Sound Project - Deciding what picture to create a soundscape for...

For our Sound Project our sound scape has to be based on one of the images chosen by our tutor. There were a few I instantly had an interest in and so I decided to do a small amount of research on my favourites to decide which one would interest me most when it came to sound. Here are my favourites:

'Screaming Popes' Study after Valasquez's Portrait of Pope Innocent X (Francis Bacon, 1953)

This is one of my favourite images out of those given to us because I feel like it has a amazing atmosphere to it created by the aggressive way it has been painted. I looked into the intended meanings behind it and why Bacon painted it and it is said that it could have some very deep Freudian psychoanalytical meanings to it. For example it is said that Bacon has recreated the pope in this new disguise because it shows how one person can be another. This could be thought to mimic him and his fathers relationship. Bacon became sexually interested in his father but his father disowned him and the whole idea of Bacon's homosexual thoughts. This painting is then like showing  the inner demons within the pope mimicking how Bacon is aware of his  own inner demons. I like to think of it myself as the pop almost being in a state between heaven and hell because he looks so still and calm but then at the same time so aggressive. I like this piece however I am still not entirely sure at this stage what sounds I could use to express this painting. Maybe something to show a contrast between heaven and hell so aggression mixed with calming sounds.

'Maman' (Louise Bourgeois, 1999)

This piece of art work has always been an interest and like of mine anyway and again I am drawn to it with in this project. It was made by Bourgeois as a representation of  her own mother. Bourgeois says herself : "The friend (the spider – why the spider?) because my best friend was my mother and she was deliberate, clever, patient, soothing, reasonable, dainty, subtle, indispensable, neat, and as useful as a spider. She could also defend herself, and me, by refusing to answer ‘stupid’, inquisitive, embarrassing, personal questions." I really like the idea that she has compared her mother to a spider which you would instinctively think of as a bad comparison yet when she explains it you realise she really isn't and she is speaking positively about how strong her mother was. I feel with this piece that I wouldn't want to make it too literal if I were to make a sound scape for it. I wouldn't do anything to do with children or spiders and instead I like the idea of linking it to mother nature as an alternative. I like this because a spider is part of mother nature but then it also links back to the idea that this piece is about the strength of her mother so I can show the strength of mother nature.


'The Persistence of Memory' (Salvador Dali, 1931)

I again was already aware of this piece of art and I like it however I had never thought to look into the meanings behind it so for this project I did and it was actually really interesting. Dali himself called them 'hand-painted dream photographs' which is very understandable. He paints things in ways that you perceive them only in a dream. For example the clocks are all limp because time is unrealistic in dreams. I think it would be really interesting to make a dream like abstract sound scape to match this piece in which I could include loads of distorted noises to represent the way the objects in the painting have distorted. This would be a much more abstract approach to take with this project.

After looking into my three favourite pieces that I could potentially base my project on I have decided that I am torn between 'Maman' and 'The Persistence of Memory' so I am thinking that I will begin to plan one and see how it turn outs out and then I can switch to the other if I find that more interesting.