This photograph may have been taken to show the aspects of marriage before and after. I would expect to see the image appear on the cover of some sort of romance novel or book. The picture portrays love, romance and lust but also has a much deeper meaning; so just by looking at the cover of the novel we can almost tell what the book is going to be about. This deeper meaning to the image would make it extremely effective for a romance novel.

The shot of the photo appears to be quite close up to show the details of the image. It isn’t taken directly above, but at an angle in front so that we are able to view the images much more clearly than whether it was taken straight above or directly in front.

There are many signifiers of meaning in the image. The white satin signifies purity, innocence and virginity where the bible could symbolise religion, belief, rules, marriage, death and way of life. The rose shows love, romance, lust, passion and the handcuffs signify restriction, crime, binding, authority and law. Finally, the confetti symbolises happiness, celebration and marriage.

We can obviously tell that the connotational meaning of the image is love and romance; the rose shows this. But the rose also has many thorns, which could signify the pressures and pain of love, and the diagonal cut at the bottom shows how you can pass through the pressures to reach happiness, just like water passes past the thorns to reach the flower. The bible brings marriage and rules into the meaning of the image as we associate a bible with religion, belief, rules and marriage. The white satin symbolises life before marriage as it signifies virginity, innocence and purity; all of these you have before marriage, but as soon as you marry, they soon disappear. The handcuffs are there to signify life after marriage as they show the restrictions and rules you obtain as soon as it happens. They are there to symbolise the rules of marriage and how to stay faithful to your partner. The confetti signifies the happiness and good times of marriage.

The way the image is arranged, we can tell a lot from it. The fact that the satin is underneath everything else in the photo shows that after marriage, we no longer obtain innocence, virginity and purity, the signifiers of the white satin. The bible is open halfway, showing that you have lived half of your life: youth, freedom and innocence. It symbolises how you are entering the next stage: the responsible and independent side of life. The rose is entwined with the chain of the handcuffs, symbolising the relation between restriction and romance. It signifies how when you marry, you are attached to love and have no escape form it. The confetti is sprinkled all over the image, showing that even though there are bad times, restrictions and rules, on top of all this there is still happiness to be found. The overall message of image tells us that love and marriage comes with many responsibilities and rules. We have to sacrifice our innocence and virginity to gain it. But the photo also tells us that marriage is a happy and joyous occasion to experience.

To anchor the image I would use a caption such as ‘ are you sure you’re ready?’ This tells us that the picture is trying to show us what marriage is about and what we have to give up or sacrifice in order to gain it. The caption is trying to make us think about matrimony and fully decide whether or not we are ready. I think it is quite an effective caption.

As society progresses, the media is giving people more pressure to fit in with a standard image. There are numerous of advertisements emphasize thinness as a standard for female beauty and muscular as a standard for male, and often emphasize sexuality and the importance of physical attractiveness in an attempt to sell products. As result, there is growing awareness regarding the pressure women and girls, men and boys are under to appear skinny and muscular. For example, whenever watching TV shows, movies or magazines, there is always something to catch people’s attention to measure their body image. Often commercials only use women who are unhealthily skinny and men who are unrealistically muscular. These are so called “perfect” bodies that we are led to believe we must have in order to be beautiful. All these have led to the destruction of millions of people’s self-esteem, and led to numerous and serious health problems like anorexia and bulimia.

Moreover, according to “Thank Barbie for Britney” the media strongly influences children to act and dress like teens through advertisements and TV programs. Barbie and Britney Spears are leading the sexualization of young girls with their vampy images and attitudes. For example, my seven year old niece already knows how to dress and pose sexily like a super model and celebrity, and she always ask me for a Barbie instead of a baby doll. And her parents can do little to change her ideas because advertisers are selling their products directly to the children on children’s programs.

Peer pressure is also a very strong influence on our body image besides the media. We grow up surrounded by authority figures and peers who tell us the right way and wrong way to look which means that most of us are affected by what they have to say. We give into peer pressure because we want to be liked, to fit in, or because we worry that other people may make fun of us if we don’t go along with the group. H.D. the author of “Dying to Be Bigger” is a good example. He starts taking drugs to get stronger and smoking because he wanted to fit in with the “cool” crowd. The idea that “everyone’s doing it” influences us to leave our better judgment, or our common sense, behind. For instance, my classmates have tattoos and they think it is cool when you have tattoos. I wanted to be cool, and to be part of them too, so I went to get two tattoos. At that moment I only think I will not be lonely at school, they will like me more after I have tattoos. Peer pressure can be extremely strong and hard to resist, and we can feel pressured to look and feel a certain way.

In fact, we do not live all alone, and human beings are social animals. As such, all of us have a basic desire to fit in and be accepted by other. Thus our society and our peers have very great influence on our body image, and we have to be very careful not to let this influence become so big as to be unhealthy both for women and men.

I relish this artwork. I could look watch it for hours and still find new aspects which I had only skimmed past previous times I had seen the painting. Art, Life is secretive and suspiciously ersatz, feigning innocence. This confuses me, because the imagery is so confronting and seemingly genuine, yet I know that it is hiding something from me. Perhaps it is the look on Whiteley’s face in the third image of the triptych that gives the artwork this quality. What is he thinking? But his ambiguous face is serous. He looks cunning and self-assured; he looks lost and helpless.

The second panel does not evoke such a personal reaction from me. This panel is not for me, anyway. It belongs to Brett. He has asserted his authority in this artwork by placing his photograph in the corner. This panel belongs to Brett, but it wants to be separate from him; I can see that. The angle of the face and the shape of the eye communicate independently. They whisper to me and he turns a blind eye. It wants to be free from him…but it is not mine to claim. This panel belongs to Brett.

The first panel of the triptych changes this. My quiet respect for Whiteley invoked by Panel 2 is replaced by anger. This panel depicts a screaming beast subject to nails and thorns beneath its feet. A tear falls from its eye and a cold human hand reaches out and offers a needle. Whiteley’s hand. Whiteley’s animal. It’s his fault, I think. Why subject himself to this pain? His beast is dangerous and unapproachable, but the tear provokes sympathy for this poor, foolish man who brings this pointless destruction upon himself. This is the Brett that Whiteley cannot control.

Art, Life and The Other Thing is a triptych (it is made up of three pieces).

The first piece is 90.4 x 77.2 cm and sits at the bottom left of the triptych. It depicts an indistinct animal form. The beast appears to be growling. A tear falls from its eye, and beneath its bleeding feet are nails. Handcuffs constrict its hands, which are surrounded by light brushstrokes and appear to be moving. A human hand holding a hypodermic syringe, which is glued onto the board, reaches out from the top left corner.

The second piece is an abstract self-portrait. The face stares in the direction of the audience, but is accompanied by a multiple of vague outlines of his profile that look across to the left. The predominant feature is a large blue eye. His body is elongated, particularly his left arm, which holds a sketch of William Dobell’s controversial Archibald portrait of Joshua Smith.

The third piece is a photograph of Whiteley’s face. He looks across to his left, and smiles slightly. This image is placed in the top right of the triptych. . Whiteley wears a white shirt, reminiscent of that which his portrait wears in Panel 2.

The prominent colour is a dirty orange that acts as the background in each panel. This highlights the connection between each piece as one artwork, as opposed to three individual works. The use of levels in the placement of each piece insists that it be read from right-to-left which is unusual.

Art, Life and The Other Thing is fundamentally a self-portrait and thus does not communicate much about the artists outlook on society, only what has affected him so deeply that it has become a part of him. It does make explicit reference to Whiteley’s affiliation with drug-use and drug culture (Panel 1). It also refers to his place in the art world by showing him draw Dobell’s Archibald Prize winner in Panel 2. This painting was the topic of great controversy, when it was entered in 1943, for its abstract manner. Whiteley’s artwork is also very abstract, and coincidently, Art, Life went on to win the Archibald in 1978.

Brett Whiteley was an artist familiar with appropriation. In Art, Life and The Other Thing he has drawn his interpretation of William Dobell’s portrait of Joshua Smith. Whiteley’s sketch is startling similar to Dobell’s painting, however is on a much smaller scale and is in black and white. It could be a preliminary sketch for the controversial artwork, and here it is suggested that it has been drawn by Whiteley himself, rather than Dobell.

This artwork has inspired a universal audience for over 30 years, and it shall undoubtedly go on to do so for many years to come.