Here in the Netherlands there is an art show on TV called “Het geheim van de Meester” (The Secret of the Master).
This season they dove into the history of Edvard Munch and made a replica of his famous painting ‘The Scream‘. It was really interesting to learn more about Edvard Munch’s work and what drove him to make this extraordinary painting. Attached to this show there was a painting contest and I attended. The rule: make your own contemporary version of the scream.
So, I thought about it for a couple of days and saw my kids using there mobile phone and decided to check their scream… eh… screen time, which made me pull the same face as this character in The Scream! 😱 and then it hit me.
My subject or hidden message would be: The craziness of our current society where everyone is spending hours and hours looking at their phone without noticing the beauty of the world (and nature).
So what contained my version…
- I mirrored deliberately the design (because this is what our brain does, converting our view, instead of what we actually see),
- the character is screaming (or is he acting for a video?)
- His friends in the back are not noticing their screaming friend and just take pictures (instead of caring for their friend and/or looking at the scenery)
- The apocalyptic sky represents the new age with random stuff like ai, satellites, starlink internet (literally every spot in the world will soon have internet)
- In the back a metropolitan city, growing fast like a river
Drum roll… I didn’t win the contest… And although I didn’t win, I really love how this painting turned out, with all these hidden hints. Also, liked the painting process because usually I don’t paint this loosely.
So, I lost but feel like a winner.
Wishing you a great and happy day, painting, drawing, nitting or reading a good book (instead of looking at your phone 😝)
