1. Individual place in society according to Horse Boy
The Horse Boy is a documentary film with a crafted footage that depicts spontaneous social interaction that contributes to its appeal and image. The perception of a social anthropologist that studies autism makes a conscious decision to focus on the experiences of autistic people, Instead of people around them. Parents of autistic children desire attention for one to understand their experiences and perspectives. The Horse Boy is a crucial reminder of the obvious fact that every autistic adult has a history of being an autistic child. Parents play an influencing role to the children lives as it strangely seems. The Horse Boy has certain honesty to appeal to people due to not only autism but also parenting. The documentary film is not much about Rowan that has autism but more on his parent Rupert who comes up with the idea of traveling to Mongolia. The film is about parents’ welfare, comfort, and happiness. The solely business of families is to connect with each other and inter relations. All individuals deserve a place in society.
2. Art difference between Ai Wei-Wei and Banksy
Christopher Witcombe is an art historian that defines postmodernism as an attack on the bourgeois ideal of modernist art. Postmodern refers to a period of Descartes that believes in exact science and objective knowledge. Descartes is a rationalist that believes in reason and he thinks that human reason grasps truths independent of time. The constructive postmodernism works to revise the modernism premises and erase all the boundaries. Postmodernism stems from recognition that reality stems from recognition that reality mirrors human understanding. The ideals of postmodernism influences art to translate to the historic rejection of the past coupled with a feeling of cynicism towards the future.
Banksy is a British artist while Ai Wei Wei is a Chinese artist. Both artists belong to the postmodern era prolific in the media to display poetic ideals of art. As part of displaying social and cultural pluralism, Ai Wei Wei provides a changing role to the issue of tradition and government control in post industrialization China. Banksy artwork highlights symbols in postmodern society and stereotypes perception of the current society. Both artists produce political infused art. Banksy imagery challenges to suggest a social rebellion. Ai Wei Wei uses a Coca Cola logo to amplify false idealism of tradition motivated by traditional social constructs. Ai Wei Wei defaces high art with commercial culture to influence traditional hierarchical constructs.
3. The place of the human being in the nature of things
Romans never conquered Ireland, as Christianity arrives in fifth century. At that time, Ireland was a de-centralized, tribal society, aristocratic, and rural-based society. The Celtic Monasticism stresses on the family based on legal and political organization. Later, Christian Church organized itself around monasteries ruled by abbots to develop a complemented secular society. The Celtic monasticism had territorial dioceses controlled by bishops and centering on towns. The main reason for Irish entering monasteries was due to religious motivation. Irish were infused with a desire to seek God in their lives and their natural world. They sought joy in the pursuit of presence offered to achieve a oneness with God. Monks always live in accordance to a rule of the founding saint in the monastery. Some of the rules mention obedience, penitence, consumption, silence, and prayer. Irish monasticism involves in recognition of different temperaments where few people adhere to a ascetics. The people seek the vision of God in the present, full life, and recognize creativity and presence of God in the natural world. Animals represent friends of believers, showing kindness between man and the natural world is a common part of God’s creation. Angels serve as intermediaries between monk and God depicted by free movement between two worlds.
4. Can ultimate be known?
Parents face the nightmare that their children can have a disorder that is largely uncontrollable, that will forever affect the child’s life and that of the parents. One of the cruelest disorders is autism that afflicts Rowan Isaacson and his parents Rupert and Kristin. Their child starts throwing tantrums, withdrawing to himself, and has a connection to animals especially horses. Parents attempt to understand their child with autism, as they appear frazzled. To many, he appears pliable, to others he is hidebound, and to others, he is tied to inconsolable routine. He is seven years old and acts as a toddler displayed in his emotions responses to disappointment or sadness. The parents take a leap to unknown as Rupert a former horse trainer has studied spiritual and medical practices of the Natives. He convinces Kristin to take Rowan to Mongolia and travel to the countryside while on horseback until he encounters the Shamans in the rural areas. Kristin unknown to her has hoped that the traditional medicine men and women would heal her child.
5. How human beings create beauty?
Ai Wei Wei Sunflower Seeds consist of millions of small works where each is identical and unique. They are life-sized sunflower seeds handcrafted in porcelain. Specialists from Jingdezhen work on individual seeds to sculpture and paint the seeds. The artist begins this process depicted as the work of prophesy to produce porcelain seeds two years prior to the Tate exhibition. The layers of the seeds portray a common street in China and it is an expensive artwork among all other artworks in the Western part.
Close to a million sunflower seeds pour in an infinite landscape. The Chinese artist manipulates traditional methods of constructing to become one of the prized exports. The artwork enables a phenomenon of geo-politics of cultural and economic exchange today.
The landscape of sunflower seeds looks upon Turbine Hall viewed in a close range. Guest visit the exhibition walk close to the edge of the landscape on the west and north sides. Tate consultation with Ai Wei Wei advises that the interaction between visitors and the sculpture cause dust to damage health of visitors. For that reason, visitors do not have permission to walk across the sculpture. The thinking behind the artwork lies an idea walking on it. Sunflower seeds consist of millions of the individual pieces that together create a unique surface. Some of the questions that audience asks in lieu of the sunflower seeds include the meaning of the artwork in modern society. Is it possible to act in unison? What is the effect of materialism and increasing desire to attain more in the society?
6. Ai Wei Wei’s Coca Cola Logo
The ceramic innovation takes place during the Han Dynasty forged by artisans in kilns. The artist paints the Coca-Cola logo to transform the antique vessel to a contemporary artwork.
The over painted Coca Cola Logo captures larger themes of modern Chinese art. The artist uses the artwork to depict the conflict between modern and the preservation of the traditional. The Coca Cola logo is a representation of humor in the conflict. The vase is a radical shift of the traditional Chinese characters. The vase is a single piece of Chinese history that merges with the modern world. The artwork blends tradition and modernity through old-world artwork as an advert in the new age. China connects its past and the present through juxtaposition.
7. Banksy’s Mobile Lovers artwork
The artwork depicts couple embracing while they check their mobile phones each on the opposite direction. The artwork was previously at Bristol City Museum before it was sold. The artwork was attached to a plank screwed on a wall owned by Bristol council. Workers at the near Broad Plain and Riverside Youth Project removed it upon discovery. Club members installed at one of the corridors and invited the public to view the artwork in exchange of an optional donation.
Works Cited
Ai, Weiwei, and Juliet Bingham. Sunflower Seeds. London: Tate, 2010. Print.
Banksy. Bristol: Library Service, 2005. Print.
Isaacson, Rupert. The Horse Boy: A Father's Quest to Heal His Son. New York: Little, Brown, 2009. Print.
Wei, Chia. Machine Learning Techniques for Adaptive Multimedia Retrieval Technologies, Applications, and Perspectives. Hershey, PA: Information Science Reference, 2011. Print.
