The Modern Icarus II.
The first image is The Modern Icarus II, the denotations identified in this image is a man hooded with makeshift wings, a crow next to him, on the edge of a cliff. The man is in modern apparel with a dark hooded sweatshirt, jeans, and sneakers. This background is dark with clouds looming over his head. The Modern Icarus II, comes from the Greek mythology, the story of Icarus. Icarus was a craftsman's son, his father construct wings for him to escape. In the myth Icarus was attempting to escape from Crete and was instructed nor to get to close to the sun. Icarus flew higher and higher towards the sun, were his wings burned and he tumbled to his death. The connotations in this image is focusing on the lone man, he his direct in the middle of the image with his wings and a crow. His contemplative stance on the edge of the cliff leaning downward is suggestive to the thought of him jumping. In this modern version of Icarus, it is suggestive that he is trying to escape from reality or the daily troubles of life.
The Modern Prometheus.
In the second image, The Modern Prometheus the denotation seen in in this image is a man holding his head, with the words job, me, society, and family divided into sections on his face. A piece of meat is nailed to the wall with the word money written across it. The image, The Modern Prometheus is derived from the Greek myth of the titan, Prometheus, whom stole fire from Zeus and gave it to mankind. Prometheus was punished by Zeus, bound to a rock and had his liver devoured by an eagle, only for the liver to regenerate daily and the eagle to return. The connotations in this image is a sense of grief, the man his palming his head as people do when they are frustrated. The words labeled on his face, job, society, family, and me are the things in life that you deal with daily. This words are all things that man struggles with. The man is alone in this image, much like the image, The Modern Icarus II. The Modern Prometheus has his liver nailed to wall as a form of punishment, title money. Society, job, family and himself are things he may have stolen and in a sense is being punished with money weather it be being alone with all the money in the world, or being alone with no money. Society has corrupt people into focusing on money and placing it above family, society, a job, and even above yourself yourself. Thus this trouble is nailed to the wall and regenerates daily, like Prometheus' liver in the Greek myth.
Both images are works created by HFFK. They can be found on the link below.
http://hffk.deviantart.com/gallery/#/d2vtq0q
