Contextual Studies

Contextual Studies

-Gustav Holst: The Planets.
Mars, the Bringer of War...Song used in movies to show impending war. In response to WW2 due to all the countries fighting and arguing with each other.

-Saving Private Ryan- Steven Spielberg Omaha Beach Scene.
From boat to the beach. Suspense is used to show anticipation of the soldiers in the boat about to battle. WW1- the first time war happened with automatic weapons which was a shock to soldiers. Machinery enthusiasts joined to war because they were amazed by the modern weaponry, they were all killed due to the massacre created by these weapons.

-Malevich: Black Square (1915)
Created a series of black squares to show... . One of the very first abstract pieces ever created. 'Suprematism'. Malevich felt squares were a very pure form, he used them to show his spirituality.

-El Lissitzky: Beat the White and the Red Wedge (1919)
Ambitions was for the workers and the rulers to be in the same plain. They wanted to take only pure shapes such as, triangles, circles and rectangles. Used a lot of red because Russia is related well by red. The wedge is pushing through the circle to show the joining of opposites, workers and leaders.

-Vladimir Tatlin: Monument to the Third International' (The Tower- 1920)
He used industrial materials to show respect for the workers. It's about the building of society and fight against communism.

-Metropolis: By Fritz Lang (1927)
Very early film making, started making it in 1925 and it was finished by 1927. Shows how the workers and the other classes try to merge in society. The architecture in the film is huge in comparison to the workers, this gives the feeling of their worthlessness. The workers are very down, their life seems very mundane and repetitive. Where as in comparison the upper classes have no care in the world and are living in luxury. Cinematically the workers are in very low and dull lighting, This shows their mood and lifestyle, similarly the light lighting used in scenes with the upper class shows their happiness and luxury, this shows the divide between their classes and the non existent relationship that they have.

-Alexander Calder.
Calder changed sculptures, he made sculptures that move around us rather than us moving around the sculpture, the mobile like objects are weighed individually to allow the objects to move around.

Megan Chilcott