Symbiotic Mediocrity by Robert Williams - Essay Example

The tails wind around from the normal spot on the creatures and become plugs that are each inserted into an electrical outlet that sits in the center foreground.  One creature sits facing away from the picture plane, revealing the depth of the TV and the source of the cords.  The other creature sits facing it and its face, or TV screen, is visible.  This reveals that the creature is reflecting an image that is a mirror reflection of the creatures from the perspective of the human viewing the painting. 

            The image is clearly making a statement about the current state of existence, especially the younger generations.  His approach is described as combining the “age-old aesthetic of realism with the conceptual ideologies of pop art and the absurdities of surrealism” (Zucker, 2009).  The blue-green color palette is deliberately representative of the color that the television screen paints in the room when it is the only light source.  There is even the discernable bright light immediately surrounding the TV set at the horizon line that glows pale yellow.  The creatures are the blue-gray that human skin becomes when seen in the light of the TV.  This introduces the idea that the creatures are really people who have dedicated themselves so fully to the entertainment of the television that they have become symbiotically connected to it – they cannot survive without it.  But the message seems to go deeper in the scene found on the TV screen.  “Williams’ biting wit and shady humor have become more honed and subtle in his recent body of work” (Mukul, 2009).  In this scene, the artist is also sending the message that television can only reflect the experience of real life.  If the people aren’t doing anything then that’s all that the television can reflect. 

            When I first looked at this image, I simply felt amused looking at these two things looking at each other.  The longer I looked at the image, though, the more I realized that the image on the TV screen is reflected from my perspective.  This was an aspect of the painting that no one seemed to comment much about but seems like a very important element of the painting.  This meant that the artist had purposely included me, as a viewer, in the action of the painting.  As I began to understand the meaning of the image, that the people have become mediocre in their full dedication to the entertainment world, I began to realize it was intended to make me take a close look at my own activities, to see if this was all I had become.  Of course, people don’t go walking around with TVs instead of heads, but how many people are pale from lack of sunlight because they go home from work and just watch TV at night?  How many people have nothing to talk about except their favorite TV shows?  How much did this image reflect my own real-life experience?  This was suddenly a very thought-provoking image for me and one that will give me much to think about moving forward.