The Art of Intimidation

[Area Light Explorer]

Hi there,

I'm kind of fascinated by the art displayed by coral sea life. It reminds me of walking through a city street that is saturated with advertisements. There's been some contemplation on the intelligence built into body markings. Certainly, some animals present signals to convey warnings etc. One example that stands out to me is of a crab that uses its color scheme to display dominance. The interesting aspect of it is through the probability of adaptation some inferior crabs managed to fake dominance and scare away superior competitors.

On another occasion I was watching a documentary study on a species of lizard employing three distinct survival/ competitive mating strategies with equal success. The orange lizards were fierce stand alone fighters. The blue lizards always worked as a team. The yellow lizards were sneaky opportunists. I'm wondering what the significance of the color scheme is. Does orange connotate an intimidative value in nature?

The question really pertains to the visual aspects of intimidation. I'd be interested to know of some works of art that present the essential visual aspects of intimidation. Perhaps there is an artist who has contemplated the dynamics and has made it a study to present them in their raw form.

I'm not too concerned with the promulgation of scary or horror themed works. More interesting is the conveyance of power, the potential subordination to fear, and the inspiration to courage- as in competition or battle. I'm familiar with archetypal themes such as black for darkness, etc. Black is not necessarily intimidating I think. It really must depend on the intention and context it is used in order to have an emotional effect in kind.

Anyways...could make for some interesting conversation. Thoughts?

Anthony

[Pierre Tavlitzki]

Hi Anthony !

Nice and deep subject !

I don't feel that a colour has the same meaning for all animals, because there are many differences of colour vision between them. But your comments go to a sort of ethology of art, which is something uncommon.

Art being seen as an interaction is an interesting topic. We are interested with a specific artwork because it means something, in terms of interaction. Basquiat is one of my preferred painters, and all his works are aggressive.

Successful artists play with sex, death, money, violence and derision. Intimidation and menace are some variants of violence. All of that has a meaning that is interacting with us, more of less, different from one individual to another one. I enjoy Yue Minjun for his derision. I consider normal that many others ignore or hate him.

Pierre