Class Exercise B

   Hi guys. Below is an attempt of constructive criticism on a picture in a group of 2-3 members. The picture is a painting titled Persistence of Memory by Salvador Dalí.

Description

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There are 4 clocks illustrated in the painting. The clocks all seem to be in a somewhat dilapidated and liquified state. Two of the clocks are hanging lifelessly on an edge of what looks like a platform and a dead tree's branch. There is also a fly on the clock draped on the platform's edge. Tiny creatures that look like ants are swarming the back of a clock. Another clock is draped over some weird object that fades into the foreground. In the distance, there is a platform petruding from an unknown place. A sea and a rocky outcrop finish the background together with a rather gloomy looking sky.


Analysis
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The fly on the clock may imply that time flies.
The clock along with the dead tree can mean the death of time, or the insignificance of it.
Fading of the abstract-looking "dead mystical" creature can similarly mean the removal/death of time and life, such that its original form is unrecognizable and thus fades away.
Many of the objects look devoid of life (like an empty platform and a barren sea and cliff), depicting death or lifelessness, particular of life itself or time as signified by the dominance of clocks as representing images.


Interpretation
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The persistence of memory may mean stoppage of time at a particular moment. This leads to the death of life, hence the lifeless bodies of clocks and the fading object. It is so dead that even ants are abound on the clock facing down
, and the tree has decomposed so much until only one leafless branch and a bit more trunk is remaining. Similarly, flies are attracted to the smell of death like that shown on the platform clock (represented by a single fly). The gloominess of the entire artwork adds to the feeling of death and despair. However, the death of time is not a symbol of forgetfulness, rather the picture shows that whilst time can cease to exist, images of moments in time help to keep memory going on forever - hence, the title of Persistence of Memory.


Judgement
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Some objects in the painting are so abstract that they leave the mind totally open to imaginations and interpretations, although this may not be a shortcoming in itself.
Otherwise, the melting away of the clocks quite successfully depicts the death of time, similar to how living organisms go limp when they are dead.
The general feeling of the painting is quite sombre, intricately done by the use of soft colours with blue and dark brown dominating the scene.
However, an empty platform is hard to signify anything, or rather a possible interpretation of its existence in the picture is hard to come up with. Nevertheless, this shortcoming may or may not be so as the atist, Salvador Dali, himself stated that many of his artworks were made from hallucinations and dreams, with no real meaning, and were created in a spur of the moment.