In the art exhibit at Woods Hall, there were two main pieces that caught my attention the most; The Dancing Goat by Fredrich Kerksieck and The War Horse by Laura Shill. These two pieces appeared to the eye as completely different, which is why I chose them. I wanted to discover “what art is” by studying two different pieces of artwork. As I spent the class time viewing the art pieces, I was able to come up with my own ideas of what the two pieces were saying to the viewer. In both of the art pieces, there is a message of hardship presented in two different cases.
The Dancing Goat demonstrates a relationship between a girl and boy that everyone experiences at some point in their life. The relationship shown through the artwork is one where a girl likes a boy, who does not have the same feelings back towards the girl, and instead has feelings towards someone else. To show this relationship, the artist created this piece to have two parts to it. The first main part shows a young boy dancing with a goat. Standing to the side of the two dancing, is the cut out of a young girl. The cut out has a glue border, and the cut out’s color is the same as the second part of this piece. The colors used in the work are bright. They are considered more girly, possibly because the art work deals with a girl’s emotions. The second part of the piece contains only the girl who was cut out of the first piece. She has her hands on her hips, and her face is turned towards the direction of the boy and the goat. Having this one piece of artwork split into two, the artist is showing how the girl is not only invisible to the boy, but also possibly enters into her own world, as she watches the boy dance with the goat. When the girl is looking at the boy and the goat, it shows that she is thinking about something involving the two of them. When she states on the artwork, “I just wanted to get closer, but all you ever did was dance with your dancing goat”, she is showing that she has feelings about the boy, and how she feels ignored by him. The girl in this piece demonstrates her jealousy towards the dancing goat being with the boy. She wishes the boy would turn away from the goat and pay attention to her.
It is sometimes said that a goat symbolizes a “younger loser”. This symbolism would make sense in the art piece, The Dancing Goat, for two reasons. First, we know that the goat is young because the boy and girl shown in this art piece are both kids. Second, the girl is jealous of the goat and feels that the boy is wasting his time with the goat, when he should be spending the time with her. She feels that the boy is wasting his time with her because she views the goat as a loser. After breaking down this art piece you are able to uncover that the message to this piece is about love rejection. The message was revealed by discovering what the different symbols of the art work were standing for and putting all of the parts together. This is the same way I discovered The War Horse’s meaning.
In the piece, The War Horse only dark images and colors are used. There are three main objects in this piece; a horse, wired fence, and black birds flying above in the sky. The horse is a shade of black. On the horse are bullet holes. The multiple bullet holes show that the horse was in some kind of war or fight because of the multiple holes. The horse is then surrounded by a wired fence that is shown circling around it in the picture. The piece also has black birds that look like crows or buzzards flying. The black birds symbolize death, since those types of black birds flock to dead things. Having the three images of the horse, fence, and the birds in the painting, the painting seems to be communicating about war and death. The message about death and war is that it is everywhere, just like how the fence is surrounding the horse; appearing everywhere. Situations about death and war are something we cannot escape.
Another way the picture is communicating to the viewer about death is through the 3D set up. The picture is displayed into four pieces of the picture. The pieces are not balanced on the same level. Through this set up the picture is showing how things are unbalanced in life because of different ideas and conflicts. Having a life that contains many different ideas and conflicts tends to lead to more arguments and hate. These arguments and hate are often followed by physical actions that hurt. This is why an unbalance life leads us to the dark lifestyle that surrounds us and is shown in the picture.
The two art pieces I chose cover two very different topics, but both artists use symbolism to allow the viewer to discover the unenthusiastic message that is shown in both pieces. In The Dancing Goat, a quote is used to help the viewer fully grasp the message of the work, while The War Horse results to the picture itself, to allow the viewer to discover what the piece is saying. The War Horse uses its dark color and symbolism to help the viewer understand its message. The Dancing Goat also uses symbolism but in a way that is not as clear because it could have multiple meanings. Both pieces then use a method of breaking their work into pieces, to help give the viewer an idea of their meaning. The two pieces also share the similarity of displaying a message of hardship that everyone can relate to. The Dancing Goat’s hardship message is of a relationship between two people when one has stronger feelings than the other, when the other is spending more time with someone else, who is thought of as a loser. This relationship can also be described as a love rejection. Then in The War Horse, its hardship message is trying to be portrayed is one that is of death or even possibly war. Both of the two hardship messages are ones that every person experiences more than once in their lifetimes.
The Dancing Goat and The War Horse both have two different examples of hardship that the viewer is able to relate. The message speaks to their viewers in forms that are obtainable but not obvious. The viewer is able to come up with their own idea of what the pieces are trying to say after studying the symbolism. Being able to relate to the two pieces allowed me to enjoy the artwork. I was able to relate more to The Dancing Goat because I have experienced a boy who I have liked spending more time with a girl, who I am not fond of, more than I have experienced with death or war which is what I thought of the piece, The War Horse. These two pieces both seem very different but are similar after studying just like other pieces in the art show that I did not write about. The art show was one that I enjoyed because each piece was very creative and different from the rest. I would encourage people to attend the art show because each piece was effective in sharing its message.
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