Satirical - Pastiche

For Pastiche, I looked at existing examples of altering a famous painting or writing such as Gillray's version of the three witches [1] using Lord Dundas, Prime Minister Pitt and Lord Thurlow (all politicians under King George III). The image is intended to show the uneasiness of their relationship under the king.

The image that I decided to parody is 'Mother and Child Gazing at a Hand Mirror' [2] because it is a recognisable image that fits in with the idea I wanted to portray. It is a traditional Japanese painting and so features subtle colours and a very stylised face with small features on a large pale base and, on the mother, red painted lips.

The image I have created mimics the pose of the original and uses the same colour scheme (soft pinks and greens) but I have modernised the content to feature a modern Japanese teenager and her brother. They are watching something on her phone (instead of a mirror) as this would have the same effect on a curious (modern) child and is very interested in what his older sibling is doing.

It makes a statement about how different the children are from traditional ideals, spending time on phones and wearing 'unsuitable' clothes. I also included the plant as a cactus as these are very popular with teenagers at the moment and helps to give context to the teenager's fashion choices.


References
[1] Gillray 1791
[2] Utamaru c.1802

Bibliography

Tate. 2016. Gothic Nightmares. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/tate-britain/exhibition/gothic-nightmares-fuseli-blake-and-romantic-imagination/gothic-3. [Accessed 12 December 2016].

Wikiart. 2016. Mother and child gazing at a Hand Mirror. [ONLINE] Available at: https://www.wikiart.org/en/kitagawa-utamaro/mother-and-child-gazing-at-a-hand-mirror-1805. [Accessed 12 December 2016].

Wikipedia. 2016. Pastiche. [ONLINE] Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pastiche. [Accessed 12 December 2016].