Longing……For……For……For……

Memory Trace – Theorist Charles Sanders Peirce Explains

“Moreover, as a space that is indexical, it is also dependent on the properties of the medium that, in turn, determine not only the nature of the representation but also the nature of the memories that are carried by it.” (Gibbons. 2007. p31)

 Memory Trace Surrounds my Art Work?

The experiences with my girlfriend and the Chinese culture in China, create more memory traces that give me inspiration for my work. My work grows more and more with these experiences that I encounter and every step I take in my life is like an experience and is like a record that is stored within our minds, like showing a movie clip. My experiences that I face in China with my girlfriend are like a treasure that I continuously store in my mind because I very much love my girlfriends company and doing anything with her.

My Chinese girlfriend finds it quite difficult to  visit England, even if its for one month, the boarder agency  won’t let her visit me for some reason. I gave them all the evidence of my family having enough money to support her stay and even showing my student finance but still the English ambassador in Shanghai did not buy this evidence to be true. He must have thought that she would come here to live and find a job just because she did not have enough money of her own, yet it still fine for us to go visit their country even if I only had small funding in my bank.

Do these problematics and memorable moments Influence my work to grow more?

There is this barrier between us all the time, even the language barrier with her family is hard but I am getting there bit by bit to understanding them. I make my art work from the experiences that me and Wei Cheng had together and eating a meal together was one of those special experiences. Chinese/English Meal for Two was one of my most memorable art works I create and of course one of my best memories with my girlfriend.

I had to bring this memory trace back to life somehow because I missed that moment together with Wei Cheng and we cannot always have this experience together. Its like seeing inside my mind in some kind of vortex style dark room where I always feel dark without her and Wei Cheng is like this light, my sunshine that makes me feel more alive again. The Art piece inside the dark room acts as my memorable light, the light that makes me feel more alive and another similar piece I create was the Chinese/English Virtual Mahjong House. 

It was one of my hardest things to learn in China and I just loved the experience of playing with other Chinese people once I mastered in playing it. Chinese/English Mahjong House was certainly one of my best art works and most successful to me because it was something I thought of for so long whilst being in China. This art piece really did bring the light back into my mind when I tried re-creating one of my best memories and just loved the experience with my girlfriend and her friends playing this game.

Explaining the Process of this Vase series

The process for this vase series is made up of the same way as the previous series of vases that I printed only this time I am using the reversal print instead of the print through the stencil. What I mean by this, is that when I go to print through the stencil like I have done with the other vase series, the Print from the stencil gets transferred onto the plastic sheet where I normally roll the ink on.

The depth and areas of the patterns within my vase stencil greatly depends on the blend of red colours I get and this is what makes this print look the way it is. When I previously printed one of this stencil in black it still leaves the black left behind on the stencil and when I print with red after you then get these blend of different red colours from light to dark. The method of getting it looking clean and shaped like a vase is quite simple, I just print out another vase the same way I do when I want to cut out a stencil and I just simply cut the outline of the vase out and I print through that to get this clean result.

I always had to do just the one print to make up the three or four different red colours and this method really does work out for me considering I don’t have to cut out the three different stencils of this vase to get the different colours. For me these vase series becomes more of a real looking vase and I will continue to create more stencils and print in this way to get the different pattern of colours.