MAIN PAGE ⎔ SECTION PAGE ⎔ SITE MAP ⎔ GLOSSARY
ART OF THE LOUNGE
AHWAHNEEE HOTEL ⎔ BOG OAK ⎔ COOPER’S HAWK ⎔ GLAUCOUS-WINGED GULL ⎔ HOUND IN FIELD ⎔ IRISH SETTER ⎔ TATÂNGA MÂNÎ PORTRAIT
ART OF THE LOBBY BACK HALL
BEAVER SWAMP ⎔ BOG OAK ⎔ MAKAH RETURNING IN THEIR WAR CANOES ⎔ MALIGNE LAKE, JASPER PARK ⎔ MIST FANTASY, SAND RIVER, ALGOMA ⎔ MYSTERIES (CARMICHAEL) ⎔ OXBOROUGH ⎔ PLOVERS ⎔ RED MAPLE
APPEARANCE
Seen first as Jack moves through the lobby to get to the interview, under what I call the “mazerug“. That piece is seen behind Ullman and Watson as they approach for the tour. The large piece in the lounge is only present during the tour, and while writer’s block Jack is bouncing his ball. It vanishes after this scene for good. The piece leaning against the mazerug is present in every other sequence there, until right as Wendy witnesses Hallorann’s corpse, at which point, it too disappears.
IDENTITY
If I had to guess what kind of wood these found art pieces are (I’m no expert), I’d say they’re bog oak. Another name for bog-wood generally is “morta”, which I presume means “death wood” or some such, since “mort” is Latin for “death”.
SYMBOLIC SIGNIFICANCE
Danny is only seen in conjunction with death wood once, while triking around the lounge, while Jack and Wendy are seen near it several times.
The last piece of bog-wood that Wendy passes disappears after her first sighting of a dead body, and right before her second ghost sighting (look beneath the wall rug in the second image set below). And at the same time as the death wood vanishes, AY Jackson’s Red Maple vanishes, a painting titled for another kind of wood.
Also, in this scene we’re introduced to the second-last new painting to be seen in the forward-moving movie, which is Lawren Harris’ Beaver Swamp, the only piece in the film about a bog, and which Harris even called his “swamp picture”. Though, to be fair, I believe I saw Tom Thomson referring to Northern River as something like his swamp picture. I forget, though, if I’m just making that up. Which is possible, since Northern River is the second clearly-seen painting in the film (Log Hut on the St. Maurice and Tower of Babel, are both heavily obscured in that first shot), so it would seem to make a nice symmetry with Beaver Swamp, if it was another so-called swamp picture. What is a fact, I would say, is that Northern River is the next closest painting in the film to being a swamp picture.
Bog-wood is noted for its use in dendrochronology, the method by which scientists use tree rings to date certain events throughout the past. Bog-wood is able to tell us more about the ancient past than regular wood, thanks to its time spent fossilizing in peat bogs. So perhaps the inclusion of these fossils are simply Kubrick’s way of invoking the vastness of time. The piece in the lounge disappears at the same time as Jack’s writer’s block is cured. This is also the transition from parts of the film with only subtle indications of time (we know it’s November 30th because Ullman said the hotel’s last day of operations is “October 30th” and this is A MONTH LATER), to parts of the film with more and more specific indications of time (TUESDAY, THURSDAY, SATURDAY, MONDAY, WEDNESDAY, 8am, 4pm). So perhaps its disappearance speaks to Jack’s spiritual severance from the past, and his burgeoning pursuit of immortality through his work…while the film itself draws the audience’s attention more closely to the passage of time. In fact, there’s a lot to be said about just how deftly Kubrick dramatizes what ends up being the last 27 hours in the lives of the Torrances, from around 3pm when Jack has his murder dream on WEDNESDAY (we see Wendy’s wristwatch when she comes to his side) to around 6pm the following Thursday when he’s freezing to death (it’s 5:25pm according to the lobby clocks when he finds Danny’s hiding place), enacting the very thing that frightened him so badly the day before.
When the other piece vanishes next to Wendy, this could be another chip in the “Great Party Ghost Is Grady” pile, since Charles Grady was obviously seduced by similar forces, similar desires.
Also, Oak was something Thor represented in Norse mythology, something I explore in my section on the Overlook’s wall rugs.
Next art reference: Hound in Field
MAIN PAGE ⎔ SECTION PAGE ⎔ SITE MAP ⎔ GLOSSARY
OTHER MAIN PAGES FOR SHINING ANALYSIS
THE MIRRORFORM ⎔ THE BEATLES ⎔ THE RUM AND THE RED
BACKGROUND ART ⎔ OVERLOOK PHOTOGRAPHS ⎔ GOLDEN SPIRALS
PHI GRIDS ⎔ PATTERNS ⎔ VIOLENCE AND INDIGENA ⎔ ABSURDITIES
THE STORY ROOM ⎔ ANIMAL SYMBOLS ⎔ THE ANNOTATED SHINING
EYE SCREAM 