Line Project Artist Statement_Path and Blockage
The project Path and Blockage is inspired by the reading “The Practice of Everyday Life: Walking in the City.” In the reading, Michel de Certeau wrote: “it is true that the operation of walking on can be traced on city maps in such a way as to transcribe their paths and their trajectories.” The word “map”, “path”, “way”, “trajectories” drew me to think about our actual life path. Flattened into a plain vision, our life can rhetorically be a map with so many routes and views. This project portrays my understanding that a person’s life path is commonly blocked or paved by problems and difficulties. No matter what the route looks like, there’s always something waiting for you to encounter or stop to refresh. Failures and blockages are not terrible; they are just common that may promote ourselves to a new life route or level.
WWW Response
Space is a physical model for the Internet. They are both unlimited, endless, and operated by a set of “code”. Even the name in regard to the terms of the Internet mimics the actual space we have above our heads. For instance, “the World-Wide Web”, and the “Universal Resource Identifiers” are terms that describe the infinite information and resources we may gain from the world connected web. Or we use a small model to simulate the process and storage of the Internet, a library. Since the number of books in the library is tremendous, they are properly organized just like the information is compressed and arranged on the Internet. To find a certain book in any type of library, as I recall, we need to follow the given instructions. Likewise, to search for information online, we do it step by step in a browser. The Internet is a flat version of the library as well as a touchable version of the universe.
News Project Artist Statement_Revealing the "Facts"
In the project Revealing the “Facts”, I chose to talk about the ongoing epidemic situation in China. By recollecting the information from both the American’s sites and Chinese’ sites, I displayed those pieces of news in accordance with the timeline from different forms of media, such as magazines, newspapers, and social media. Thus, “the facts” are clear and obviously ironic to the viewer. When I first tracked down the news regarding Dr. Li Wenliang, I found that the government was repeatedly covering up its own mistakes and seeking to render decent statements. News is the implementation of whoever in charge. Just as the curator Benjamin Godsill said in the conversation of the Last Newspaper Artists, “media nowadays are providing their readers what they want us to know,” and are leading our thoughts to conform to their purposes. I am not saying this way of controlling the masses’ minds is not good for a nation, but I left the audience with what I have witnessed in the past few weeks.
SpoonFlower Project Statement_ Happy Blossom
In this project, I made three square size patterns, which portray a traditional Chinese wedding. Since red is the theme color of traditional Chinese weddings, I made it repeatedly appear on each of them. In the first pattern, the Chinese character xi is duplicated. This character means happiness, being an iconic symbol of a Chinese wedding. It may appear as a paper cut pasted on a newly married couple’s window or appear on the gift given out during a wedding. The second pattern shows a universal moment of romance, depicting what happened in my recount of the wedding. The third pattern of two blooming peonies imitates Chinese traditional handkerchief used by women. In the ancient time of China, the handkerchief represents a girl’s intimate belonging. Therefore, this intentional imitation alludes to the activity after a wedding. The title Happy Blossom is a pun, referring to both the blossom of the peonies and the blossom of a newly married couple.
Color Response_Chartreuse
“She drank some more, while he told her the color of Chartreuse looked sick, even feverish, but maybe the weird yellow and green high-voltage potion held an alluring illness, laced with the charge of deception. Her cheeks flared scarlet, the garish liqueur having its way with her. It burned his throat, too. But she kept her tongue, and her ruse, if it was one, wasn’t even bruised.”
Reading Lynne Tillman’s essay about the color chartreuse reminds me of my photograph. In my photograph, the character wearing a chartreuse dress stands beside a group of old ladies who sit around and play cards. The weird combination of yellow and green in that picture renders a sense of sexy and cute. Audience’s attention will abruptly turn to the girl because of that piece of dress. Similar to the excerpt from Tillman’s essay, the character also shows “an alluring illness “. The redness flaring on her cheeks and the feverish color of chartreuse portray her with desire, allure and even sickness.