The Enigma of William Tell by Salvador Dali


The understudy for The Enigma of William Tell by Salvador Dali

Sexuality and death; words that are usually unassociated come together with close relation in Salvador Dali’s piece The Enigma of William Tell. This painting was created using pathos to affect people in sense of their emotions. This piece also makes one attracted to the strange and unusual pairing of two emotions that are rarely brought together in the same setting. Salvador Dali has portrayed an image with exaggerated sexuality, while simultaneously enforcing an over all sense of malice. In creating this work of art, Dali has attempted to enforce his controversial belief that sexuality and death are in close relation to one another.

Dali begins enforcing his perceived relation of sexuality to death by incorporating an enlarged buttock an exaggeration of a part of the body that “Most consider to be sexually attractive” as part of a dark image in which a man is eating a child’s head with a deranged look upon his face set against a dark back ground. Further more, Dali adds a piece of raw flesh draped over the buttock to more closely relate the two, and draws attention to the area by applying a red tint on a lighter portion of the painting, also he ads birds waiting for the flesh to fall to frame the scene. The overall tone of the painting attempting to represent a saddened emotion is created using relatively deep hues along with monotonous repetition of similar colors.

Dali was a painter known for ironic pairings such as the comparison of death and sexuality; it was simply the way he perceived things in his life. “His whole life long, and throughout his work, Dali was as obsessed with sexuality as he was with the quest for the absolute. When he saw the shaven armpit of a woman for the first time, he declared, he was looking for heaven, just as he was looking for heaven when he poked a rotting hedgehog with a crutch. Sexuality and death are close companions in Dali.”

Irrational is a word that comes to mind along with insanity for pairing two such unrelated things. The thought process of Dali seems that of a mad man, which many would assume he is. However Dali was rather a man of emotional genius as he relayed his life story through his works, and if in the series of events in his life paired death and sexuality, that is what he set out to portray through his artistic and creative geniuses.

The inspiration for this painting came during a time in Dali’s life when his sexuality or relationship with his divorcee wife instituted the death of his relationship with his father. “For a long time, Dali [a usually openly public figure] was secretive about the origins of the breach with his family, for the reasons why he was expelled from their midst; and doubtless the motive for his secrecy was consideration for his father. His 1933 picture The Enigma of William Tell (p.201) suggests an explanation: “William Tell is my father and the little child in his arms is myself; instead of an apple I have a raw cutlet on my head. He is planning to eat me. A tiny nut by his foot contains a tiny child, the image of my wife Gala. She is under constant threat from this foot. Because if the foot moves only very slightly, it can crush the nut.” The painting shows Dali settling accounts with his father, who had disowned him because he was living with a divorcee (i.e. Elaurd’s ex-wife, as Gala was by then.)”

Sexuality and death may appear an irrational pairing, they did to me before I studied Dali’s paintings, however when given thought, these two concepts go perfectly hand in hand, a match made in heaven, or rather in hell. Consider this; how many hearts are broken and relationships ended because of one party being unsatisfied sexually, or by one party seeking sexual satisfaction elsewhere in the form of adultery or cheating? How does cheating relate to death? One must think in an abstract manner for this to make sense, for Dali was an abstract painter. Death must not be literal in its meaning, it must be abstract, the death of a relationship. Sexuality can become a demise for it is a drive within humans that we as a race are often times not consciously aware of. We do not consider the consequences of our actions, we consider only obtaining the satisfaction we set out for.

Death can be literal as well, but one must think outside the box, or perhaps before the box, the death of an unborn child. The drive of sexuality often leads to the consequence that is an unwanted child, and a reaction to that is occasionally an abortion, a death an ending of a life before its existence, before it’s birth.
The painting is a single frame. The concepts of sexuality and death stand together as one. Dali used a single frame so that the viewer sees these concepts simultaneously, as one. The images in the work are given high priority over the text for it is far more of a simple task to paint the images from the abstract corners of the mind than to explain them in words. The only text incorporated in the image is the title, meant to simply inform the viewer of the setting, of the event, of the occurrence within the painting.

Looking through the eyes of a person in today’s culture, one may not understand the meaning of this work of art, look through the eyes of an artist or a person during the time of the surrealist movement and a meaning is established, a connection, the connection of sexuality and death in the abstract. A connection that has been present through out the ages, a timeless concept, an idea about life, death, and rebirth, a thought pertaining to all of existence. It is a universal philosophy, a revelation: the association between death and sexuality.

Red Bull

This video utterly amazes me, the artistic ability, the editing, the filming, the sketching for the rhythm, and above all the creativity. Simply put, this video is one of absolute excellence and is a sterling piece of entertainment, both visually and sensibly.

I find it a bit odd that the video was an entry for "Redbull Art of Can" a contest sponsored by the energy drink Red Bull in 2005. It is a contest in which participants create sculptures made out of Red Bull cans, which is why I did not find this video to be commonplace. It does not contain any form of tangible art.



Yet, it is a true masterpiece.

This video makes me extremely thirsty for Red Bull especially in the ending, I think that it should be a commercial for Red Bull in that it is extremely memorable and it makes the product appealing. The video would make a better commercial though if it was shorter and maybe if it had female hands so that it would appeal a bit more in using sex to sell. The male hands assist in using sex to sell, from a female standpoint, but I believe that more men than women are the consumers of the energy drink.

I think that the use of blending and overlay is absolutely perfect in the video, the creator was of editing genius, and that is a certain understatement. They use every aspect of filming and art, in a way that not only attracts artists but everyone equally.

I admire the sound sketching abilities the creator of the video has, it must have been virtually impossible to create a video in which there was a rhythmic and “catchy” beat since the can makes sounds in pretty much the exact same frequency range.

When I think about the overall effect of the video and my true appreciation of it I can’t help but to consider my background and my bias in the review of the video clip. I am getting a minor in graphic design, I have taken a few film classes, I have been doing art and have been very fascinated in it for years, not to mention that it runs in my family, and I also have a background not only in playing music but in composing it as well. I can not help it, I have to appreciate the effort that has been put into the video, but I wonder if other people appreciate it in this manner as well, especially those who have no background in the visual or musical arts.

Considering the number of 5-star reviews the video received it must have been appealing to many people, however those people may have all been artistic.

*Please, would someone who is not artistic leave me a comment stating whether or not you enjoyed this video and further more whether or not you considered the work involved in creating it when viewing it for the first time. I would greatly appreciate it.* ~Thank You!

Freewrite

Neurology is a field I’ve been fascinated with since I was freshman and opened my eyes to see my classmates staring at me in horror. I assumed I had fainted, but couldn’t decipher the looks I was receiving, had none of my peers ever seen anyone faint before? I assumed not, it wasn’t until paramedics arrived and began inquiring as to what had occurred was I informed that I had just experienced a seizure.

At the hospital they injected me with seizure medications that were meant to treat epilepsy, they made me hallucinate a bit and as I got frightened, I went into my second set of convulsions, which the medication should have prevented. The doctors tried a second epilepsy medication, and again, it failed; so they called in a team of neurologists to run some EEG’s.

Everything seemed to be just fine, and then my mother noted that I had the seizure when I was scared, so they put on a scary clip of a movie, and sure enough out I went. Since the EEG was run during the moments before my seizure the neurologists were able to see that there was more activity in my left hemisphere than in my right, since the amount of electrical currents traveling from the left to the right was so much greater than the amount traveling from right to left, my brain attempted to reset itself, by momentarily shutting down and resetting, thus resulting in seizure activity.

Next I went on a "journey with these neurologists and watched them figure out what was wrong with me. The effort they put into their work and the passion they have for it is similar to the passion that I have for neurology. This even is the reason that I am attending UCDHSC, and the reason I am doing this free write for english 1020

Treadmil

Obsession

This add is disturbing and yet it is extremely true. Bulemia Nervosa is a serious condition that many people have, mainly women. This add uses the name Obsession, the name of a cologne and uses a model hunched over a toilet. With out the toilet in this image, it looks almost like a normal add would. Thus the shocking reality of it all.

The woman in this image is about the same size, even a bit bigger than a lot of the models that they use today, and clearly she is very unhealthy and has an eating disorder. The girls in advertisements are role models for all women, they set a standard. If the models have eating disorders, there is no way to achieve that look, unless you have an eating disorder. Therefore Calvin Klein, Gucci, Chanel, Dolce Gabbana, and Victoria’s Secret are all promoting not only their make up, perfume, clothing, and accessory lines, they are promoting anorexia, bulimia, and also combinations of the two.

Until recently the companies refused to note this connection and kept their models starving to advertise their products. I am happy to say that the skinniest of the models as well as the models that have eating disorders and keep fainting are being banned from modeling currently, mostly in France, until they gain weight and establish a healthy eating routine. This is something that should have been done long ago, because the millions of girls these models have affected world-wide have already been psychologically and most likely physically

Calvin Klein, Add

This add is a very appealing one. First of all, the man Mark Wahlburg, better known as Marky Mark is basically a sex icon, such as Marylin Monroe. Marky Mark is such an icon for he is a great actor and he is also a rapper. The use of icons in adds is very effective in that many people will recognize the face and it is therefore a use of ethos in that Calvin Klein chose to utilize a person that we are familiar with. Also the name Calvin Klein itself is a usage of ethos along with the symbol or logo “cK”.

This add uses sex to sell in that it shows an attractive male with out a shirt. His body position is also effective in this add because it is suggestive in that he has his thumb resting on his pants, which is folding them down a bit. Also the fact that the jeans and boxers are in such high contrast in comparison to the rest of the photo, that draws your eyes to that specific area, which is the area that induces sex appeal.

This ad is very effective in grabbing the viewers attention, however, it is not so good in my opinion at actually selling the jeans, for in this particular photograph you can not even see the product other than from the zipper up. This add however is a bit effective in that the name stands out quite a bit and that it has a certain ethos to it, as does the image of Mark Wahlberg.

Photograph analysis; a tradition shattered.

Observation:

This is a photograph of an Asian porcelain doll being broken in to millions of tiny pieces on the ground. The head, face, shoulders, and body of the figurine are still intact while from the knees down the figurine is smashed. The doll is holding a brown basket in her left hand that is filled with what appears to be light pink or mauve flowers. In her right hand she is holding some sort of a white violin. Her “hair” is jet black and is pulled up in a traditional and conservative style. The woman has the same type of flower in her hair as the flowers that are in the brown basket in her left hand. The doll is mainly glazed plain white porcelain with very few colored details and the background of the photo is white as well. The figurine is in the very center of the photograph. The image is very well lit and it is very bright. This vivid light source causes for some pretty extreme shadows. These shadows make it possible to distinguish the various parts of the image, which otherwise would be a very difficult task when taken into consideration that the image components were made with all white. None of the skin in the image is colored other than the cheeks on the face of the woman. The eyes and lips of the doll are very thinly and finely detailed with precision, giving an intricate appearance to the figurine.

Reflection:

I believe the figurine to be a geisha, an Asian prostitute, but unlike American prostitutes, geisha’s are very upstanding and classy. Geishas are usually owned by only one man, and they must have many skills and a high level of elegance to be purchased. I believe that the photographer used the crashing geisha to show how old Asian traditions are slowly but surely disappearing, such as the geisha. I believe he used the geisha to represent Asian tradition because, like tradition the porcelain geisha is very beautiful, and fragile. I believe that old traditions in many cultures are slowly disappearing. I believe this is due to the integrating of many cultures and also due to the way in which the United States tries to “Americanize” the rest of the world. I believe that it is very cruel to do things like this and that we are assisting in loosing the diversity in the cultures of the world. The figurine is also clearly made by hand, as it would have been traditionally and is not mass produced by machine. This is clear when you look at the details in the eyes and face of the geisha. Details that intricate and precise could have only been done by hand, there is no other way to accomplish bush strokes with that level of finesse about them. The photographer clearly staged the fall of this figurine and I believe that it is a shame to destroy such a beautiful doll, however doing so did get the point across quite clearly.

Analysis:

Due to the fact that this image is mainly white the fine details in the face and hair of the doll are in great contrast to the rest of the image; these details being mainly central along with the aforementioned contrast makes the face the focal point of the image. The direction of the falling doll attracts your eye downward across the image to where the breaking is occurring, this area is also attractive to the eye because in contrast to the rest of the image in that is contains a great amount of sharp shadowing. The doll is very central in the image, and the background is plain white, making the figurine into what is basically a render. The way that the action in the image is frozen by the photographer by using a high shutter speed is something that cannot be captured in film or in print. This freeze makes for a breath taking photo in that it is such a quick activity in real life, that we never really get to see it. This attractiveness is effective in catching the viewers attention and giving them a moment to consider the message in the image. Instantly the message is clear that something fragile and elegant is being destroyed, however it takes a moment of further analysis to realize that the thing that is being destroyed is not simply the doll, but the geisha, and furthermore old Asian traditions.