Name: Wenjie Chen

Course：MA Painting

 

 

People's uneasiness about intimacy in modern society

 

 

An important direction of contemporary art is to express people's dilemma, and an important source of contemporary art is that people are in dilemma. Loneliness is an important proposition in contemporary society. In this era when human beings have mastered convenient means of communication, most of us have become an island. Young people are confused, lonely and don't know where to go.                       

 

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I've always been interested in psychological and emotional aspects. The intimate relationship between people is my focus. At first, I found inspiration from myself and common ground from people around me, which triggered my thinking.           

 

“In modern society, the indifference of interpersonal relationship has been established. With the disintegration of acquaintance society, intimacy gradually retreated to the narrow field of traditional family.” （Yuliang G， 2013） In an indifferent society, most strangers don't like close emotional relationships, but pursue a sense of distance. The phenomenon of modern society is that people feel uneasy about intimacy, which leads to the weakening of communication ability and intimacy ability. As a result, they began to self close and rely more on external tools. This is actually the beginning of a vicious circle.                     

 

Because of the development of communication, especially the development of smartphones, people began to rely on social tools, which replaced people's face-to-face communication. People prefer to hide behind the screen, just like being locked in a narrow space and unwilling to enter reality.  “Social networking is essentially a kind of self-centered and thin social, once addicted to this, it will alienate the real social, resulting in new loneliness.”（Sherry T，2017）                                                                  

 

We even use mobile phones instead of close people. So this seriously leads to the weakening of people's interaction ability and intimacy ability. Mobile phones have already become a part of our bodies, entangled with each other, hard to give up. This is also the feeling of being entangled and bound as I have shown in my works.               

 

“In recent years, group "apathy" seems to be a stubborn "social disease" in Chinese urban society” (Chen Jing, 2014).  No matter where people are, most people play mobile phones with their heads down. In general, strangers in social circles don't like too much emotional intimacy but pursue a sense of distance. "There, thousands of people, though living close to each other, have no space even to meet their nodding friends, and social members have lost social cohesion (Feng G, 2002, p.8).Sometimes even a group of people get together, there will be such embarrassing "silence in the crowd" situation. Everyone just plays with their heads down, avoiding each other's eyes, and avoiding communication. Sherry Turkle (2017) believes that “we rely on the virtual space of social network.” Once we get rid of the virtual space, loneliness will follow. In other words, people want to use social networks to get rid of their inner loneliness, but as a result, they are more or less trapped in a kind of "group loneliness". What lonely people often do is silence, which is shown in many of my works.                                                

                    

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Figure 1, my paintings, 2019

 

I have drawn different self-protection states. They are all in a narrow space, and then put them into a big web. The background is like a spider web, sticking to each self, making them look like being protected, but more like being entangled, unable to get rid of. Just like the role of the Internet, it has both advantages and disadvantages. You don't know whether this kind of self-protection is beneficial or harmful. In this closed state, when you escape from the harm of the outside world, you actually bear a lot of pain that is imprisoned by yourself, which is very contradictory.                              

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Figure 2, Film: Yes Man, 2008

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I also read some books and films about this topic. I was impressed by one of the films named “Yes Man” (2008).  The film is about the protagonist Carl’s earth shaking transformation. He refused to associate with others. “No!” It’s Carl’s mantra. He always finds all kinds of reasons and excuses to avoid all invitations. This seems to be the true portrayal of many people today: they would rather be at home than go out to socialize. Maybe sometimes it’s because some things can’t keep the appointment, and sometimes it’s just psychological resistance.                                            

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

                                       Figure 3, Mom                                                                  Figure 4

 

Louise’s themes (f3 and f4) are self-defense and self-protection, and she is as concerned about physical or psychological threats as I am.  She has created a 35 foot tall steel spider, called her mother. For the artist, the spider is the representative of her hard-working mother. The spider spends a lot of time every day repairing and weaving her web. It also represents the artist herself. She is making her own web, constantly separating art from her body.  And my work also has something about the web.  I want to express a way of self-protection while being bound. She gives me a lot of inspiration.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Figure 5, my animation,2019

 

I also tried a lot on this topic of social communication, and finally, I finished my work mainly through photography. This series of works is inspired by my observation and perception of negative emotions and loneliness. In the past, my works were mainly realistic oil paintings. Later, I began to contact with abstract art slowly. I think many emotional things may be more appropriate in an abstract way. Most of my works are placed in an open environment without facial features and gender features. The audience can put themselves into it and walk into the silent and melancholy world alone.     

 

 

This is the first time that I try to express my ideas in the way of freeze-frame animation. At first, when I drew some figures, I felt very image, very similar to my usual state. Later, many students who saw this pattern would also express resonance, because this is actually the daily state of many people. So I want to put it into reality. I have conceptualized them in an abstract way, with a little bit of humor. It’s a kind of decadent and lazy state when I’m alone. It’s also a kind of struggling state. For example, the speed of getting into bed is in contrast to the difficulty of getting up. The reason for using canvas is that this kind of softness can better show this kind of lazy state, and it can constantly change the dynamic state, and it also has a certain hardness, which can just support the pose. The posture and expression of the characters reveal a sense of powerlessness and reveal the reality of powerlessness in their situation. I can put it in any scene, almost every state can be integrated into the scene, which makes the picture vivid and makes people feel this lonely and lonely atmosphere.                                       

 

In the second stage, I mainly focus on how to establish intimacy, because I mentioned above, people’s contradictory psychology: fear of intimacy coexists with the desire to establish intimacy. And empathy is the key to intimacy. On the basis of empathy, I want to awaken the audience’s sense of perception and examine their own model life from a new perspective. Because in the first stage, many people had resonated when they saw my works, so I plan to continue to create interactive works in the next stage. I will create a series of works related to “embracing”, which will be mainly in the form of oil painting and animation and installation.                                                   

 

 

（1184 words）

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bibliography:

1. Gu Yuliang， 2013， Ambiguity: the re integration of individual social interpersonal relationship，Journal of the Party School of Nanjing Municipal Committee of the Communist Party of China，Hubei Province

2. Chen Jing, 2014, analysis of the social structure causes of group "apathy behavior": A Perspective of urban sociology, School of Humanities and Social Sciences, northern Sichuan Medical College

3. Feng Gang, 2002, integration and chain integration -- the status of corporate bodies in the development of contemporary communities [J]. Sociological research

4. Sherry Turkle，2017， Alone Together: Why We Expect More from Technology and Less from Each Other, New York, Basic Books.

5. Misztal. Trust in Modern Societies[M]. Cambrige，Eng- land: Polity Press，1996.

  6.Sherry Turkle (2015). Reclaiming Conversation: The Power of Talk in a Digital Age,           London, Penguin.

  7.Yes Man (2008). Directed by Peyton Reed [Film]. America: Produced by Warner Brothers