Documentation

“Wanderer above the Sea of Fog”, Caspar David Friedrich.

Wanderer above the Sea of Fog is a painting by German Romantic artist Caspar David Friedrich made in 1818. It depicts a man standing upon a rocky precipice with his back to the viewer; he is gazing out on a landscape covered in a thick sea of fog through which other ridges, trees, and mountains pierce, which stretches out into the distance indefinitely. It has been considered one of the masterpieces of the Romantic movement and one of its most representative works. Wanderer above the Sea of Fog is closely associated with Romanticism, a broad artistic and literary movement that emerged after the Age of Enlightenment. The landscape of Wanderer is widely considered to evoke the sublime, of greater mysteries and potential beyond the typical. Friedrich wrote:

“When a region cloaks itself in mist, it appears larger and more sublime, elevating the imagination, and rousing the expectations like a veiled girl.”

The sublime refers to the feeling of awe and reverence that is often elicited by experiences of great beauty or grandeur, particularly in the natural world. In Romanticism, the sublime was seen as a source of inspiration and a way to connect with the divine or the infinite. The Romantic poets, such as William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge, often wrote about this feeling as a way to evoke a sense of transcendence and to explore the deepest aspects of the human experience. It was also a central theme in Romantic art, which often featured grand, awe-inspiring landscapes and dramatic, emotional subjects. The Romantic artists sought to capture the power and majesty of the natural world and to evoke a sense of the sublime in their work. Overall, the sublime was an important concept in Romanticism as it was seen as a way to connect with the deepest aspects of the human experience and to find meaning and inspiration in the natural world.

Lofoten Island, Norway.

1. Concept research

IN SITU: thinking about the concept of Place, I started looking for images of places that didn’t belong to landscapes we are used to see in our everyday life. I found a collection of pictures taken in Norway, during a family trip. My intent was to recreate the same atmosphere of the painting “Wanderer above the Sea of Fog”, in order to experience the feeling of the sublime, through the projection of these pictures. I was looking for beautiful evocative landscapes, that would leave a strong impression in the spectator’s mind.

Glacier National Park blanketed in wildfire smoke, United States.

2. Concept definement

After the first review with the professors we decided to keep the original source material, the painting, but addressing it to a stronger concept, the Illusion derived from the Sublime . Kaspar Friedrich created imaginary, undefined, and mysterious landscapes, that represented the uncertainty of the social and cultural background of that time, together with the insecurities of the inner self. He brought the spectators inside ficticious realities outisde place and time, where a dangerous and astonishing nature was the protagonist of the scene. This natural strenght overwhelmed the human being with fear and amazement, creating the feeling of the Sublime.

“When a region cloaks itself in mist, it appears larger and more sublime, elevating the imagination, and rousing the expectations like a veiled girl.” Caspar David Friedrich.

This quote describes the concept of my work: raising expectations on a beautiful lie and then, betraying them with the revelation of the ugly truth.

Sublime

The catalogue structure is very simple: a spread for the image and a spread for the caption. There are pictures of landscapes, of surfaces and drone pictures, each taken in a different place. Every picture depicts the illusion of a beautiful, undefined, sublime nature, however their reality, explained in the captions, is far from this impression. The images I collected represent the effects of global warming, climate change, water and air pollution. The catalogue is designed to appear elegant and fancy, white blank spaces give to it a clean and pure look. The paradox between its clean visual appreance and the filthy reality explained by the text, creates a play of illusion and disillusion of the reader’s expectations. In this case the feeling of the sublime arises from the images and enhances its power through the reader’s aknowlodgement of human environmental impact. Kaspar Friedrich’s painting displayed an incontaminated nature, while the Sublime displays a nature that is modified by the human presence in the world. The wanderer above the sea of fog would have a completely differenrt meaning if it would have been painted in these days.

WEBLIOGRAPHY

Odell Lake, Oregon, USA www.reddit.com/r/pics/comments/irl5mh/odell_lake_oregon_912_covered_in_smoke_from/

Ganges River, India www.flickr.com/search/

Boundary Waters, Minnesota www.reddit.com/r/pics/comments/pd0gk0/wildfire_smoke_in_the_boundary_waters_northern/

Chiang Mai, Northern Thailand redd.it/w150qobv1tk31.png

Alstahaug, Norway wikipedia.org/wiki/Neskowin_Ghost_Forest

Yamuna River, India //nypost.com/2021/11/10/clouds-of-toxic-foam-float-on-surface-of-indias-sacred-yamuna-river/

National Park, Oregon redd.it/1zlwf7939xa71.jpg

Glacier National Park, USA redd.it/9sgorsklgrf71.jpg

Unknown redd.it/9bf9nva5d3k71.jpg

Western Canada redd.it/m3gco13wb5j71.jpg

Neskowin, Oregon https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neskowin_Ghost_Forest

Isle Royale, National Park, USA outsider.com/outdoors/isle-royale-national-park-devastated-by-wilfdfire-forced-close-affected-areas/

Yosemite National Park, USA www.reddit.com/r/pics/comments/8zyvx8/this_picture_i_took_at_yosemite_during_the/

Soth Florida Coast, USA www.reddit.com/r/ImagesOfFlorida/comments/65ijhw/the_pristine_polluted_waters_of_south_ florida/

Unknown en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neskowin_Ghost_Forest

Unknown

www.reddit.com/r/pics/comments/pipwztwhere_wildfire_smoke_meets_the_sky/

Sierra Mountains, North America www.reddit.com/r/pics/comments/p8ia1z/lake_tahoe_with_california_wildfire_smoke/ Dead Sea, Israel www.npr.org/sections/picturshow/2022/12/11/1139524126/photos-dead-sea-water-level-dropping-sinkholes-erosion

Mississippi River, North America unsplash.com/photos/UZVld5AlxLM Iceland

www.reddit.com/r/pics/comments/powfhe/some_icelandic_glacier_rivers_look_like_abstract/ Orange Beach, Alabama static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian

Pacific Ocean, California unsplash.com/s/visual/df3be103-6dab-46a1-85bc-7e646c590732

Gowanus Canal, Brooklyn, NY gowanuscanalbrooklyn.blogspot.com/

University: Free University of Bozen-Bolzano Faculty: Design and Art Course: Visual Communication

Thomas Mayfried, Michele Galluzzo, Emanuela De Cecco Year: 2022 Student: Nicol Moalli