The life buoy

Mara Sunday Service – The boy in the crowd

Hi everyone ! Here another Mara Sunday Service, this time featuring our artist Mara on a very specific design, «The one in the crowd».

I had this idea lurking around in my head for about 4 to 5 years but I had neither the courage nor the time to get this idea implemented into a work of art. I was caught up with other things and kept clinging to the excuses life threw at me. But finally, as soon as confinement had me cornered, I had no more excuse.

The idea came in the form of an imagination. I imagined this art as an expression of some normal life phrases like «bathing in the crowd», «human tide» and “drowning in the crowd». These phrases in their most vague translations inspired a comparison of a crowd to a body of water and this relationship or similarity between water and a crowd breathed life into the idea.

My imagination came to life in form of a character standing all alone in the middle of a ‘sea of individuals’ whose only way out was a life buoy he held firmly clutched to his arm. This life buoy was the single thing, the only hope that he had that could save him and help him survive the crowd.

This idea or imagination captures a life situation that we all face sometimes, a situation where it seems like we’re surrounded by myriads of problems, or even folks standing against us and dictating to us what we can be or cannot. These myriads of problem/life issues are loosely represented by the ‘sea of people’ surrounding the character and the life buoy represents ‘hope’ in times of problem, inspiration when every other person seems to be standing against us, solutions and a way out, a way to stop ourselves from drowning in problems and other life issues.

We all get trapped and cornered by various life issues, for the 9–5 guy it could be his boss, co-workers and/or clients constantly encircling him, making him feel like he is drowning and for this person, a release and a distraction off work would be his own buoy. For the female artist, this ‘crowd’ threatening to drown her could be political and societal issues that she can’t make use of her voice to fight against and the only thing that would feel like a way to reach out, to protest and to preach her stance would be expression in form of art, this is her buoy. For every single individual, the ‘sea of crowd’ they may be trying to escape differs.

Essentially, this work reaches out to anyone and everyone in their own unique way. No matter how we interpret the “crowd” individually, what is certain is that every average Joe would almost certainly find himself stuck in a ‘crowd’ at one time or the other, surrounded by a sea that threatens to drown him. But the most important thing in the end is to find a buoy to clutch on to, a way out to save himself.

This art comes as an inspiration to everyone taking a look at it that there is always a way out, a life buoy for them to get out of the situation they may be in, and if only they can find their own buoy, then they may be able to hang on to it and save themselves.

Finally, as an added perk to this work, I took advantage of the very dense crowd in this work to include easter eggs. I put in all the pop culture references I had in mind during the creation of the drawing, some of these easter eggs to be found include Zinedine Zidane, a Pharoah, Mickey mouse, Denver the last dinosaur, the cry of Munch, the Venus de Milo and so on. I hope you are able to spot them all.

Find your own buoy.

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