video#37

video#39

This video was photographed on a cool day in March of 2012 in San Diego, California, United States. The video's subject is the outdoor 'sculpture' by artist Niki de Saint Phalle. Her title for the artwork is Coming Together. This sculpture was erected in September of 2001 on the lawn adjacent to the San Diego Convention Center. The hidden framework of the sculpture is metal, but the entire framework is covered in colored tiles, and a variety of small stones. The sculpture is not completely solid, since it has many gaps in its outline, allowing whatever is behind it — buildings, people, cars, boats, pedestrians, bicyclists, clouds, sky — to be seen through the sculpture's framework.

The sculpture's giant human head is vertically split in two halves. The left half has stylized female hair, and a curvy feminine look, but is colored in gray, black, and white tiles. In contrast, the sculpture's right side is 'bald,' and is more masculine with its abstract angular eyes and lips. The masculine side is colored in vivid orange, aquamarine, and green tiles. This color scheme seems to be the opposite of what one would expect. In the typical human view of males and females, women are supposed to be the curvier colorful sex, while men are the more angular, less complex, perhaps 'black and white' gender. The artist upends and mixes this stereotypical expectation by using a curvy monotone female side, and a colorful angular male right side. However, 'left side' and 'right side' are subjective labels here. That's because the sculpture can be viewed both from the street side (looking southward from Harbor Drive), and the San Diego Bay side (looking northward). So, if you're looking from the street side, the left/right, female/male is reversed. From the street side, the male half is monochrome and angular, while the female side is curvy and vibrantly colored.

In pop psychology, they often speak of left-brain/right-brain, with the left side of the human brain being more analytical, while the right-brain is the colorful artistic side. Perhaps the artist was commenting about that aspect of the human condition too? The stylized human head also has a schizophrenic tone, with its seemingly split personalities combined within one head. The monochrome half's tiles reflect sunlight in a hint of rainbow pattern, suggesting that our human 'monochrome' aspect actually has a hint of the vibrancy from the other side of our personalities, and vice versa.

The sculpture's title, Coming Together, is appropriate for being near the popular Convention Center, where people indeed come together in vast numbers. Adjacent to Coming Together is the sculpture Wind Palms, erected by another artist. Together, these two outdoor eye pleasers accentuate the nearby lawn and benches where many people might assemble outdoors on a sunny day to relax, eat, and chat.

The sounds in this video are a mixture of ambient city sound, and some background music.

As for the visuals, the video begins with a wide shot looking northward at Coming Together. Behind the sculpture are palm trees, moving automobiles and trucks, Petco Park, and a San Diego Trolley train made up of three red cars. The next few shots are close-ups that focus on the statue's eyes and the tiles in its face. Next, a close-up of the statue's plaque with the words "Coming Together" is seen. A lone dandelion wiggles nearby in the gentle breeze. After this, we see the base of the statue, or the 'neck' part of the human face. The neck region is covered in cement in which many colorful stones and pieces of wood have been strategically placed. Most of this video is normal speed, but the video ends with time-lapse video of the sculpture framing a blue sky and moving cirrus clouds.

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