leonardcohenforum.com

Hello!

I’m Maria, I'm 18 years old and I study Philosophy in Barcelona (Universitsat Auntonoma de Barcelona) and I have to do an analysis of an image. I’ve chosen the cover of The Future of Leonard Cohen because I’m a fan of his music (I saw him this September in the concert in Barcelona!! What magical nigh was!!). Now, I have to analyze all the icons that appears in the cover and I’m writing this note because I think that some of you will be able to help me, maybe because you have more information than me or because you know Cohen paints more than an archive can say me. I‘d want that you say me what is the meaning of the elements of the cover (the heart, the bird, the handcuffs…). My teacher demand me the reasons and the sense of all the elements I can see in the image. I’ll traduce all the lyrics in the album to see the relations between de paint and the song; I’ll look for all the painting (if I Can) of Leonard Cohen to see the relations between them and the cover…But I don’t know if I’ll be able to do a good work doing that, and for it, I hope your assist. Maybe the managers of this page of Cohen’s files can facilitate me informationof the cover and the album, I know that the page is a very good store to make it but I also know that I can lose myself among it.

I’ll hope your answer with emotion! Thanks for all! Salutations for all you! ^^

Maria

P.D.: I know that my English isn’t very good, but I try it and I only hope that all you can understand my petition. Thanks!

Mariacd wrote:... My teacher demand me the reasons and the sense of all the elements I can see in the image...

I'd say you need a new teacher, that's a pretty miserable way to look at art. Art is open for interpretation, there is no one reason, no official "sense" to it, it's all about how it makes you, subjectively, feel.

Yes, I know it, and he probably too. But I don’t need any help of anyone to do that kind of interpretations, the key to see art is in me. I wrote this note to find an objective support of the image, a base to write all my subjective interpretation. Also, I think that can be interesting for the analytic person know what was the intention or the idea of the auteur of the image, in this case, the idea of L.Cohen. And for it I asked you help.

Maria

brightnow wrote:

Mariacd wrote:... My teacher demand me the reasons and the sense of all the elements I can see in the image...

I'd say you need a new teacher, that's a pretty miserable way to look at art. Art is open for interpretation, there is no one reason, no official "sense" to it, it's all about how it makes you, subjectively, feel.

I'd say that's not strictly true. It is perfectly possible to make interesting semiotic studies of art, and it can be more than about how it makes you feel. In the case of The Future, the symbolism is pretty straightforward and I think that you can easily relate the heart, the handcuffs and the bird, to the lyrics. It will probably not be the most difficult project you'll ever get. As you study philosophy, could you try to offer a 'philosophical' perspective on the lyrics ('The Future' itself is a particularly demanding text) and use the elements in the picture (the symbolism and the image structure) to support or exemplify your argument?

Hope this helps!

This is (to you) a worthless post, but it gives me a forum to grouch: when I downloaded "The Future" from ITunes I did not get the proper album art to go with the playlist: I got some hip hop compilation art work. So, I am useless to you, but thanks for giving me the opportunity to gripe.

GinaDCG wrote:This is (to you) a worthless post, but it gives me a forum to grouch: when I downloaded "The Future" from ITunes I did not get the proper album art to go with the playlist: I got some hip hop compilation art work. So, I am useless to you, but thanks for giving me the opportunity to gripe.

Serves you right for buying from iTunes, worst music store ever..

remote1 wrote: I'd say that's not strictly true. It is perfectly possible to make interesting semiotic studies of art, and it can be more than about how it makes you feel. In the case of The Future, the symbolism is pretty straightforward and I think that you can easily relate the heart, the handcuffs and the bird, to the lyrics. It will probably not be the most difficult project you'll ever get. As you study philosophy, could you try to offer a 'philosophical' perspective on the lyrics ('The Future' itself is a particularly demanding text) and use the elements in the picture (the symbolism and the image structure) to support or exemplify your argument?

Hope this helps!

Agreed, my reservation is mainly about "... demand me the reasons and the sense of all the elements" (my underlining)

And finally, to answer the original question :
My interpretation (on the most obvious level) of the artwork is that it's about freedom, and the longing for freedom. The shackles are unlocked, symbolizing freedom as salvation from captivity. Birds are a global symbol of freedom because they can fly, and the hummingbird can arguably fly better than any other bird (the hummingbird is the helicopter of the avian world, it can do things that other birds can't such as fly backwards or hover). The heart is there to tell us that while the body may be free, the heart can still be a captive of suffering, ignorance or desire. What the artist is longing for is freedom of the heart. If you look closely at the shading you will see that the hummingbird and the heart are one piece, and the shackles are another separate piece. Perhaps the bird is carrying the freed heart away from its captivity?

There is no end to what you can do with the hummingbird alone. In some cultures the hummingbird's ability to fly backwards symbolizes our ability to look back at the past while its hovering over a flower is a reminder to live in the moment and "not dwell on what has passed away". The hummingbird is also a symbol of beauty which, to me, takes the imagery back to a Leonard Cohen theme of salvation and freedom through beauty: beauty carries the heart away from suffering.

I would just add, for me, the images induce this kind of contemplation: we create our own prisons & our own freedom; sometimes, what we think is freedom, turns out to feel like imprisonment; and what we think is prison, contains, within it, the key to, or essence of, freedom. Because maybe they arise from the same, basically undifferentiated source, which is the essence of Mind. As we can transmute the energy of neuroses into the essence of enlightenment, the essence of our imprisonment may also hold the key to our freedom. So, what is imprisonment, and what is freedom? Are they really so separate, or are they really interwined, like love and hate?

One of my favorite verses on the whole album, from Light As A Breeze:

it aint exactly prison,
but you'll never be forgiven
for whatever you've done with the keys

Wow, Brightnow and Holydove, that's really interesting! I think Mariacd will be VERY pleased!

brightnow wrote:

Mariacd wrote:... My teacher demand me the reasons and the sense of all the elements I can see in the image...

I'd say you need a new teacher, that's a pretty miserable way to look at art. Art is open for interpretation, there is no one reason, no official "sense" to it, it's all about how it makes you, subjectively, feel.

"...I met a man who lost his mind, in some lost place I had to find, follow me the wise man said, but he walked behind..."

Primero, dos cognados falsos:
demandar = TO ASK, not TO DEMAND,
traducir = TO TRANSLATE, not TO TRADUCE.

I mention these only because even Mr Cohen would appreciate the nuance of distinction as these move from one language to another.

brightnow and holydove above have offered you a good foundation.

I write because your assignment, the image of the shackles, and the responses reminded me of an earlier Cohen poem "Alone the master and the slave embrace," from Spice Box of the Earth - 1965.

This issue of personal freedom within bonds physical, psychic, romantic, political has been a long-term theme for Mr Cohen, a theme which can be intensely appreciated in a Spain that lived through the Dictadura, and witnessed the life, struggles on the same theme, and death of FG Lorca for whom Mr Cohen named his son.

This theme / question / struggle of bondage is carried beyond "The Future" in, among other songs, his Cavafy-based "Alexandra Leaving," which speaks also to the bondage to life itself.

And of the human heart, fluttering its tremulous "wings" some 60-70 beats/sec, and the hummingbird representing the immense and delicate energy that must ever be expended to sustain that indispensable effort in order to escape and rise above the 10,000 forms of shackles, Mr Cohen right there sings,

"Love is the only engine of survival."

Que vagi be amb els estudis.

Hello!

My English will be insufficient to express my gratefulness to you. There’re posts which will help me because the say kinds of interpretations or new points of view of the image that permits me compare and extract ideas or to concentrate my attention on things that hadn’t fixed without reading yourselves. Thanks too to appreciate and to correct my mistakes of language.

Doing that work, I’m seeing that Leonard Cohen has a big world of symbolism and interrelations between words (lyrics, poems...) and images (paintings, covers…) and that’s another interesting think for me. Seeing all his material, new questions appears in me, but if I was answering all of them this work will convert in a doctoral thesis.

Now I’m going to write what I can see in the image, what I can read in the lyrics and what is the relation between them and all the graphic material and imaginary elements of Leonard Cohen.

Thanks a lot! Salutations form Barcelona,


Maria