Society In A Box

Society in a box

Peace is not the absence of war but the presence of justice.

Mystery is something difficult to understand or explain. Society all over the world has come to the idea that it’s okay for the government to kill innocent, and for them to steal our money, and that poverty is something no one can tackle, the world today is corrupted, with war, famine, abuse, poverty, murders, lies and much more, yet we all sit and watch it on the TV, or read it in a newspaper but cannot do anything. Poverty, natural disasters, mass murders are all becoming day to day things that just pass us by and we just don’t realize what’s happening in the world. Emotions  are not shown in people’s faces anymore, someone may smile but inside they feel grief or pain, we don’t realize it until we really look into their eyes, but only for a glimpse do we really know what they feel. 



The innocent watches the horror of the world, the older generation forgets the horror of the world, the generation now live with it, and the future generation must prepare for it. Governments are corrupt and send their armies to war and we don’t question why but just listen to the news and believe what they say, the economy is down yet we want to spend more, freedom of speech no longer exists, we want privacy but cctv cameras are on every corner, banks steal our money and we don’t say a word, power is greed, and poverty is neglected. The world is misused and we don’t blink an eye.

Mark Ryden is one of the most celebrated artists of the Pop Surrealism movement. He created images that instantly created the atmosphere of confusion and disturbance. Disturbing images of young innocent girls with no expression and blood dripping from their eyes was his most famous trade mark. His art can suggest these girls have been through trauma or have seen things that are scarring. The eye is constantly seen in his work which could symbolize the fact that we are always being watched. In the world right now there are thousands of cameras watching us; there is no sense of privacy. Emotions are not shown through the girl’s expressions in his work, but what surrounds them seems to convey the message of pain and disturbance. The juxtaposition between the eyes and natural things are placed together to create an unnatural feeling towards the work, to create mystery. Religious and political connotations are used throughout his work with Abraham Lincoln being his subject in most of the paintings. He refers  to Lincoln in one of his pieces as a devil, and in another as a juggler which portrays the message of Ryden having a certain view on Lincoln that he believes Lincoln is corrupt, an actor, and devilish. Putting a negative image (devilish) with a positive image (young girl) makes the piece difficult to understand and very disturbing.

The Dada movement was a movement that originated in Europe at the time of World War 1. The horror of the war was dramatic because it was witnessed by society. Due to the war, a number of artists, writers and intellectuals were angry at the fact that the European society would allow the war to even have happened. They decided to protest through their art.  The Dadaists were fed up that society was going to the wrong direction. They used an early form of shock art, using controversial images and everyday objects renamed as art. The Mona Lisa had a beard and mustache drawn on it to because society no longer appreciated the painting and transformed it to postcards and posters. While Dada originally emerged as an anti-war movement, it had some aspects of surrealism much like Mark Ryden. Many artists produced work during the Dada period and others were heavily influenced by the work of the Dadaists. John Heartfield protested through his work, he focused on the subject of Hitler and the Nazi symbol. Mark Ryden could have been said to be influenced by this art movement because he used the image of Abraham Lincoln and the Nazi symbol too.

The aim of my art work is to portray society as it is now, through someone else’s eyes. The eyes all bleed to suggest they have seen something horrific of the world and it is damaging them inside and causing pain, yet emotion is not shown through the features of the face. The faces are wrapped in newspapers to symbolize the media and news. Various images are use to symbolize certain parts of society, each box has a different image. Money is greed, guns and images of children shows the killing of innocent in wars, blood is pain, Obama, Abraham Lincoln and George Bush is corruption, and eyes are the lack of privacy as cctv cameras seem to be everywhere in the streets and cities of the world. The all seeing eye in one of the boxes has connotations with the illuminati and the list went on with different images to symbolize aspects of society.

As you can see, you can look directly into the box as the eyes have been cut out.

The eyes cry blood to signify pain and disturbance and to also create the atmosphere of mystery.

On the sides of the boxes, negative words were used, to portray a dramatic effect to the audience.

This was is the final piece, with lights inserted and working so when one looks inside they can see glimpses of the images inside the box.

Society in a Box 

This is the final piece, a series of 6 boxes stuck on to a pyramid shape, and each box has a face stuck on it. The main idea is to look through the eyes into the box to see the image. The box symbolizes someone’s mind, and the images inside symbolizes someone’s thoughts or dreams. In order to see what the person is thinking, one must look into their mind. It is difficult to understand someone’s mind unless you actually see it for yourself; this final piece provides the opportunity to see what’s in someone’s mind. Flashing lights are inserted into the boxes to create the illusion of seeing someone’s dream, or a glimpse of what their thinking, because normally it is only for a fraction of second you can really see someone’s emotion. I called it Society in a box because it literally shows that, and the fact that one must look inside the eyes of someone to see what they have seen in society.

The whole idea behind this piece of Art is the fact that society is corrupted; I have shown that by allowing others to look into someone’s eyes and get a glimpse of what each face has seen or experienced.