Just like a Waving Flag

Even as the World Cup 2010 is unfolding, a group of nine artists from South Africa, has created 33 visuals, celebrating the spirit of soccer fever. Art writer Sampurna Chakraborty takes a look at the posters.

It all started with a link that a friend posted on Facebook and the rest, for me, has been the performance of identification on cyberspace. The FIFA World Cup 2010 is the buzz that has taken the world on roar for sometime now and ESPN has released their advertising campaign for such an event in the form of ‘murals’ as they are calling it.

Here I slightly counter to the identification of these visuals as to be murals as by the term we understand a painting done directly on wall. And in the present context, these visuals have been distributed in the virtual space but plans to incorporate them to print ads, bill boards, bus shelters, food trucks, art books, digital banners and also as hand painted murals on building (as one of the options) as forms of executions.

But in whichever form we might receive them, the visuals created by nine South African artists in three months under the illustration house AM I COLLECTIVE awaits much recognition for its global campaign with an African base. A total of 32 visuals celebrate 32 country teams participating in the World Cup 2010 and one for the collective spirit of the World Cup as a whole. The exhilarating first look of these images urged me to share this univocal subjectivity taking a position on multiple ethnicities.

While working on the 33 visuals created for the proliferation of World Cup 2010, the first thing that came to my mind, before reading the pictures, was my mode of access to them. All what I did behind putting up this written piece was to sit in front of my computer and hover into the cyber world. I collected all the possible information from this virtual space which is nowhere or somewhere and referred them to structure my opinion. Here I encounter a question from myself – if utopia is becoming more than a pleasure domain for us? Sherman and Judkins are intoxicated by it all. Virtual Reality, they say, ‘is the hope for the next century. It may indeed afford glimpses of Heaven.’ When I read this, I can hardly believe my eyes. We must consider what these spectacular flights of fantasy are all about.

To follow on with the recent subject of discussion, the links to these visuals for the World Cup 2010 also mention that these hand-painted images are done keeping a reference to the hand-painted movie posters from Ghana during the 80s. A group of entrepreneurs in Ghana initiated a small scale, mobile film distribution empire, hitting the road with video cassettes, television monitors, portable gas powdered generators and rolled up hand painted, artist signed canvas posters. This became an opportunity for some young artists to express themselves on a public scale. With reference to the cinematic subjectivity, these paintings were largely interpretive and imagination-driven. With a background of such a prolific public art in Africa, the present project of World Cup could not commence with more justified context. The nine artists vividly incorporated the identities of each country with a naiveté to the style but its elementary usage made it undoubtedly contemporary.

The iconographic structuring of the 33 paintings draws me to its identification and interpretation of the content. And to do this, I count my observations separately with every country represented. Though not considered to be ranked high among the participating teams of the World Cup, the image fashioned for South Africa is about the spirit of celebration and joy for hosting the World Cup 2010. The World Cup trophy, the coach Carlos Alberto Parreira, their short passing game style known as the ‘piano and shoeshine,’ and most prominently, the cheering supporter for the country’s game with sharp colour contrasts, create an identification for the Bafana Bafana (The Boys, The Boys).

Uruguay represents the ‘Sun of May’ which is a symbol of freedom and independence, the emblem in its national flag holding two trophies that it won when it was known as the Jules Rimet trophy which was awarded to the winners of World Cup from 1930 to 1970. Simply known as the World Cup or Coupe du Monde, it was officially renamed in 1946 to honor the FIFA President Jules Rimet, who in 1929 passed a vote to initiate the competition for the game of football. The blue and white background for the cloud and sky also has its reference to the nine alternating stripes of white and blue horizontal bands which represents nine provinces of the country, which existed during the time of the flag’s creation.

The picture for France is represented by its three significant players before the Arch de Triumph in their traditional costume and marked by their jersey numbers on their head gears. The noteworthy touch is Thiery Henry’s glowing hand or the ‘golden hand’ as it is popularly known which has a history known to all. Mexico completes this group with the high up presence of their coach Javier Aguirre with miniature proportioned players and even tinier supporters. Green, white and red from their flag remained as the dominant palette of their illustration. In group B its Argentina, Nigeria, Korean Republic and Greece represented by Messi, Nwankwo Kame, the White Tiger and Giorgos Karagounis on the pirated ship in respective order.

Uncomplicated structuring of the composition and singular perspective defined the background for Argentina, Nigeria and Greece and breaking out foreground for South Korea with symbolic colour specifications according to the country flag has been their parameter for the art works. Following this will be England, USA, Algeria and Slovenia in group C, we discover out of the ordinary modes of representation. With numerous opinions available on the net, regarding the wounded bear shown in the Slovenia picture, I leave it on the country team to fix who the probable defeated country face they succeed to imply. Germany, Australia, Serbia and Ghana in group D calls for a close look at the artists’ representative methods.

Certain minimalist suggestions as in the Serbia picture of the goal post or the yellow touches on the background to hint at the crowd in Ghana’s illustration while balancing the colour palette. And this factor of colour balance stands out prominently for Germany with the black, red and the yellow patch at the bottom of the picture surface and three stars on top symbolising the three victories in the World Cup. Captain Ballack, representing his team, has been fashioned with the wings of an eagle as on the German Coat of Arms with names of the country’s legends specified on it.

Such picture codes follow with Japan, signified to the world by their Samurai identification. With a foot on the ball, the samurai stature is shown cutting through the jerseys of their defenders. The wit of the artists has shown a glimpse for Denmark or Olsen’s Eleven (for Coach Martin Olsen).

While pointing out details of every individual picture, what passes through my mind is the question on their execution which shows a singular mode of stylisation. Though worked by nine individual artists we only know them as AM I COLLECTIVE and notably enough, the spirit of collaborative/collective performance is generated. And as collaborative art projects have moved into the mainstream of cultural reproduction, it does raise questions of authorship, authenticity, their relationship with the work and the work’s relationship with its viewer. Without resisting this scope, I will try to articulate the justifying relations of making art by the people, to the people and for the people.

The time that I live in does not offer me the romanticism of just appreciating a picture/visual which does not show me its purpose in my life, in me, within my social context. I have accepted and appreciated art as I have come to know in history but that does not allow me to consider pretty visuals as a functioning statement. The country pictures created for the FIFA World Cup 2010 has reestablished in me my view of connectivity, community within the public sphere. Their formations have been simple and raw and their focus was on recognising the country more than the team so that it can be communicable to everybody at any part of the world. Keeping a native flavor alive and creating this global uniqueness in the paintings is where I see the success of the project. At the same time, I cannot deny the resemblance its carries with the paintings done on the walls of the city lanes in my country, or the painted movie posters that existed far back in time. After such annotations one might hardly question the existing link that connects the cultures of the world.

Going with the spirit of the game, the drama has been strategically introduced in every painting with a difference in its ratio. As for Italy, the motion of performance has been delivered to its peak. Within the set up of a colosseum, the charging of the elephant and the lion with minimum space left for the gladiators to find gap or at least the viewer to think so is creating a charging impact.

Also for Portugal and Brazil in group G or Spain and Switzerland in group H contains this brilliant use of metaphors to successfully comprehend a country’s distinctiveness. In the light of celebrating Football World Cup, it is not just a game that matters but a mass participation that can lead to a desirable cultural reading. My intention of sharing this precise group of work was to bring awareness to our thoughts and perceptions when the function of art may be just a pleasure to cherish for methodological construction of a community. As I have found my purpose of vocation in it, my course of coding, decoding will carry on. And as the virtual space has opened for me information junctions I am in illusion of the reality. Within the existing technological limits, let’s unite in the verve of the game.

References:

1. I owe to my friends for their informative contribution.

2. Barrie Sherman and Phil Judkins, Glimpses of Heaven, Vision of Hell: Virtual Reality and its Implications (London, Hodder & Stoughton, 1992)

3. http://www.prosebeforehos.com/sports-editor/06/01/espn’s-2010-fifa-world-cup-murals-for-32-nations/

4. http://www.vanityfair.com/online/fairplay/the-32-teams/index2.html

(Sampurna Chakraborty studied Art History from Kala Bhavana, Visva Bharati University and a researcher associated with The Metropolitan Society of Heritage and Environment. She is based in Kolkata. Email: guloncho@gmail.com.)