A narrative- artworks collection with caption below!!! After you got through all of the images:)) there's 27 of them.
Yesterday, I termed this a narrative-artworks collection, which I think is a great name. I hope I have done enough hollering, but I wrote a fic accompanying these artworks. Was I creating a body of text which is more important than the artworks, which the artworks are dependent on? I hope not:)), and it was not the initial plan. The artworks are equal to the text, and both of them work towards a narrative.
Well, the subject here is Pearl, and I got quite a lot to say about her. The hypothesis underlying my understanding of her got a lot to do with PearlRose relationship. One popular reading is that Pearl and Rose didn’t even enter a serious romantic relationship, which I disagreed. The relationship, when it lasted, was very serious with both parties. My hypothesis is that, Pearl got a strong desire to love; she loved Rose in a pure, honest, conscious way, while fully understanding the disadvantages she was getting in to, defying it with the belief of triumph of love; and on the ground of a committed relationship, what Rose did was a betrayal.
The AU accommodates some logistics troubles. I want to create a dialogue, and to save Pearl from the pain of conversing with a tombstone like she did in the majority of the show, Rose is well and alive.
To make the dramatic climax the betrayal, and to focus on Pearl’s reconciliation with it, the dramatic events lead to it were placed closely to each other. These events was what happened at ASPR; on the ground of betrayal, relationship between Rose and Greg would be adultery; of course, there was Rose’s plan to give up her life for her child. In the show, these events got 5 thousand years between them. In this au, let say all the news was broke in duration of a week.
Well, let the characters wallowing about love and betrayal all day can make a tired story. Therefore, that was not the only thing they do, they labored for the job and the war, too. I want to have some social commentary. Let’s look at some images I have numbered:). The artwork 1 and 2 took place at the first chapter of my fic, though not strictly follow the words.
Let’s look at artwork no.2, which is what I do before no.1. What point can I possibly make? The weight of the wealthy and the traditions that placed upon Pearl, who was poor and cheated by the system, maybe. And Pearl was old enough to look back upon it and feel sorry for herself, along with vengeance and call for revolution \(^_^)/. This artwork is also a collage, the statues on the back is a photograph of Ancient Greece sculpture, three goddess, about fifth century BCE. The idea was for Pearl to reject the tradition imposed upon her, which she used to believe in, though it was not truly hers. It was built upon her unhappiness. That culture is something she had to reject.
No.1 was made with similar idea, with more effective composition in my humble opinion. Increase the size of the statue while decreasing the size of the figure. She looked more serene, her mind was set.
I will give you the timeline of the au. The change from the show is pretty minimal, I think. It was a human au, though more mythical. Pearl and Rose got their plot of land, playing double life and revolution. The general rebellion cast was there. After five years, Rose decided that their way of revolution was not sustainable, if they truly wanted to dispose the Diamonds. They orchestrated Pearl killing Rose Quartz in order to resume the Pink Diamond’s life. The rebellion from then on was under Garnet’s control (my beloved), who was not privy to the plan. The idea of this setting was to let both Pink and Garnet built force, in order to point it towards White Diamond in the grand finale, if I ever get to that.
That is the main movement of the story, and of course my dear Pearl got some flairs of her own. After the event of ASPR, which collide with the adultery and planned very possible death I mentioned above, she went legit crazy for a year, wandering in the woods. Decided to resume her task, she returned. Jasper got recruited to Pink Diamond’s force just before the event of ASPR, though there was a lot of thing she didn’t know at that time. The fake shattering was Pearl and Rose private event though, Pearl handed a wounded Pink to Jasper, and went away on her own.
The settings of the au was inspired by classical Greece. Now, why would I bother with the naked man and woman, the shining artifacts of the past, not even my past? It collided with my readings at that time, and there was a few good aesthetic points I like to use. Firstly, is the beautiful naturalistic bodies, and the idea that the glory is in her body. Very good reason to render the clothes simply as flesh in different colors:). Secondly, is the architecture, which is the columns, very evocative fantastical design elements. If you allow me, I did throw some arches there, and my rudimental appreciation of brutalist architecture designs. I did come across a few other interesting points in my reading, which was aesthetic geometry, but I haven’t gone far with them.
I have said quite enough today:)). I will save the triumph of love and life over disillusionment and death for another day. There was also a few narratively important artworks I like to talk about.
Here is the fic if you want to take a look.
https://archiveofourown.org/works/66969424