"Severance," from Apple TV+, is an exercise in narrative filmmaking, where visual storytelling achieves eloquence. The interplay of art and color within this narrative accentuates themes of identity, control, and corporate culture representative of Lumon Industries.
Re-canonicalizing Kier Paintings: An Afoul Attempt at Inclusivity
Milchick's gift from Lumon's board in the form of paintings re-imagining the company's founder, Kier Egan, with his likeness in mind was delivered by Natalie, representing the board. She introduced these works as "inclusively re-canonicalized paintings" integrated into the history of Lumon with respect." It backfires and instead exposes real issues within the company about superficial approaches to diversity and inclusion.
The paintings intend to draw parallels with Milchick and Kier but emphasize Lumon's utter lack of appreciation regarding diversity and inclusion. Instead of providing a real opportunity to allow inclusion, these paintings become patronizing; since if you slap a little paint on the face of a founder, all concerns surrounding representation and belonging in the firm would be settled. Milchick reacts with a strange mix of astonishment and muted displeasure, giving further credence to the rupture between Lumon's leadership vision and that of its disenchanted employees' lived experiences.
Color Symbolism: Walking the Line between Work and Life
"Severance" commands a specific color palette in the establishment of and entanglement therein, separating anything with a look at the characters' work lives, and their personal lives:
- Blue: The Lumon blue was heavy handed throughout. Any impact on the characters amidst the blue office decor represents the company's domination over its employees and their individuality.
- Red: This relates to the outside personal freedom for the lives of a character beyond those lives adorning blue and red and the extent to which that life liquefies because of severance.
- Purple: Red plus blue gives us purple. This is the hue to confuse work and personal identity. Characters encounter clues of purple-inflected elements, hints toward awareness and eventual fusion of bifurcated selves.
- Green: At times it operates within the underground world of Lumon; other times, it defines growth and mystery or outright negativity. For instance, green amidst blue mixed into Helly represents a sort of integration of Lumon work into some brand-new life.
Art Reflects Lumon Corporate Culture
Art in Lumon is something used for indoctrination and control. The act of reimagining Kier's paintings was never meant to stand alone; it is more part of a much broader agenda of molding a certain corporatist identity. Lumon also seeks to trivialize all former historical appropriations that might be flavored with representation in order to suffocate the personal identities of the employees with corporate ideals, thereby blurring the very line that separates individuality from corporatism. The company appears to provide comfort against any historical exploitations employed to remold the individual identities of the employees into corporate ideals, blurring between the plane of individualism and corporate conformity.
This outlook supports a superficial view of diversity, solely symbolically performative rather than effective in bringing about change. The altered paintings do not empower Milchick; on the contrary, they would only serve to intensify his abnormality and the company's awkwardness in failing to address the systemic issue. This further shows that Lumon cares more about how it is perceived regarding inclusivity than it does concerning real diversity and therefore continues to foster a culture where truthfulness is inconsequential compared with appearances.
Wider Implications: Identity and Autonomy
The art and color symbolism of "Severance" amount to far more than mere aesthetic gesture, but they do deal with notions of identity and autonomy. The severance procedure, surgically cutting work and personal memory, poses ethical dilemmas concerning the ability of corporations to mold individual identity. In this regard, the sights augment this dichotomy, with sterile blue Lumon against the vivid reds of the outside world, depicting the characters' internal conflicts and yearnings for their lost wholeness.
As the series proceeds, the juxtaposition of these visual designs signifies the characters battling through their self-discovery and refusal to submit to corporate domination. In this way, the newly imagined paintings and painstaking color choices remind Lumon's workers of its omnipresence in the furthest reaches of their lives, putting forward a challenge to reclaim their identity from the company's attempts to alter it.
The art and color in "Severance" provide a wonderful narrative mechanism to give a visual expression to an ensemble of complex issues surrounding identity, control, and corporate culture. The recanonicalized Kier paintings and deliberate color strategy are more than decoration; they directly participate in and elevate the narrative's concern for autonomy and the spirit of humanity resisting dehumanizing systems.
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