Conflict and Plight

Comment on Painting Panorama

By Jian Zhong

Beauty is not just something that pleases the eye; more notably it is a quality that relates our daily lives to the mind. Panorama by an Ottawa high school student named Zhehe Wu is just one example.

Environmental problems have been pictured as a motif through many mediums in countless masterpieces and exhibitions throughout the years; it is no longer fresh. However, in Panorama, it has rarely seen structural presentation combined with youth, to make this work of art truly unique.

The organization of the mass of junk, which includes industrial and common household garbage on a contrasting blue sky, shows how her creativity and thoughts break the time, space, and dimensional restrictions. Through the use of aslant and unbalanced objects, the lack of a distinctive light source and an undetermined perspective, she has created a chaotic atmosphere which leads to an odd, inharmonious, and contrasting mood. This symbolizes today’s environment; it expresses the conflict in between the human developments that are destroying nature and yet the dependency on her help – an exasperating plight.

The barrels, papers, tires, tractor … all found on the canvas, allow viewers to realize various environmental issues. Using her solid foundation on forms and structures and her realism techniques, the artist is able to effectively show the different textures on these hazardous objects. Moreover, she successfully employs complementary colours in her work; the offset between the rusty orange tractor on the one hand, and the serene blue sky on the other, gives the picture a brighter effect. In certain areas, she even uses pure primary colours while at the same time managing to stay within the whole picture’s atmospheric tones.

This painting is at the same time both harmonious and contrasting.

During the process of composing, the artist used various techniques ranging from piling up and scraping off pigments, to smouldering certain areas to enhance the realism of the objects. Meanwhile, she used powerful and confident brushstrokes and clear sharp edges in the foreground to allow the contrast between the decaying objects and the downy clouds in the clear blue sky above the emerald mountains; it has become even more conspicuous.

The artist, to emphasize the elevation in the painting, purposely reveals a corner of a mountain range near the bottom left. At the same time, she also used an ancient Chinese turquoise toned landscape as a background to symbolize the domination of today’s wastes over the landscapes of a peaceful world often depicted in ancient civilizations’ philosophy and art. Furthermore, the single-worded title on the back cover of the book near the bottom left corner merely hints at the meaning of the painting.

Such beauty and ugliness, brilliance and obscurity, new and old, tranquility and movement, softness and harshness, warmth and cold, are the very essence of artistic appeal.

Following the recent rapid scientific progress, humans are gaining more and more control over Mother Nature and interfering with her cycles, thus tipping her original balance. We, as a species, are part of the natural environment, just as nature is the habitat of human beings. Nature is embedded within us, while humans also compose a part of nature. Therefore in order to treat ourselves appropriately, we must not mistreat nature. If we cling obstinately to our course of action – trying to control Mother Nature - what will become of tomorrow’s view? Zhenhe’s Panorama gives us this warning.