Styled after the David Hockney work ‘The Bigger Splash’ from 1967, this sizeable artwork in the main atrium of the museum is by Zmaga Lenárdiča.
This seems to be one of these artworks that has numerous meanings depending on who is looking at it. There is maybe a statement on the water has gone, perhaps climate change or a suggestion that hope has declined since Hockney’s painting. Or it could mean that there’s something important about the elements that are visible and invisible, as Hockey’s initial work didn’t show any individual. Instead of the exuberant moment Hockney captured, this piece has the eerie and drained stillness of whatever happened after. Or it could mean that no-one normally captures the scene after it happens, when the spectacle has gone.
And my theme, if there is one here, is that it seems common for humans to find meaning in any given artwork. It’s not likely the meaning that the artist intended, but the viewer can walk away thinking there is meaning.
I asked AI to create a similar image and explain its meaning and why it chose what it did. It, rather cleverly, responded by saying that sometimes things don’t have to have meaning. And it delivered this image and I’m actually rather impressed at this philosophical line it went down….
Anyway, I digress.