Monday, January 12, 2009

Hardship, Humor, and Mural

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When life is hard and chaotic, make humor out of it!

I think that's what this mural is trying to do.

This mural on Jalan Stasion Timur near Bandung Train Station depicts the chaotic realities on board Bandung commuter train in humorous and exaggerated way. Such a depiction is probably meant to raise the public awareness of how dangerous it is the things that they do and take for granted as a day to day normal and expected experience.

And here is what Wikipedia says about how humor occurs:
  • An alternative (or surprising) shift in perception or answer is given that still shows relevance and can explain a situation.
  • Sudden relief occurs from a tense situation. "Humourific," as formerly applied in comedy, referred to the interpretation of the sublime and the ridiculous, a relation also known as bathos. In this context, humour is often a subjective experience, as it depends on a special mood or perspective from its audience to be effective.
  • Two ideas or things that are very distant in meaning emotionally or conceptually (i.e., having a significant incongruity) are juxtaposed.
  • One laughs at something that points out another's errors, lack of intelligence, or unfortunate circumstances, thereby granting a sense of superiority.
Which one do you think relates to the humor in the above mural?

13 comments:

Laurie Allee said...

What a great image! I love the way you framed it with the pedestrian strolling past the mural.

Photo Cache said...

I love murals, I think it's a sort of a nice distraction from the humdrum of every day life. The second applies to this mural, I thought.

Catherine said...

I love that kind of street Art, Eki. Exactly what was expected fromin a station near Bandung !

Anonymous said...

I agree with you..My husband gave me a sign for my desk at school which said. 'good humor makes all things tolerable'...

PJ said...

Eki, just so you know I do SSS on my Abstractions blog, the one you posted on is my catch-all blog. I'm under PJ on Hey Harriett's Mr Linky. But thanks for the nice comment. I hadn't even thought about it being a SSS post. '~)

Love the mural, I think I've said this before, but if not, you live in a wonderfully visual world. You're so very fortunate.

escape said...

wow! nicely done.

pyo said...

Mural? I think it can be a better way to express or portray what we feel about some events. No need a violent demonstration towards government or certain persons. Just murals in all public walls in Bandung, would be nice.... ;P

Anonymous said...

Eki..you asked about blue jays and what they eat on my blog. Blue Jays like most song birds eat insects when ever they can catch them. In the winter the birds will eat seeds and nuts, but especially those that have a high fat content like peanuts or sunflower seeds. Blue jays are very intelligent and known to also take the occasional bird egg or even a nestling, but not often. Some blue jays migrate for the winter, but this pair seems to be sticking around and eats nuts, seeds and corn, but they love peanuts as you can see.

Virginia said...

Laughter is inner jogging! someone sent me that quote the other day. In that case I should lose a LOT of weight! HA Great photo today!
V

Unknown said...

Nice mural Eki. I have yet to see any funny or humourous mural over here..and this one tells a story, I think.

Jane Hards Photography said...

The lone walker against the wall is a favourite photography image but against such a colourful descriptive wall it is so different. Juxtaposed is a word so missued in photography, but here it is spot on.

Anonymous said...

What a fun mural! I agree with photo cache, it is a nice distraction!

Abdul Cholik said...

The message of that picture is "They are not discipline while travelling.This is very bad habit.They don't care of their safety.