Searching for lost colors
Face and Place Revisited and Agnes Varda
Record of emotions, moment of truth, forgotten times, how is art expressing myself and existence? By looking back at my portrait and face through the work of art, how am I getting through the day? And how much do I remember about myself?
Source: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5598102/mediaviewer/rm2060788480Very Talented Agnes Varda, artist, filmmaker, photographer, and screen writer, recently passed away. Ordinary scenes from her films resonated to audience by pointing out right direction of human nature and role of art surrounding it. By tracing back of Varda’s point of view which captured moments of people like us under the long history of civilization, it is quite meaningful to share thoughts on what is next for art and human.
There are miners, their town, postman, and the last resident of town before forced removal. They looked lost and powerless facing the rapid change of their ordinary life and what surrounds it. Places change and lose their originality so fast. Their words and expressions are proof of losing values. Our memories start to fade away and diminish when our daily life and circumstances change. It is the loss of subject of our memories instead of memory loss itself. This is affecting us by taking away our specific feeling toward what have been there throughout our life time such as our home, streets we used to walk, stores we visited every day, and people we meet on our way home. Our memories walk along with us throughout our life time.
What is there to see? What is there to remember? Unexpected change of sceneries puts our emotions to the point of no return. The places that were gone. Places where we found ourselves. Our faces and expressions are afterglow of all these time and places. They are the leftovers. They are the mediums of our memories and nostalgia. Most of all, they are our identities. Pieces of our time and feelings made who we are and how we look today. That is how life shapes up our live expressions and facial figures. As time goes on, there will be more ups and downs throwing shades at us, but even emotions drawn from where we live and how we live shape up our faces and dimensions.
Postman in the film sensed the change of time by switching his bike to a car for delivery. His words out together all the pieces from the past and gather them under the name of history like an ever-glowing start. What we are losing might be our responsibility of letting it happen. The places where people remembered history of things and grew up with time and hard work of blood and sweat. Agnes Varda knew exactly what she was looking at and seeking for. Our time is the history of being together. Varda expressed explicitly through photos and images of town, city, market, factory, farm, mining town, and people taken by JR. Faces on the wall as form of mural work by JR are the faces of this generation. They are living history and record of past, present, and future. They are also human nature and circulating value throughout the time. Losing beautiful landscape of nature and old towns show how contracting humans are in this era. These photos, more realistic than mirrors, have depicted self-portraits of people who are carrying their burdens every day through imagery and expression of joy, excitement, sadness, and loss.
Street arts and murals are the outcome of depicting human nature as it is. Therefore, people in the artworks as objects and artist who pour their hearts and soul through colorful and philosophical images should be respected and protected. Art always has created works beyond our imagination on feelings, ideas, values, and beliefs. Art takes in the most natural and original landscapes of people and streets and releases them to the people on the streets with beautiful colors. Varda focused on the people and JR made it real with images attached to what is out there.
The things we see are always new but somehow familiar. As urbanization continues, in each country, more than 60 percent of the entire population increasingly flock to cities, we all are becoming increasingly distant from the nature, landscape and essence of humanism. What Varda wanted to capture while traveling in the rural areas is the human nature and nature as it is. JR showed Varda’s perspectives and impressions through photographs and murals as live works. How much are we responsible for our own faces?
The reason why we are more enthusiastic and immersed in the beauty of colors and light is that our faces and figures have turned into monotonous achromatic instead of ray of lights and colors like spectrum. It’s like a facial image of a fierce modern society. It must be bit tragic but still with glimpse of that art is the Maginot line to preserve human freedom and creativity until the end.
At the heart of every technology, there is purpose and direction. It is also data that always adds value to technology during and after the process. Art has always created and produced aesthetic works. In the work, the blood and sweat of artists are infused and the journey and times of life that artists and the objects have lived are carved into pieces, resulting in one fascinating united color. Since art is a value-oriented activity that brings meaning, enlightenment and joy to both artists and audiences, isn’t it true that technology is truly valuable to secure and preserve such lofty values?
Source: https://twitter.com/jrart/status/878189936712667136Varda and JR, who made the container mural with images of wives of workers in the harbor, called the work the totem of the harbor. When the three wives, the main characters in the work who also work at the harbor, sat in each container compartment and swung their arms like birds, enjoying the freedom, it proved the power of art to regain and revitalize their faces and feelings. They said they felt liberated while sitting on a container with their faces painted. Susan Cotter, director of Luxembourg National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, who previously showed excellent insight into art, said art exists for freedom. Through art, Varda and JR have restored the lost faces and places of people. Art is the last bastion for freedom and a conduit for people and life. The most important reason to keep the value of art is the wise decision for ourselves after all.
