NCT-U’s BDS and the plastic arts references.
Because i am trash i am back with one of this kpop + art posts, because i can’t help it. As soon as i heard Taeyong mention Rothko in the lyrics of BDS it grabbed my attention, but then he spoke further about this and i really fell in love with the concept.
I’m going to explain this correctly. In BDS lyrics, Taeyong added the names of a painter (Rothko, in hangul 로스코) and two sculptors (Auguste Rodin and Claudel in hangul 오귀스트 로댕 and 클로델).
Then in the explanation speech of the lyrics he said he added them because he saw their work lately and he got inspired. For me it was really amazing and creative to put this artists in the lyrics because they have a lot to do with a sexy groove song like BDS so i wanted to share the reason why this is so amazing.
First, this surprised me because none of them are the typical artist someone mentions. Why? Because, althought they are famous, they are all from the contemporary and modernist art wave and their work is really tricky, no lies, so i was surprised (and happy) that Taeyong was familiar with them.
Rothko is one of the most important painters for american abstract impressionism. He made up a whole new style called “color fields painting” which consists in paint the canvas with large extensions of a plain color. You may think this is stupid but it was a movement with an intellectual base and a setted objective, which was nothing less than erase the exaggerated literature and religion from art and make an art that is strictly gestural. Putting it with easier words, it was a kind of art that gave people freedom to express their own feelings inside and also basic feelings and instincts.
I don’t want to be explicit but, you know, it’s pretty clear that an art like this makes sense in a song like “Baby, Don’t Stop”. It’s pretty much about basic instincts and sex holy shit there’s no way to conceal it. And what this artist had is a special predisposition to offer a sensual aura.
Auguste Rodin and Camille Claudel. They met each other during their lives and even more thrilling, Camille Claudel was a woman and, as you can guess, it was not easy for her to make her path in art. Claudel and Rodain had an affair that later was dramatized and took to the typic legend of exaggerated and toxic love legends, as she was going insane from a male misstreat, but this is not the issue right now. The art style they made is the same/similar, as she was his pupil (and he was even acused later of stealing pieces made by Claudel without no one noticing because they were too similar). The way they sculpt bodies it’s in the “classical way” of searching for ideal beauty and using the traditional technic with stone, clay, etc… Also it has a lot to do with impulse and the body moving. For them, a body is never with a static or artificial pose but in motion, because bodies are alive. Their works, specially Rodin’s, are tangible, erotic in some cases even called scandalous… for their shapes and themes (you can absolutely see it in some of his sculptures like The Kiss or Femme accroupie or in Claudel’s ones with Lot, Niobe wounded or The Waltz).
This, however, goes in the same sexual line.
But if you are wondering why i said this is so creative and well put on the lyrics it’s actually because the song itself it’s clearly about the XXX moment. And specially making sense inside Taeyong’s rap, the way he says “stay, clay, sketch, dirt, dough, i’m gonna knead your body” referring to 1. Be intimate with someone and 2. Literally have a model or a muse to sculpt. And “play play play play play, i’ll play in the Paris” because they are french but… yeah, that’s not too important
What makes it even funnier is that an important number of Rodin’s works use Camille Claudel as model, which actually makes Taeyong be accurately talking about flinging with someone that is a lover and a model. He is literally going to knead their body with clay, is not only the double sense of KNEAD someone’s body.
So that’s it, Taeyong was given a sensual concept and he got inspired by some artists and said “hell yeah imma put this here” which happened to be artistically freaking correct and illustrating, we lovE AN INTELECTUAL!! I really needed to share it because it amazes me. I hope i explained myself clearly :D but if you have any doubt you can ask me, really…
Also i wrote this basically from what i learned in class but if you want to take a look on this artists, museum websites like the MoMA’s, the Tate’s or the Musée Rodin are good options.
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