What is power?
Power is hidden, for it is blind – it closes its eyes and ears and plunges into the unconsciousness of a newborn baby. Power is also subtle yet poignant, for it is often deaf and mute, however, at the same time, it is often embodied in a remarkable mind – perhaps one of an artful and subtle writer, but it is always in a crusading humanitarian. Power can spark significant media attention and controversy, for it is desirable and stunning, phenomenally wanted as Number 1.
Power can sway people and it can lead a country, however the person who wields it will often also lose it, for it vanishes as quickly as it strikes. This brutal power is often a struggle to reach agreement, a reflection of widespread unhappiness, however it is also a struggle to be a full and happy participant in life.
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Triumph Out of Tragedy by ALDEN WHITMAN
For the first 18 months of her life Helen Keller was a normal infant who cooed and cried, learned to recognize the voices of her father and mother and took joy in looking at their faces and at objects about her home. "Then," as she recalled later, "came the illness which closed my eyes and ears and plunged me into the unconsciousness of a newborn baby."
The illness, perhaps scarlet fever, vanished as quickly as it struck, but it erased not only the child's vision and hearing but also, as a result, her powers of articulate speech.
Her life thereafter, as a girl and as a woman, became a triumph over crushing adversity and shattering affliction. In time, Miss Keller learned to circumvent her blindness, deafness and muteness; she could "see" and "hear" with exceptional acuity; she even learned to talk passably and to dance in time to a fox trot or a waltz. Her remarkable mind unfolded, and she was in and of the world, a full and happy participant in life.
What set Miss Keller apart was that no similarly afflicted person before had done more than acquire the simplest skills.
But she was graduated from Radcliffe; she became an artful and subtle writer; she led a vigorous life; she developed into a crusading humanitarian who espoused Socialism; and she energized movements that revolutionized help for the blind and the deaf.
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Source: "Helen Keller, 87, Dies", in NY Times, http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0601.html#article, accessed 13th of June, 2010
Miranda Kerr -
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The stunning hottie is one of Australian top supermodels. Miranda was brought up in the Australian rural area of Gunnedah, but moved to Brisbane city shortly after.
Miranda began modelling at age young of 13 after winning the Dolly/Impulse Modelling Competition in 1997. This win sparked significant media attention and controversy over her age and maturity, and the matter of paedophilia and child pornography. Kerr dismissed these claims in an interview, stating; "They were blowing out of proportion. In the media at the time they were trying to cling on to anything remotely to do with paedophilia. Dolly is a magazine for teenage girls, not for old men. And I was fully clothed! Doing a winter shoot! They just made something out of nothing."
Kerr was described by one fashionista as having an Audrey Hepburn look as well as being linked to the current 'baby doll alien' looks, similar to models Gemma Ward and Lily Cole. Many also cite her unique look somewhat as a combination of models Gemma Ward and Daria Werbowy. Her success as a model has been phenonemenal and as a result she now appears at high profile fashion shows, while also gaining immense coverage in various campaigns.
So far, Miranda's career has consisted of catwalks, fashion and beauty shoots, as well as TV and magazine advertising campaigns. So far she has modelled for Maybeline, Levis, Portmans, Jets, Blumarine Swimwear, John Richmond, Lisa Ho, Veet, Bonds and Peter Alexander, Elle, Harpers Bazar, Italian Glamour, Oyster, Squint and Australian Vogue as well as walked for big fashion designers such as Anna Mollinari, Just Cavalli, Blumarine, Baby Phat, Enrico Coveri, Amuleti J, Cia Maritima, Betsey Johnson and John Richmond to name a few .
Presently she is modeling for Victoria's Secret and was the first ever Australian model to appear in a Victoria's Secret runway show. She also appears in the Pharrell and Kanye West music video "Number 1".
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Source: "Biography on Miranda Kerr", in Miranda Kerr Info, http://www.mirandakerr.info/biography.htm, accessed 13th of June, 2010
Angela Merkel
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Angela Merkel became the first female chancellor of Germany in 2005 at the age of 51. She was also the first eastern German to lead the country after its reunification following the fall of the Berlin Wall. She is the leader of the Christian Democratic Union, a Catholic-leaning conservative party.
Mrs. Merkel was re-elected in September 2009, making her one of the longest-serving leaders among Europe's major powers. But her party had its worst results in 60 years, reflecting widespread unhappiness over the economic downturn, which has cost Germany its position as the world's leading exporter. She formed a coalition with the pro-business Free Democrats, but rising budget deficits as a result of the economic crisis, however, have drastically limited the kind of tax cuts on which the coalition partners campaigned.
Mrs. Merkel was in one sense the central figure in the drama that played out over the first five months of 2010 as the European Union struggled to reach agreement on a response to the sovereign debt crisis set off by Greece. Germans were overwhelmingly opposed to a bailout of a country they saw as spendthrift, and Mrs. Merkel took a tough line in months of negotiations with France and the International Monetary Fund over an aid package.
As the euro continued to deterioriate, Mrs. Merkel went along with an aid package for Greece three times the size of the original plan. Later that week her party lost badly in the regional vote, losing control of the upper house of parliament, meaning that any initiatives of hers could be blocked by opposition parties. And when European leaders worked out a bailout plan of nearly $1 trillion in the hope of putting the debt crisis to rest, Mrs. Merkel was in Moscow watching a military parade commemorating Nazi Germany's defeat in World War II.
On My 21, Germany's Parliament approved a measure allowing the country to contribute to the nearly $1 trillion bailout package. After days of often heated debate, Mrs. Merkel's coalition of conservatives and Free Democrats managed to push through the measure only because her coalition has a comfortable majority in the Bundestag. Opposition leaders said they could not vote for the package because Mrs. Merkel had shown no leadership during the crisis and had no long-term strategy to instill public confidence in the euro.
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Source: "Angela Merkel", in The New York Times,
http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/m/angela_merkel/index.html, accessed 13th of June, 2010
Mash-Up
This is the meeting point for the two clients. Merkel descends to the meeting point and meets at the stairs, thus having to look down upon Keller as she glides to the meeting point from the ocean. This represents their power levels, as Merkel is seen to have more power than Keller, as she is a diplomat whilst Keller was an intellectual. The dining table effectively seperates the two form eachother, further emphasising their power split. The placement of the meeting spot underneath and close to a waterfall and also surrounded by high peaks is another allusion to the powerplay at hand, for both natural features are also embodiments of the power of nature.
This is Helen Kellers side of the bridge with the elevator in it. It is positioned below that of Merkel's, another allusion to their powers. Kellers is embedded into the Ocean with a large opening, thus allowing her to feel the sensation of the sea as she cannot see nor hear it. The openings and the glass encasement allow her to also feel the heat of the sun.
From this point of view, it is possible to see the two ends of the bridge. Merkels bridge on the left has been built to appear over-structured and stable, thus representing her political power and position in European Politics. Its encasement in transparent glass is also an allusion to how the power structures are often hidden - as normal people we are not particularly enlightened to the ways in which the government figures control the country. Furthermore, the purple end of Keller's section can be seen to be suported by the cables coming from Merkel's end of the bridge, another allusion to the powerless-ness of Keller in relation to Merkel - Merkel's end of the bridge has to physically support itself and also the Keller end.
