~The Genus of the Pearl Earrings ~

The Genus of the Pearl Earrings - do they sparkle on them?

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I often wonder how the artist behind these monumental pieces and body of works would feel if they were to come back and see how our century is holding tributes to them. To be remembered by a subjective piece, or a collection thereof. Building shiny and irresistible tributes to their name and upholding their troubles and miseries, as an afterthought, shrugging it off as the follies one commits in living at the wrong time, only to use their artwork as leverage of status and greed.

A perception so miraculously done, that it attracts yearly millions to witness the existence of someone who at the time, did something nearly impossible to do today; to live one's life without a second thought of this social webbing that modernization conveniently sew. The ability to observe and record without the use of technology but a direct communication from one's eye.

Thus did I find myself exploring Vermeer's work, in his then hometown, despite the magnificent  plethora of observations and characters behind his art, one is particularly cultivated on by the now 'art critics'/ The Girl of the Pearl Earrings'. Every corner of the Netherlands her eyes stare at you; behind those soulless, consumer oriented display shops. To attract passerby's to what this country cultivated at its golden age. It was puzzling to me to see how such a painting is to be used in every facet of life, diminishing its purpose and serving as an object to bring status to empty and unnecessary objects. Thus my vision and understanding of this painting came to be, my recording of Vermeer's The Girl of the Pearl Earrings, although I significantly modified it. I shut its eyes and bandaged it with tusks, for beauty doesn't come so freely to us savage creatures. For behind every jewelry, endorsement, stands proudly its creator, its recorder, the person who  gave birth to the said object. Unaccounted of gender or reason, the second figure wears those precious pearl earrings, elegantly, almost tribal; but still,  does the tusked grotesque figure steal the spotlight once more..