How do the cultures of the Navajos, Balinese Wayang Style Painting, Japanese and Manga (art example: Astro Boy poster 1963) represent their ideas of utopia and dystopia? Differences and Similarities between them. Utopia is an ideology of an ideal society and dystopia is “an imaginary place or state in which the condition of life is extremely bad, as from deprivation, oppression, or terror”.
The sand paintings of the Navajos are traditional healing therapies for people. They are symbolic depictions of Indian Gods and Spirits. The holy gods are the focus of the Navajos sand paintings. They represent their ideas of Utopia through harmony of earthy colours and symbolism of gods who they believe would heal any one in pain. This is a ritualistic ideology of Utopia. The process of this type of painting involves piety and special hand technique to make the forms on the ground with dry powders of coloured stones. Once the healing process is over these paintings are supposed to be destroyed.
The Balinese Wayang Style Paintings belong to the 13 century. They are pictorial stories from the epics Mahabharata and Ramayana of Hindu religion. The stories of demons and deities are shown with beautiful forms and figures in bright colours. These paintings show good and the bad at war. Utopia is represented by them in the victory of good over evil in the vibrant forms of gods overpowering demons in the war of truth.
Japanese and Manga Art, example, Poster of Astro Boy 1963 belongs to the new era. Set in futuristic Metro City, Astro Boy is about a young robot with incredible powers created by a brilliant scientist in the image of the son he has lost. Unable to fulfill the grieving man’s expectations, our hero embarks on a journey in search of acceptance, experiencing betrayal and a netherworld of robot gladiators, before he returns to save Metro City and reconcile with the father who had rejected him. Written by Anonymous . The metallic version of this character shows his closeness to inhumanity. He is a depiction of dystopia as he is always shown in hard coverings over his body and indulging in unsocial destructive acts out of emotional frustration. His portrayal exhibits unrest of modern minds. A perfect dystopia.
The similarities between the three forms of painting is that all of them are depicting human feelings, emotions and virtues of good and bad which are the prime distinction of utopia and dystopia. The existence of good and evil, the constant war between the two and the symbolic representation shows that these are unreal imaginary models just like the terms utopia and dystopia.
There are many differences between the three forms of paintings. The purpose of Navajo is ritualistic healing, while the Balinese Wayang Style are visual forms of communication and the poster boy is the modern version of visual and electronic or digital art technology. The methods of painting are different in all the three. The mediums are different and technique of making them are dissimilar for each form of art.
Works Cited
- Plot summary for Astro Boy (2009) More at IMDbPro » 19 April 2009 < http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0375568/plotsummary>
- Kamasan Traditional Painting. 19 April 2009 < http://www.pambali.com/blog/bali-arts-culture/wayang-kamasan-traditional-balinese-painting>
- Meaning of dystopia 19 April 2009< -http://www.answers.com/topic/dystopia
- Navajos sand painting. 19 April 2009 <http://www.penfieldgallery.com/sand.shtml>
- 19 April 2009 <http://www.lewiston.k12.me.us/~epelletier/FOV1-00033C7B/S0172A340.1/DystopianLiteratureHandout.doc
