Yuanfei Wang

Beauty and the Contemporary Sublime

 

Name: �The Gentleman is flying”

Author: Jin, Changxu

 

Name: “Misses Universe and the Car”

Author: Liu, Zhankun

 

The above two photographs were taken in the Beijing International Car Exhibition, China, November 2006. The first photograph catches the moment when a group of models, wearing very cool sunglasses and metallic-silver costumes, were performing stunt and magic to showcase four shining cars; and one of them, a black Buick, was made, with some special cinematic technique, to float in the air. The permeated smoke and the shinning mirror-like floor highlight the magic quality of this scene. This photo won the prize of “on-the-spot shoot” in the photography contest organized by the exhibition. The second photo presents a red car and four Misses Universe selected from the International Miss Universe Contest in 2006. With many other prize-winning photos, the two photos are put onto the Internet, http://auto.sina.com.cn/z/06atshowpics/index.shtml

 

One can associate the two photos to the many issues that Jeremy Gilbert-Rolfe analyzes in his book Beauty and the Contemporary Sublime.

 

Firstly, Rolfe perceives that in the contemporary world, technology, capitalism, and sublime are closely related or even the same thing (127). While he thinks that capitalism is not ideology, he asserts that the universal desire of making money in the market produces technology. Although I do not agree with such assumption, I agree with him that capitalism turns technology into commodities and mass consumptions. The first photo reveals to the customers that if one possesses a car/technology like this, one can possess the same kind of modern and cool life that technology brings. To illustrate this idea, the name of the photo “The gentleman is flying” makes the body of the flying car symbolize the body of a human being, meaning one’s career or social status is far beyond those of others if one possesses the car. It is this supreme position of technology that it seems to create a kind of mystery and glamour around it. And glamour is beauty,  “the magical power” (78). Rolfe in his book relates glamour to cars: “Glamour has an obvious association with speed in the twentieth century. Mobility is formlessness that can only be visually expressed as shapes or their convergence.”  In the first photo, the still and displayed cars although already embody speed, pure reason, and pure technology, the organizers use cinematic techniques to advertise or exaggerate the supreme position of technology by creating the magic show. Thus, within this car exhibition or media propaganda, this is not only what Rolfe calls the “technological-sublime,” but the sublime that is not so free and autonomous as he perceives. Instead, technology and sublime depend on medias, markets, politics, and even cultural context. It seems that sublime and beauty are not so separate in this picture; it seems that the picture resembles an androgynous image, an image that is totally commercial and for sale.

 

Secondly, Rolfe points out that the history of photography is the history of technology and plastic or surfaces and colors. In the first photo, one notices that the floor, the cars, and the costumes of the models all share the same shining metal and plastic quality. It again gives the illusion that the bodies of humans and cars are similar and even identical. Moreover, there is no originality in this photo. Anyone can produce the same photo given the same florescent light, same (digital) camera, and the same moment. On the other hand, however, only photo but not painting can copy down this scene because it is transient, momentary, and thus limitlessness/sublime. In addition, because I know about the car exhibition from the surfaces and colors of these digital photos, to me as a viewer, the car exhibition has been plasticized by the photos.

 

Thirdly, the second photo forms an interesting comparison with Rolfe’s perception of the relationship between beauty and the sublime. The four Misses Universe are surrounding the red car, smiling to the audience. Again, it seems to me that the scene has an androgynous image: the most beautiful and feminine models combine with the pure technology and reason. In other words, the beauty is imposed on the sublime. It also seems to represent what Rolfe thinks beauty is. He states that in the contemporary world, beauty’s independence is associated with frivolity and the relevance of the beautiful “lies in its capacity to be irrelevant and yet remain indispensable.” The four Misses Universe have nothing to do with the cars. They are not part of the cars. Thus they are irrelevant to the cars. But Misses Universe’s presence obvious attract much of the audience’ attention to the cars because seeing the beauty evokes one’s pleasure.  Thus in this photograph, Misses Universe are indispensable to the cars, because they make the cars seem more valuable.  But again, the second picture is only a show that is purposely put on to attract people’s attention and promote mass consumption. The femininity and beauty in the picture is unlike the femininity and beauty that Rolfe describes. Because the organizer manipulates and controls the show, the beauties, and the cars, thus the beauty is not autonomous and independent as what Rolfe indicates.