Themes in conceptual film

Themes in conceptual film

The two themes that interest me the most from the slideshow the most are politics and social order, and the sacred realm. Both of these ideas combined can create a very worldly view about the things around us and how other powers control us whether they are worldly or not and the things that influence us. These ideas together create a strong message about the power of humans within the power of the universe.

"Piss Christ" by Andres Serrano

This piece on the left is titled "Piss Christ" and according to the artist Andres Serrano, is supposed to represent what humanity is doing to the ides of Christ. One of my favorite things about this piece of artwork is the unrivaled levels of emotion is evokes from people of all different religious backgrounds. That raw emotion combined with the motives behind the creation of this and other similar artworks like "La Nona Ora" by Maurizio Cattelan. Although some artwork that shows only nature has an almost religious or divine quality to it in my eyes due to my own personal beliefs as a Christian, I believe some art even depicting nature can fall under this category as well depending on how the artist views what they are creating.

Contrasting the sacred nature of the things above, "Rage, the Flower Bomber" by Bansky depicts a masked man in black and white with the emphasis of the painting being the colorful flowers he has in his hand that are supposed to "wage peace." Women Wage Peace is not only an Israeli peace movement from 2014, but also the name of a poem written by Judith Hill written after 9/11. The stance in the piece is supposed to mimic that of what a bomber would use to throw their weapon, but instead, Bansky advocated for peace by replacing a weapon with the flowers. The other way this piece is commenting on war is the location. Bansky created this stencil art in Bethlehem, Jerusalem, which has been a location for political unrest for centuries.

"Rage, the Flower Bomber" by Bansky

These types of artworks I personally think are beautiful and important because of the emotion they unearth within people and the important messages they portray. As opposed to some of the other themes, these two in particular fascinate me with the way they comment on current events and how they effect us as a society. Religion and society have always intertwined and I think a lot of that has to do with now only how similar they can be in some ways, but how passionate everyone can be about both society and religion.