Its a must do
I often meet my girlfriend at the air port once I have landed in Wen Zhou and then we take the bus ride down to the main city central. Sometimes we might go straight back to her home town which is in Dong Tou, where the 100 islands are in the south China sea. In my travels in China I have often meet many of my girlfriends friends and family members throughout the duration of my long visits. Sometimes I will stay more than one month or more than 2 months depending on my schedule for university.
Why it is so important to meet Chinese people?
It was just amazing to meet so many different people in China and for me that is one of my best things about traveling somewhere new, meeting different people. It was just nice to speak to these interesting and kind people, especially on my girlfriends graduation day at her college. Most of all it was a fantastic experience for me to celebrate spring festival with my girlfriends family.
I have just learnt so much more about China culture like learning the language, its not easy but i am getting there bit by bit and is also quite interesting to learn their traditions and celebrations. Is a very inspiring experience that i can add towards my art work.
How did my printing experience start?
My Printing experience basically started from when I started my college in September 2007 and I was no good at printing at all, infact It was my worst concept of art. I started university in 2011 and after a while I fitted in nicely within the new environment. There was a curiosity about the place and people within the building where I worked getting to know different people and strategies within working.The printmaking room never changed as I used to use the same room when the art university used to be the art college.
In my first year of my degree, I was confused with what I might be best at within the art world, I tried sculpture, drawing, painting, lensed based media and printing and for some reason the teachers seem to think I was stronger in printing more than anything else. Of course I was quite good at lensed based media too but printing, I thought was my strongest criteria and everyone else agreed the same way.
This was my first ever print that i create and is of my girlfriend. I wanted to create a portrait of her in printing to see what effect i get rather than trying to paint or draw her. I was very impressed the way i silk screened it and all the effects just come out making it look 3D which was one of my initial purposes, making her look more real.
Printing through a memory trace?
I just moved the printed image over slightly and then printing another of the same image of her on top so you get that 3D effect. Theorist Rosalind Epstein Krauss is a professional in understanding the concepts in indexical traces and memory trace is one of those concepts that she speaks of. This was how my work grew from generating memory trace where me and my girlfriend create memorable moments together and try to interpret them into some of my art.
The experience with me and my girlfriend gets left in our minds and we try to make it become a reality through either printing or projections. My work is all about this connection between us and the English and Chinese culture together, making my art the way it is today.
