Media manipulation piece based on Gustav Klimt’s The Kiss

The Meaning of Gustav Klimt’s The Kiss is complex. 

At first, you notice a delicate cheek kiss in the field of roses. Upon further examination, the dynamics between the two are actually more ambiguous than tender. Below this kiss, he is tightly grabbing her turned away face. Furthermore, although he appears taller, she is in fact kneeling, and if she were to stand, she would tower over him. Which makes one wonder if she is taller, why does she not stand and claim her power? 

It is uncertain whether the moment is a romantic depiction of a tender kiss of true love, or a scene of defeat in a coercive embrace. That said, the two completely different interpretations share one common thread: the overall message of love’s power over humans.

So when approaching altering the message of the media through manipulation, I used this and considered what powerful love truly defines humans: consumerism. This is where my analysis of media manipulation happened. By reflecting on the complex dynamics in Klimt’s work, I wanted to highlight the complexities of humans and consumerism.

Immediately when I looked at Kilint's work, compared against the idea of consumerism I noticed that the black geometric shapes on the man look like barcodes, which are a key symbol of consumerism. So I removed the black squares with photoshop and replaced them with barcode images I found from the internet. 

Then, I want to use the meadow as a metaphor for how consumerism is destroying our earth, playing on the phrase“creating the bed you like ." So I removed the meadow and replaced it with trash. Through Chat GPT, create imagery of trash that had the same color scheme as the original meadow. To do this, I uploaded a photo of landfill trash along with a screenshot of the meadow portion from The Kiss, and instructed ChatGPT to create an image of trash resembling a landfill (like in the photo) while maintaining the same color scheme as the meadow. After a lot of back and forth, we finally achieved manipulation of trash that had cohesion with the original. 

Lastly, I replaced the ivy around her ankle with chains to represent the way we are bound to consumerism, giving our most valuable asset our time in exchange for money to attain things. To do this, I found an image of a chain, selected the chain as an object, and removed the background using Photoshop’s Remove Background tool. 

Through this work I wanted to highlight how similar the complexities of the girl in the painting are to our love of consumerism. We spend our entire lives working in order to have beautiful things, a parallel to possessing our own Kiss. But at what true cost? We kneel down and shorten ourselves for a job, in which we devote every ounce of our time to. We are grasped by the wants of things but yet don’t have time to enjoy them. Our wants become not those that drive us but instead control us. Just like how a simple kiss can become an intense power debate.

The Orginal work: Klimt, Gustav. The Kiss. 1907–1908

Work Cited

"Art Analysis: The Kiss by Klimt." Artsper Magazine, Artsper, 14 Feb. 2023, https://blog.artsper.com/en/a-closer-look/art-analysis-the-kiss-by-klimt/

"Blue Hawk 1-Ft Welded Zinc-Plated Steel Chain by the Foot." Lowe’s, www.lowes.com/pd/Blue-Hawk-1-Ft-Welded-Zinc-Plated-Steel-Chain-By-the-Foot/1000830054. Accessed 2 Oct. 2025.

"Custom Barcode QR Code Digital Download." Etsy, www.etsy.com/listing/1203709576/custom-barcode-qr-code-digital-download. Accessed 2 Oct. 2025.

Jolene, Amy. “The Painting on a Pedestal. What ‘The Kiss’ Has Taught Me About ….” Blue Insights, Medium, medium.com/blueinsight/the-paining-on-a-pedestal-cbef59bf0493. Accessed 2 Oct. 2025.

"Klimt, Gustav – The Kiss." Posterlounge, www.posterlounge.com/p/573047.html. Accessed 2 Oct. 2025.

Klimt, Gustav. The Kiss. 1907–1908, Österreichische Galerie Belvedere, Vienna.

“Pollution Concept. Garbage Pile in Trash Dump or Landfill.” Adobe Stock, image no. 140125610 by vchalup, Adobe Stock, stock.adobe.com/images/pollution-concept-garbage-pile-in-trash-dump-or-landfill/140125610.