Iconic Images or Visual Clichés ?

Icon and iconic ought to be words used sparingly, but nowadays they're attached in some places where a word carrying less gravitas would be a better fit. I got to considering this when starting a scribble about ....well... icons. Cultural icons - kind of but not exactly. Legendary images in their own way, but really they're visual clichés. The images I have in mind are of things which didn't set out to be iconic but which have caught, and kept a place in, the communal memory of the public.

What set me on this track?

It was Alan Moore's birthday on Monday, he wrote V for Vendetta. Post about Alan Moore is here. The mask from the movie version of the tale has become well-known even to those who haven't seen the movie or read the graphic novel. Representations of that mask are now used by the Anonymous group.

The mask has become "iconic" or a visual cliché.
Wikipedia:

The Guy Fawkes mask is a stylised depiction of Guy Fawkes, the best-known member of the Gunpowder Plot, an attempt to blow up the House of Lords in London in 1605. The use of a mask on an effigy has long roots as part of Guy Fawkes Night celebrations.

A stylised portrayal of a white face with an over-sized smile and red cheeks, a wide moustache upturned at both ends, and a thin vertical pointed beard, designed by illustrator David Lloyd, came to represent broader protest after it was used as a major plot element in V for Vendetta, published in 1982, and its 2006 film adaptation. After appearing in Internet forums, the mask became a well-known symbol for the online hacktivist group Anonymous, the Occupy movement, and other anti-government and anti-establishment protests around the world.

Another example springs to mind as possibly the best ever visual cliché : Marilyn Monroe standing over a grating, white dress billowing up.
Wikipedia:
The dress is regarded as an icon of film history and the image of Monroe in the white dress standing above a subway grating blowing the dress up has been described as one of the iconic images of the 20th century
(See my old post about this)





Others?

How about John Travolta's white suit pose?

From The Guardian

The most famous white suit in the world, a classic example of the finest 1970s polyester tailoring, has been tracked down by the Victoria and Albert Museum after an international search.

The three-piece suit was as much a star of the 1977 film Saturday Night Fever as John Travolta who played Tony Manero, or the Bee Gees, who provided the soundtrack for the story of a young man who disco-dances his way out of the ghetto.

Bought off the peg in a cheap men's clothes store in Brooklyn, the suit was last seen in public 17 years ago, when it was sold at a Christie's auction to an anonymous bidder for $145,000 (£93,000), three times the top estimate. The curators of this autumn/winter's exhibition on Hollywood costume were determined to find it and put out an international appeal. To their surprise it has turned up in London, in immaculate condition, and the owner has agreed to lend it to the museum.

And "I'm Spartacus!"? I've heard or read this phrase used more and more recently in very different situations from the original (naturally!) It could be described as a catch phrase too, but whenever I hear it, my mind's eye sees the scene from the movie.

Any more?

Arty Farty Friday ~ Iconic Image

A slightly different arty farty angle this week. A look at how an iconic photograph caught, and appears to hold, the creative imagination of so many.

Sun's in Gemini, Marilyn Monroe was born - Norma Jean beneath her iconic mask - with Sun and Mercury in Gemini on 1 June 1926. She had Moon and Jupiter in Aquarius, Leo rising. Her natal chart is available at Astrodatabank. An interpretation of it, written by Glorija Lawrence to celebrate Marilyn's would-have-been 80th birthday in 2006, is at cosmoastrology.com.

My husband (screen-name anyjazz) wrote of what he calls the "Marilyn Moment" phenomenon back in 2007 and constructed several blog pages on the topic. With his permission I've gathered a few of his remarks here, links to original pages follow.

The event was a publicity stunt dreamt up by director Billy Wilder and team to promote the 1955 movie Seven Year Itch. It starred Marilyn Monroe and Tom Ewell. The event was the filming of the sidewalk scene of Marilyn’s character enjoying the breeze coming up from the subway grating on a hot New York evening.



And so the little scene left a lasting impression on the world. More than fifty years later the scene is still quoted or remembered when anything resembling Marilyn Monroe’s blowing skirt is encountered.

Great statues or important portraits take us only to a general memory of something or someone, an ideal or an idea.

There have been only a scant few visual items that imbed in our memories so deeply that they become our signal reference point at each reminder. Can you look at two parallel smokestacks on a skyline without thinking of the Twin Towers? When you see two people running toward each other do you think of Heathcliff and Catherine from Wuthering Heights? These are unintentional or general stimuli that take your mind to a specific bit of time.

Non-visual triggers are fairly common. When the Johann Strauss “Blue Danube Waltz” is heard, who does not think of a space ship docking in 2001:A Space Odyssey? Few of us go anywhere else in our mind. If you hear the words “Grassy Knoll”, do you think of the Kennedy Assassination?

The “William Tell Overture” means the “Lone Ranger” to us older folks but that’s just a general memory, not a specific moment. In fact, sounds or music will often take our minds to something general. Now think of a visual image that takes a majority of people back to a specific event. There are only a few.

Pop culture and advertising have given us the orange Tide box, Mickey Mouse, Joe the Camel or Bart Simpson…These are visuals that take you to a GENERAL place, not a specific moment in time.

When seeing the delicate petals of a white poppy fluttering in the breeze, a bit of tissue caught on a twig, or a skirt caught in a sudden gust of wind, do you think of this brief publicity stunt from Billy Wilder? Do you think of Norma Jean Baker? Apparently a very broad spectrum of people do.

Those snips are from posts at the links below, there are lots more photographs to illustrate the topic there too.

Test Pattern
Marilyn Moment
Webshot Links



Some photographs to illustrate the phenomenon. In a few cases clicking on the photograph will take you to the source - often Flickr.







Seen by us recently on the sidewalk of a small Texas town:



In butter!








.


AND....I found these extras:

Forever Marilyn, a new 26-foot stainless steel and aluminum sculpture by John Seward Johnson II. (In Chicago, I think). See here. Photograph by Annalise Fowler:







Photograph below is by Christine Ayers (2008)~ "In touch with your inner Marilyn: So far, the Olympics don't have synchronized skirt-blowing, but if it becomes an event, the folks in Johannesburg have the symbol ready" (See here)