The animation short ‘What I See’ highlights the irony of life, the pretentiousness of the art world, and the fickleness of public opinion.
Written by Sarah Lim Xi-Yin, the 2d animation shows an art student Ian Jing, with poor eyesight, taking Realism art, where Mrs Hui demands that her students draw exactly what they see.
Following her instruction, Jing draws exactly what he sees. As time passes, his drawings get blurrier as his eyesight worsens. Still, public opinion of his drawings rose, increasing the number of his followers on social media, with so-called ‘art critics’ ascribing all sorts of meaning to the work.
Sometime after, Jing visits an ophthalmologist who prescribes glasses that enable Jing to see clearly for the first time. Consequently, it impacts his art, which began to reflect indeed what he really sees. However, public opinion of his art dropped, with so-called critics labelling him – “anyone can do photorealism”, “a sellout to the big institutes’, with trolling comments like “I like his older stuff better”. “Hey guys, I am just drawing what I see,” posted Jing. Time passes, and Realism class wraps up, paving the way to the next class, the Abstract, to draw more than what one can see. Along the way, an initially perplexed Jing found his expression, away from the public eye.
It is truly ironic that the protagonist was considered a genius when he made images the way he initially saw them—blurred—because of his blurred vision, yet was considered a fraud and talentless when he could actually see clearly and represent what he could see clearly on paper.
Second, it shows the pretentiousness of the art world. The art world thrives in ambiguity, and tends to look down on realism art, whose existence, study and deconstruction led to other art movements that we enjoy today – impressionism, expressionism, abstraction, cubism and contemporary – come from.
Today, in the contemporary art practice, artists and critics tag narratives to paint blobs or brush strokes on canvas, claiming some ‘high art meaning’, when in truth there’s no co-relation between the art and supposed theme, or its visual interpretation. Rather, it is cooked up by a curator in the curatorial statement, or simply a happenstance that is then spun into something of deeper meaning.
Finally, the short film reminds creatives of the dangers of hanging their hopes and the value of their works on public opinion, particularly on social media.
They can turn on you in a second.
Commendation must go to writer Lim, who does a good job presenting such a deeply reflective subject in a 5-minute 58-second animation, and animators Bobby Jackson, Calleen Koh, Sarah Cheok, Wong Qing, and Lim herself for capturing what poor eyesight looks like. “As someone with poor eyesight, this is what I see,” said @KNightcord_25.
For Lim, it’s “about the subjectivity of art, the gap between intention and interpretation, the fickle nature of public opinion. Like any piece of art, I think it can have many different takeaways. But to me, ‘What I See’ is a personal reminder not to place the value of my creations in the hands and mouths of others, as the art world is sometimes contradictory and absurd, and it is impossible to please or displease everybody in the world.”
