• In her article, “Derek Jarman’s Blue: Negating the Visual”, Jenna Carine Ashton states “The auditory comes to replace the visual; with Blue there is a sensory tussle as we are forced  to listen.” Reflecting on your own experience of watching Blue, do you agree? Why/why not?

This idea is reasonable, but I do not agree auditory can replace visual.  Visuals are as necessary as auditory in Jarman’s work. Although according to Jenna (2012) mentioned, the artwork Blue offers an overwhelming and invasive soundtrack of everyday noises, musical interludes, haunting voices, and mechanical clunks and clinks. However, at the same time, despite the sound, the dazzling picture catches attention. Blue colors flash so much and get into people’s eyes.  As for the whole pure color picture flooding the screen. Colour has unpredictable power, it can cause a totally different effect from photographs in this situation. Photograph or normal video provides a quick way of apprehending something and a compact form for memorizing it in today’s era of information overload(Sontag, 2003). The blue screen attack audience’s the visual sense, works together with the auditory, and makes people feel uncomfortable.

• Consider this work in relation to González-Torres’ Untitled (A portrait of Ross in L.A.). How do these works engage the senses of the viewer to create a relationship with the subject of the work?

Jarman’s Blue and “Untitled” (Portrait of Ross in L.A.) both create a conversation with the audience to communicate with the kind of homosexuality and AIDS topic through different ways.

Jarman uses a strong personal art style to communicate, Blue engages the senses of the viewer through solid blue, music, and mechanical metallic sounds;. which can affect in various ways like pain or suffering, to carry the weight of illness and disease (Jenna, 2012). The Untitled uses real interaction and an open way to maintain the connection. consists of a pile of candies individually wrapped in multicolor cellophane.  The work encourages interactions with the audience like eating candies. As a result, to maintain this art, the handlers weekly added 15 or 20 pounds to the sculpture on average and would add candies to rebalance the piece’s color. (Weinberg, 2013)

Jenna, C (2012), Derek Jarman’s Blue: Negating the Visual, Journal of Applied Arts & Health, Volume 3 Number 3

Sontag, S. (2002), Illness as Metaphor and AIDS and its Metaphors, London

Weinberg, L (2013). “Art Institute candy sculpture | What’s up with that?”. Time Out Chicago. Retrieved 2020-08-01.