Art review--The slacker in winter

Feast your eyes on the photo art above.

It was taken by a man I shall name "R." He is both a colleague and a friend.  He also, as you can plainly see, has the eye of an artist.

I called the above composition a "Bergman film, only done by slackers." R took the comment as a title for the piece and I was flattered.  I believe I have done the art a bit of under-service as the title only captures part of it.

Look at the desolation present in the frame.  I contend it is not simply the weather that gives it such a sense but also a hollowness of soul.  Three souls...or perhaps one who needed three separate shopping carts (a commentary on either gluttony or a lack of birth control?)...could not be bothered to return their carts to a corral a mere few feet from where these carts stood.  Souls so full of ennui or bereft of purpose that even the smallest task because far too herculean...

Then again, could this perhaps be commentary on modern living?  Behold the strip mall: a juxtaposed series of shopping establishments that offer Americans everything we don't need but can't live without.  Is this societal decay in action?  Is that the symbolism contained within the negative space between the shopping carts?  Oh what a scabrous web we must navigate! 

Ultimately, I return to artist/filmmaker/existentialist/all-around kooky guy, Ingmar Bergman.  His work dwelt upon such subjects as mortality and loneliness.  Look at how empty this parking lot is.  You almost expect a bony figure in a black, hooded cloak emerge to challenge you to a game of chess.  Search for a human subject anywhere in the shot.  One ends up giving up.  And yet...and yet...the artist is in a locale that should have a modicum of consumers present.  There are vehicles there and yet there are no people.  Is that really what we are?  Just empty vessels?  Running on autopilot to locations where we purchase and consume?  Too tired, too sad, too broken to summon the energy or muster the responsibility to follow a simple, good faith rule?

Or maybe R is right and the whole composition should just be called "Lazy Assholes."




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