Final
Concept/Statement:
When I first saw the scene of the Sambar and the Wild Dogs, I felt moved. I was worried for the poor helpless Sambar. Would he put up a fight? Would he survive or was death waiting for him? It’s a terrifying image if you think about it, you can feel the anxiety and tension.
It made me think what if I put a man in-front of the Sambar defending it from the Wild Dogs? But I thought it would be too cheesy and kind-of superficial. And then I thought what if I put a child in it, making it even more dramatic and concerning.
The idea behind this image was to portray two vulnerable creatures.
My initial idea was the child to be the “human” version of the Sambar, both of them injured and hurt. My concept was who’ll help who? It’s moment of reflection for the viewer.
But at the same time if you look closely, some of the Wild Dogs have blood and injuries on them, and the antlers of the Sambar are stained, so there might be a possibility that the Sambar wins this fight. It’s that suspense moment where you don’t know what will happen next. It makes the viewer question him/herself on what will be the verdict.
The scene’s end is up to the viewer’s imagination and what twist they want to give it, making the viewer get involved. Having to choose which side wins and which side dies.
This depiction can also relate to the maternal instinct, making the viewer connect, feel warmth, and compassion for the child. The Sambar may represent a maternal figure, which is defending its baby until death.
I want people to put themselves in that situation, even though it’s not likely that would happen in the real world. What if they were either the child, Sambar or Wild Dogs. It opens for each person to choose who’d they be in that situation.
But most importantly I wanted my avatar to be the human version of what the Sambar would look like. The Sambar is vulnerable and alone, defenseless. The first image I thought could portray that was a child. A child is naive and vulnerable to the real world, being constantly protected and retained from the raw world.
I chose this little boy because he gives the viewer the feeling of fear, helplessness and insecurity. The way that his sitting gives you the message that he has given up and is ready for death. The blood in his hands are metaphorically the blood the Sambar has all over its body.
At the end it all depends on you, the viewer, what ending will you give it? What’s next? Or may I rather say, who’s next?
