Zara Khan

My inspiration for my art piece is a painting called 'Dancing Mutants', painted by Hernando R Ocampo in 1965, post war era. It is represented with earthy green tones and brighter reds creating contrast. The artist also creates contrast using dark and more muted colours. His inspiration for the painting was the reaction of the horrors of war and a film in which creatures mutated from the aftereffects of a nuclear war. Hernando R Ocampo once said that the strongest influences on his paintings were from things he saw around him every day. He said, "The flora and fauna, the sunshine, the rain, the flowers and the birds and the bees, the shells and fish of the Philippines, as well as the TV films and the movies that I see."

I particularly enjoyed the hidden message of this painting, sculpting the hidden figures as leaves swaying from side to side. The word 'mutants' is often viewed as a grotesque image, however, it was portrayed in an "simplistically elegant and balanced" way. The simple yet vibrant shapes and colours, yet the expression of something very dark. This painting was an artistic response to the atomic age succeeding World War II. The artist "Ocampo worked as part of the post-war Neo-realist movement, seeking to move away from pre-war art, to redefine an era through art."

For my interpretation, I chose to use the number 7. This is simply due to the fact that it is a prime number meaning it cannot be obtained by multiplying two smaller numbers together. These numbers could represent the sides of World War II; the Allies and the Axis. The number 7 also represents fullness of life which creates contrast to the horrors and trauma of the war. I used this concept as the base of my design idea.

For my reinvention, I created the number 7. This number 7 was a representation of hope contrasting my background. The background consists of more monochrome colours. However, there is a light yellow and red wash to adding a more war like effect. My painting also consists of black rubble showing the effects of the world war. The 7 is painted a sky blue with pure white clouds representing fullness of life. The rubble in the 7 is a lighter shade of grey showing how the horrors and aftereffects of war have faded, but the history remains buried. This is displayed in my painting with a bomb hidden in the faded rubble.