Why I Drew these sketches?
Ok, so here are some sketches of my ideas on a possible degree show and what materials I may use to try and construct such a monster piece. Now after viewing, studying and making my previous pieces of work, they have given me a lot of valuable ideas and careful thoughts into how I should construct a final degree show.
I decided that I should try do some more accurate sketches in my sketchbook on trying to puzzle together a possible degree show and I think by doing this, I can visualise my thoughts and ideas better this way that will help me a lot more to making my final degree show.
The Purpose? Memory trace Behind This Final Degree Project?
Ok so as I have explained some of my ideas in the last English Roof post already, I will explain in greater depth to why I want to do this final degree project. Ok, the reason why I want to create such a monster looking installation is because I want to express the lost connection between me and my girlfriend. My girlfriend – Wei Cheng is Chinese ‘if you do not know that already’ and myself is in no doubt an English citizen.
Double Objects/Double Cultures?
I want to basically bring China and England together in my final degree show to express that long distance relationship with each other that we both must face most of the time. I want to re-live the liveliness of my memories that I have stored in my mind and the nicest moments that I see, i want to recreate them as a moment in time where scenes get frozen in time.
This is exactly how I want to show this final degree project because it will express my inner emotions and thoughtful episodes that I face when I feel that I am alone without her and that Wei Cheng is my everything to me that I wish to be with forever. The Meal For Two, The Mahjong House and various other art works have indeed inspired me to create the Time Mahjong which will be my degree show name.
The Time Mahjong is a bit similar to The Mahjong House, only this time it will consist of a dark room with an English and Chinese style roof either side from each other. There will be four projected players playing Mahjong on this virtual reality type scene and this will act as part of my brain – seeing a scene frozen in time. I want to take this final degree show to a level that not many people think of doing. More updates of my degree show at a later date!
Why did I make the English roof as a sculpture?
well.. ceedings I have already made the Chinese style porch roof, I thought about also constructing an English style roof as well because I want that cultural relations between England and China. I want to be able to bond the two different cultures together as part of my degree show to show the difference in time zones, culture and the relationship between me and my girlfriend.
Through skyping each other, we almost feel that we are there together but in actual fact we are not there with each other. Its a way of feeling more comfortable in our situation that we must go through many times with each other because of our long distance relationship. This is why I make things like the Chinese roof and the english roof because its a away of us meeting once again with each other, I am the english roof and she is the Chinese roof.
Another memory Trace?
I would say that the memories side of things are very strong in this part of the work I create. When I was on my visits to China I had seen various old roofs and old buildings and all I wanted to do was take a part of that back with me. In my mind I guess I am always taking new memories of me and my girlfriend back with me so at least I would be taking something special back with me.
In a way I wanted to re-create the Chinese scene that I experienced and take that from my mind and then interpreting it in my art work. These experiences that I remember in my mind are the memory traces that I had with my girlfriend and somehow, I want to recreate a moment in time with my girlfriend that is shown in my art work.
I will build my own Dark room that will hold Chinese roof on one side and the English roof on the other and will have doors on each side so that viewers can walk in. Me, wei cheng-my girlfriend, Ting Ting-her friend and another friend will be playing an ancient game of Mah-jong which will act as one of my memory traces. I will be showing some sketches of my ideas a bit later once I have finished editing them to the right proportions from my sketchbook.
What Inspired me by making this sculptural piece?
Well… it all basically started… and I won’t go on talking for too long. It basically started when I was in the super market and again this is another of my memory traces. Me and my girlfriend were in a Chinese supermarket buying groceries along with other things we needed and on our high list were potatoes.
Bringing back a memory trace
Now we british people know so much about growing and eating potato products right? but seems to me that the Chinese know a little more than I bargained for. My girlfriend said that there was a root or flower growing from these potatoes saying they were poisonous when actually I thought you could just peel off the flower head and still cook and eat it. We had a little argument in the supermarket and surprised me so much that I could be wrong with Potatoes in a Chinese persons mind. I thought I knew enough about cultural ways and understanding but seems I didn’t see that one coming lol.
Why use these types of Materials?
So seeing the fruits and vegetable around me at the time had given me deep inspiration into creating a sculpture from a fruit that was big enough to act as a porcelain Chinese bowl. The noodles I decided to make out of wood which replaces the wooden chopsticks and the Porcelain chopsticks that I had given to me, replaces the porcelain Bowl. Its this type of cultural confusion that I wanted to interpret into my art work because not everything seems the way we expect things. China is not just a bowl of noodles but is also a deeper understanding to the cultural habits and ways that the people live and some things are hard to understand for me but getting there.
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.
