|
||
 Childhood Design   |
Visual images have long been merged with musical expressions in various formats, ranging from modern music videos to films like Walt Disney's Fantasia. In Fantasia, the classical works of Bach, Tchaikovsky, and Debussy are amalgamated with contemporary animation and characters. In Nathan Krämer's illustrations for Scenes from Childhood, the fusion of music and vision is represented as a careful marriage of the two arts. Krämer describes this as: "Music and visual art are assimilated in my mind; I see art in a musical way and music in a visual way." His thirteen illustrations are not mere depictions or representations of the titles Schumann created; rather, they are expressions of musical form, texture, mood, and style. The slower pieces of Schumann’s work, such as "Dreaming" and "Child Falling Asleep," are interpreted by Krämer through subtle, subdued forms and textures. Conversely, the illustration for "Frightening" presents a more complex arrangement of shapes and rhythms. Together, the illustrations and the music are intended to be experienced as a cohesive audiovisual composition. The creation of Scenes from Childhood reflects Krämer’s own early life. As a child, he was fascinated by the upright grand pianos he encountered. Opportunities to view the inner workings of a piano in action sparked his imagination and fueled his interest in music. This fascination with collecting and organizing items of unique aesthetic interest eventually led him to dismantle discarded pianos, using their components as material for his illustrations. As in Schumann’s musical compositions, the illustrations were developed as variations of a master design drawn from imagery in Krämer’s childhood. In this work, the vertical line symbolizes an upward direction in life, while the horizontal line represents the plane where life exists in the present. The circle symbolizes unity, and the triangle symbolizes the harmony of the world. Life is lived at the center of this design: in harmony and unity, across the past, present, and future. |
|
|
|
||