Media

Interview with John Lennon (member of The Beatles) on 6/6/68

- "our society is run by insane people"

- "I think we are being run by maniacs for maniacal ends"

John Lennon played a big role in the peace movement and persuaded people to protest against the Vietnam war. He worked with his wife, Yoko Ono and asked the world for peace.

Scrolling down the comment, I came across a quote by James P Hogan that someone had posted which read:

"Sane,normal people don't need power trips. So the lunatics en up in charge of everything"

I just thought that this quote really linked with what John Lennon was saying in this interview and summarises what a lot of people thought during the 60s and 70s due to the political corruption and deceitfulness concerning the Vietnam War.

I think it would be interesting to try and use the contents of this interview into my art. For example, the fact that John Lennon describes the government as 'maniacs' could be expressed through distorted figures using dark colours.

This clip is from the movie Forrest Gump (1994) directed by Robert Zemeckis and based on the novel with the same name by Winston Groom. 

There are many historical references in this movie particularly of ones during the 1960s and 70s such as the assassination of John F Kennedy, an interview with John Lennon, the Vietnam war, the Black Panther party and the Watergate scandal. The clip above depicts the hippie culture that started to emerge during the mid-60s especially amongst the younger generation. They were extremely against the war in Vietnam and often did ant-war protests like the one in Forrest Gump to express their beliefs. New social groups were formed and psychedelic rock was introduced along with psychedelic drugs such as "magic mushrooms" and LSD. 

This is an aspect that I would like to import into my artwork as I want to capture not just the political aspects of the 1960s but also the social changes as I think it would be interesting to use the idea of psychedelic drugs in my art as it opens a lot more opportunities such as bright and much like what I was saying about the interview with John Lennon, I want to use distortion to further reflect the use of drugs. Although both sides can both be distorted, there will still be that sense of a division due to the different types of colours used for each aspect/ For example, the image reflecting the government will be dark and created using greys and blacks whereas the hippie culture will be bright and psychedelic, using bright colours and mediums.

I want to use both aspects of the 1960s and merge them together to create a piece which shows both the serious parts and the more recreational direction of this particular time.