What is the significance of a fountain? Do fountains merely serve as space fillers, or are they more meaningful? And if so, why and how are they meaningful?
In today’s world, the definition of art is very broad, difficult to determine and inconsistent. People share different definitions of it and many disagree about what constitutes a work of art. The viewer of a work may deem it of artistic caliber if it is aesthetically pleasing and if it evokes emotion, or involves deeper meaning. A structure that fulfills both these requirements is the fountain. Although to some, a fountain is just simply a piece of landscape decoration, truly it functions as something much more. A fountain is a piece of artwork, because of its contents.
The main element of a fountain is water. The placement and movement of the water in fountains may differ, yet the factor it brings is almost always the same. Water has always had a calming and comforting affect of the human mind. Moving water is even more appealing to the human senses. The sound, look, touch and even smell of rippling, cascading, rushing, dripping water has a powerful affect on human beings. The sound of moving water is a popular and effective means of calming infants, many people own waterfalls or mini fountains in their homes, to add a sense of Zen-like tranquility to their spaces. Fountains enable their visitors to experience the delight and peace of flowing water. The appearance of water not only provides beauty, it produces reflection. It is a known fact that water is a reflective substance, and the presence of reflection is powerful in of itself. Fountains capture this characteristic of water seamlessly as they create reflections of the world around them and their visitors.
Fountains are ever changing, because the appearance of their contents, water, mirrors the world around it. This reflecting ability of fountains makes them intriguing and appealing to look at. "...Happy in all that ragged, loose collapse of water, the fountain, its effortless descent and flatteries of spray... "
Richard Wilbur "A baroque wall fountain in the Villa Sciarra" “Look within. Within is the fountain of good, and it will ever bubble up, if thou wilt ever dig.”-Marcus Aurelius. This quote describes this reflective ability of fountains on a deeper level. The presence of reflection provokes a visitor to look within themselves. A fountain’s pool mirrors the image of its viewers and while doing so creates an atmosphere for inner reflection and meditation.
Fountains are meaningful pieces of art, for they provide reflection on two levels. Primarily a fountain’s contents mirror the images present around them, yet through their peaceful and powerful element, they induce their viewers to reflect inwardly at the images present inside themselves.
IMAGES:
-photos of fountains:
-Frick Fine Arts
-Cathedral?
-Carnegie Museum
-Point Park?
-sounds:
-record rushing water
-voiceover: myself reading my “script”
No comments:
Post a Comment