Wednesday, February 3, 2016

The God and the Fly

(This post is bit of an experiment for me so just try to bear with me)

Please click here to watch the video (it's only about 4 minutes long)

I stumbled apron this one day and thought I might try to write a blog about it (lets see how this turns out)

    The first thing I thought I would do was find out if this was any specific deity (just to be safe because this was made by a Russian). Interestingly enough I almost immediately found it, the god portrayed in this animation is Shiva. After a little more digging I think that the Shiva in this animation is portrayed as the Trimurti version (I'll get to why later). Also the actual image of shiva in this animation is a Nataraja depiction (see photo below) This version of Shiva is the "destroyer or transformer". Also a fly-whisk is associated with Shiva which might explain the characters. Great now that you know the back ground of the deity in question on to the actual animation.
    First off: great use of non lingual forms of communication throughout the piece. You could almost write a script just by watching it. Secondly: very insightful into the deity represented (according to my research). Now there is one thing my research seems to show incorrect: Shiva has four arms not six, which I am sure is just a artistic liberty on the part of the creator (but still nice to know the actual portrayal of a deity). Just watching this it is a interesting animation, but dig a little deeper and it is actually intricate with its symbolism.
    And now for the big mind bender: what does the ending mean? The truth is I don't know. Shiva falls and the fly turns into a spider, this leads me to assume that the super is actually Shiva (god of transformation and destruction ring a bell?),  but then what does this mean? Does it mean that the "statue" was a fake Shiva and the fly was the real one? I just don't know, I have a feeling I just don't know enough about the religion to know. Of course maybe it's supposed to be inconclusive , maybe you're supposed to decide which is the god and which the fly.

Likely the type of statue Shiva was based off of.

1 comment:

  1. Cool and funny video, I too wondered whether the fly turned into a spider, or whether it was simply eaten by one. The spider has 8 legs (like the Shiva - 8 limbs) so perhaps the Shiva returned as a spider?

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