Analytic and Application-Based Exercise

In "Nest," by the Chinese-Australian artist John Young (2003), a traditional image of a Chinese mountainous landscape is transposed with an image of a naked human torso and an image of a snowy mountain that looks like a photograph taken from the contemporary era. The effect is a kind of collage or pastiche. The peaceful beauty and tranquility of the Chinese landscape in the background is still within the visual scope of the gazer. But the jarring images of modernity juxtaposed upon the mountain create a sense of discord that would not be present had the harmonious Chinese mountain been rendered without the superimposed, contemporary images.

The modern images are cool and bright, particularly the icy mountain depicted in the upper left corner of the painting, in contrast to the sepia tones of the background. The fact that the modern mountain is snowy and cold, in...
[ View Full Essay]