing that of the virtual self. This work took Fei almost 2 years to complete and holds a lot of meaning in regards to the Industrial movement itself. RMB city was used for the creation of several films and also as a live theatre.
I personally very much like this work and think it has been very well done.
4. RMB City is described as a utopia/dystopia. Comment on what these terms mean, and how they can be applied to the work.
RMB City has been described as utopia/dystopia because of the subject matter involved in the piece. It is an array of different things and different pieces of scenery. One, we can call this utopia because utopia is a word used to describe a picture perfect place inwhich displays the perfect kind of world. However dystopia is used to describe a mismatched type of scenery or world. These two terms can be applied to the work RMB City because it is something which makes the viewer think of a place which is an unrealistic euphoria of a world and then the mismatched mixed up feeling we get from the work.
5. Although the Modernist paintings and the contemporary digital work have emerged from
different contexts, there are also many similarities. Comment on the similarities that you can see in the work. Look at the moving digital image at vimeo.com/4272260, if you have not
already researched it.
Although RMB City is different in many ways to the previously discussed Modernist work from many years ago, it still holds true that there are a lot of similarites. These simlarites can be seen in the fact that both of the works are based on motion and machine, where as when Balla and Boccioni were creating their works they had to be far clever with the means that they expressed themselves when showing motion and movement, where as thanks to modern day technology, Fei is able to express himself much, much more fluidly. Both of RMB City and the Modernist works has usewd machine to further the kind of destruction they viewed as being placed during each of their times.
The Industrial Revolution – Innovations. (2011) Industrialrevolution.sea.ca.
People's Monthly 01 Issue", ed. RMB City, (2008)
Fei,C. (2009) Cao Fei: PRD Anti-Heroes Museum Het Domein.
Dubovsky. F,.(1996) Industrialism and the American Worker, 1865-1920 (American History Series) Harlan Davidson
I like the comment you made about how Boccioni’s work the city rises looks like some sort of fox like beast is taking over the city because a fox is what I originally thought was in the subject matter of the painting without closer inspection. The painting is actually of men labouring on a construction site with the help of their powerful horses. This blur of men and horses I believe captures the futurist style of movement effectively within this painting.
ReplyDeleteI totally agree with gemma, it wasn't until a closer look that i discovered what i was really looking at. I think though the futuristic style of the painting, it takes away the passive feel of the scene and adds a more rushed feel, especially though the horses positions, its like they are out of control.
ReplyDeleteYes, I agree RMB City is different in many ways to the formerly discussed Modernist work but there are similar facts too. For example, we can see dynamic motion on Balla’s work (above feather) what is machine-like. It is related with industrialism. In other hand Boccioni’s work is wished for a Modernist work so we can tell that it is related to industrialization. RMB City has showed that the work is based on motion and machine. Balla’s work and Fei’s work have difference of 100 years but they are similar.
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