Personal values

1. This painted room is quite strange: Although at a first glance it looks like an ordinary room, at a closer look there are certain irregularities.
2. Not only the relative sizes of the objects seem to be out of scale, but also their position seems to be irrelevant to their ordinary use.
3. What is the meaning for example of the shaving brush on top of the cupboard, or what is the purpose of the hair comb standing upright on the bed?
4. Furthermore the room itself seems to be part of the physical landscape: Part of the walls are made out of the sky and the clouds, while the same landscape is reflected in the mirror of the cupboard, or on the wall behind the poof.
5. Also the window of the room with the white certain is found behind the cupboard, as if the window itself were a decorative element, not necessary for the view.
6. Watching more carefully we can even recognize the sea behind the bed, forming part of the room’s floor.
7. If the landscape is represented by the variations of color then the green glass in the foreground can also be seen as having the status of a tree, standing for the element of earth.
8. This aspect is also reinforced by the size of the glass, which is comparable to the size of the poof, of the bed, or of the cupboard.
9. I could imagine one holding such a glass filled with wine, and then one, having been overcome by its mere size, diving in the glass and swimming in the wine.
10. Such a dream-like state is also imposed by the bed, which seems so small compared to the match lying on the floor by the side.
11. Apart from representing the element of fire- helping for example the painter to light up his pipe- the match can also be used as the scale.
12. If we assume that the match is of normal size then all the objects in the room will become miniscule, as if a dwarf were the occupant of the room in a fairy-tale.
13. If we consider on the other hand that the match is as big as the bed then the room could be like our own but then again the objects would lose their everyday sense.
14. This unrealistic aspect of the room is ultimately established by the juxtaposition between the inside and the outside- the sky and the clouds which are reflected in the interior of the room, on the sheets of the bed, on the curtain of the window, or in the mirror of the cupboard.
15. This way the room becomes part of an idyllic picture of a room within our own mind, while the objects in the room will be the symbolic representations of our earthly pleasures.

       

9/1/2008

Painting: Rene Magritte, Personal Values