Jeremy Murphy - Daruma
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Take a look at this as it explodes across your screen! The dynamic perspective in Jeremy’s piece is a great example of extending reality into what we call the hyperreal: playing with the kind of conventions that can be used in action-packed media like comics and cartoons in order to add impact and ‘otherness’ to a scene or character. In real life we don’t see the kind of curvature of linear perspective Jeremy has used here, but we understand it (subconsciously, thanks to our consumption of media like cartoons, comics videogames etc) as something that denotes cinematic effects like a scene stretching, curving or streaming away - so despite the fact we’ve never seen anything ‘real’ like this it still feels possible. Hyperreality’s a complex theory so enough of that; let’s turn our attention to the details. I love maneki neko (Japanese Lucky Cat statues) so the little one on the shelf in the background instantly made me go “Aww!” but take a look at the daruma or dharma dolls on the nearer shelf, which echo the facial characteristics of the figure. Daruma dolls are for making wishes - you paint one eye to make your wish and the other when it comes true. These seemingly insignificant details of cute little ornaments give us so much information about the character, and the crisp, clear painting style encourages and rewards an extended look at this image.
