​Development of Practice
My idea is to express and present the way that I perceive this world. I am conscious of colours in the material world, when I think of an object, colours always come first, and then the shape. In this year, I would like to create a series of work that standing between abstraction and the realistic world.
These three works above is a mind collage of things that I saw on a specific day. The shapes are the outline of everyday objects and the colours are from the objects themselves. They present like a diary, but in a pictorial colourful way.
Accessories
Portraits
This group of acrylic paintings is inspired by a fashion show which was about Contemporary Chinese costumes. The painting is created according to the shape and colour of the costumes. Afterwards, I realised that I am always painting from an image on screen, my phone's screen or laptop's screen. I start to consider whether the images behind the screen becomes a reality. According to one of the classical readings, Ways of Seeing by John Berger, since the invention of camera, the way we look at things has changed. We can not only see things in front of our eyes but also can see the whole world from photographs. Before, our eyes are the centre perspective of the world, and now, the lens become another way to see the world through others eyes. Likewise, the invention of electronic screens and mobile phones change our way to see things. We are now see the world through a digital screen composed by colour pixels. Form the digital and compressed images, whether the texture and materiality on the original object is lost. I try to address this question by these quick paintings below on everyday object with unfamiliar high contrast and situation of colour to present the difference between the physical and the digital. Moreover, the square format resembles the characteristic of digital image, where we can crop our image easily, share it on Instagram and also the typical shape of a preview and a thumbnail in our online gallery.
The process is simple, I pull the contrast and saturation of an image to the maximum, then take a screenshot of that image and repeat. I accidentally discovered this method to create a different appearance of the world.
I tried to push this method further and decided to make an image from an overexposure photo.
(Process is available below)
Details
A comparison between a printed image and a painting.
Digital
Painting
Detail
Installation View
Through the tutorial, I found that many places are not logical, with no reason, the concept was incomplete. The way that I reproduce the image and the decision to paint it out, except to show the labour intensive action, I could not find another reason. The printed image is more accurate and detailed, maybe those paintings are more in a sense of decoration, like crafts but not artworks.
"Try it with different methods, even in an immature approach." I took the advice and start to experiment with something new.
Some of the details did not print out and the second layer is not accurately printed on, but I like the texture, which looks like the shimmering light and shadow. During the process, I found screen printing can show and adjust the thickness and the transparency of pigment, create as much layer as I could. I may need to try it another time with more layers overlapping each other by using more transparent pigment, work in a larger size and a more complex image.
The Pecha Kucha 10 minutes presentation at the beginning of the semester is very useful. It directs me to find myself and understand more about what I like and what I am attracted to. Whenever I feel lost and been biased by something else, I will think of this presentation. It will takes me back to what I was originally attracted to in this art world.
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"Making art makes me feel like home"
Paper Window
The holiday and the contextual practice essay helps me to rethink and evaluate my practice, I feel that my concept needs to be expressed in a new way. In unit 2, I would like to create a series of work called ‘paper windows’.
I consider the graph paper is like the screen on our digital devices, they are all composed of countless small squares. I would like to present the social phenomenon that we all look at the world through the window of these small lattices. The stronger optical illusion effect is presented, and less abstract images could make more connection to the physical world and more interaction with the viewers.
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The use of graph paper changed the original function of it but raise up the connection to the digital screen. This is a better way to fit in my concept for now, which is that ambiguity experience between the virtual appearance and the physical object.
I am doing some small abstract drawings on square paper. I am enjoying the process as it is very similar to the filling colour game. This notebook record the most unforgettable colour combination that I have seen on a specific day and also as a colour study.
Tu'er Ye (Rabbit God), 21x29.7cm, Colour pencil on graph paper
Afterwards, I start to work with graph paper. In the beginning, I use water-base colour markers, but I am not satisfied with the colour and texture that it presented on graph paper, and the effect was not successful when I am mixing two colours on a thin graph paper. I also experimented with acrylics, watercolours and colour pencils. Acrylic is too strong and too stiff on paper, watercolour is difficult to control on thin paper, colour pencil gives the best result as it shows the physical movement on a very flat surface, and it is a more comfortable way for me to work on paper.
Details
08.01.19 Shunde 19:44. 21x29.7cm, Colour pencil on graph paper
Installation View
I decided to change a new way to present this kind of drawings. Before, it was cropped as a square image, attached on a piece of white paper and placed on a black picture frame. However, I realised that this presentation does not fit the artwork, it is so restrained and feeling less intimate from the hand drawn image. Hence, from now on, I will leave the unfilled grid on the graph paper, to signifies another function of the paper. The A4 size and square format present the connection between the physical and digital world, as we usually print on a A4 size paper and the square formate, as I mentioned above, resembles the characteristic of digital images.
09.01.2019 London 12:27 21x29.7cm
Colour pencil on graph paper
03.01.2019 Zhongshan 14:08
21x29.7cm
Colour pencil on graph paper
12.02.2019 London 17:19
21x29.7cm
Colour pencil on graph paper
Compared to the first two pieces that I have done in Unit 1, I have made some progress on my technical skills such as a better sense of colour, present a clearer, more recognisable image, and also less amount of time to finish one drawing.
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There are a lot of shadows in the first drawing, and most of them are on a grey stone wall. I feel the colour matching in this area is quite challenging, so I found Seurat and Monet as my reference and learn the way they painted shadow. By using a mixture of purple and surrounding colours, the shadow and the stone wall present in a more natural way.​ It reminds me of Dan Hay’s painting, he addresses the similarity between the compressed image and the impressionist. In his Colorado Impressions series, he describes that “the immaterial and instantaneous digital information is given material and temporal existence in fleshy brushstrokes and daubs.” Indeed, once a digital image is drawn or pained out, it eliminates the estrangement between the digital and physical world.
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This series of work can be understood as the view of my inner world, the contrast between my rational and emotional thinking. The rational part comes from my action to fill in the grids to form an image and the emotional part comes from the image itself.
Abstract, 21x29.7cm, Colour pencil on graph paper
In this test piece, I would like to see how watercolours preform on paper, to see the watermark.​ However, the effect was not ideal. The paper shrank because of the presence of water and it is more difficult and time consuming to get the right colour on each square.
18.02.2019 London 18:37, 21x29.7cm, Colour pencil on graph paper
One of the things that I want to achieve is to present my rational and the emotional aspect together on a same surface. The expressive strokes enhance the emotional unpredictability and make a comparison to rational control and restraint. Before, I thought only human can have a personal life, but later on, I realised A.I. can have their personal lives and memories, but they do not have feelings and always function in a rational logical state. But, how about the accidental error in a system?
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Moreover, as a reflection to my thoughts in the previous unit, there is no difference between the so-called screen world and the physical world. Technology, in fact, forms a new world, which is part of our world.
Too much information 21x29.7cm, Colour pencil on graph paper
I also want to see the effect of presenting text in this working style. It is interesting to write with an ink pen in the drawing app, and reappear my handwriting with colour pencil.
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(Background story: One day, when I sat down to breakfast, the latest Times Out magazine is on my right-hand side, and my iPhone on the other side is constantly sending the new notifications to me. The people around are talking non-stop, and my brain is full of information. The taste of oatmeal, the aroma of the coffee, my brain is thinking about the next thing to do, afraid that time is not enough... and this sentence suddenly appeared in my mind.​)
Brush strokes 2, 21x29.7cm, Colour pencil on graph paper
Brush strokes 1, 21x29.7cm, Colour pencil on graph paper
Brush strokes 3, 21x29.7cm, Colour pencil on graph paper
This group of drawings is inspired by Roy Lichtenstein's brushstrokes series, that he traced or reproduce the spontaneous movement (brushstroke) in a comic form. In the drawings above, I trace the emotional brushstrokes from my digital painting in a rational hand drawn pattern. The improvisational brushstrokes and colours presented are based on my current feelings which paint on my phone. The method to draw the image expresses the sense of self-restraint and indiscipline.
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The two properties of time can be seen in the artwork, which is the contrast between the instantaneous digital brush strokes from the image and the sluggish feeling from the hand-drawn colourful squares.
Memory in Pixel
Draft (Testing with different compositions)
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Detail
Memory in Pixel, 50x70cm, Colour pencil on paper
In this work, I increased the scale of my graph paper to 50x70cm and I am trying to bring all the elements in the same place, on the same surface. I tried to use a different kind of graph paper, which has better quality (thicker, higher intensity grid and larger size). However, compare to the one with a blue grid, this kind of paper does not take the colour very much, and I think the black grid darkens the colour that I filled in. Hence, I decided to keep using the blue graph paper.
While I am doing my research on my critical context, I found there are some similarities between human memory and digital memory. So I decided to present that faded memory on my drawings. The abstract lines are the imagination part of my mind.
Memory-in-pixel display is a feature which is similar to the E-book's screen. This kind of screen has a special quality that presents like paper and also known as ‘electronic paper screen’. Since the texture of the graph paper is similar to a digital screen, I am also considering this work as a static image on a ‘paper screen’.
29.05.2019 Venice 20:37
21x29.7cm
Colour Pencil on Graph Paper
30.05.19 Venice 09:52
21x29.7cm
Colour pencil on graph paper
29.05.2019 Venice 22:12
21x29.7cm
Colour Pencil on Graph Paper
31.05.2019 Venice 09:55
21x29.7cm
Colour Pencil on Graph Paper
This group of drawings records my trip to Venice. During this trip, we went to see Luc Tuymans’s exhibition. In the introduction, it said that most of his works were completed in one day, and I think it is because of the state of each day is different and we will perceive things differently every day. When I am doing my work, I can feel my sense of colour is not the same in the day after. The longer the time I spend on, the less coherent of the colour. Hence, I decided to push myself to concentrate on drawing in a specific time frame and finish each drawing in one day. Moreover, similar to Tuymans's paintings with loose brushstrokes, I start to draw in a relatively relaxed attitude, especially in the second one, which brings out the layers of colour on each lattice and addresses the hand-drawn quality of an image.
14.06.2019 Montenegro 10:30
21x29.7cm
Colour Pencil on Graph Paper
14.06.2019 Montenegro 14:20
21x29.7cm
Colour Pencil on Graph Paper
15.06.2019 Montenegro 09:09
21x29.7cm
Colour Pencil on Graph Paper
16.06.2019 Montenegro 11:41
21x29.7cm
Colour Pencil on Graph Paper
17.06.2019 Montenegro 16:57
21x29.7cm
Colour Pencil on Graph Paper
Initially, I planned to do a series of works about a journey to the Republic of Montenegro, a place that I think I will not go again, and my plan is to draw 20 works about this journey. However, during the process of making the work, I found the scenery in this place is too similar, and I am feeling a bit reluctant to spend too much time on the memory of this short trip. I think it would be better if I record my memory of 2019, although it is not finished yet, I travelled more than before, I have got a new group of friends, a lot of new things happened and changed myself. I value this show as an opportunity to find a way to conclude this year.
What colour is the sea today, 70x50cm, Colour Pencil on Graph Paper
After I handed in my contextual practice essay, I thought of another way to express the similarity between glitch image and my faded memory on graph paper. Inspired by Mustafa Hulusi’s painting at the Saatchi Gallery, which attempts to capture a memory and the artist’s perception. He divides the painting into two parts, the part of what he felt and the part of what he saw, and altogether present the way he perceives things. In my practice, I can combine my abstract drawings with the digital images from my phone to form my memory and my perception. When I am thinking of nature, the first thing appears in my mind is the sea, and I have just been to a Mediterranean country, so my first reaction is to draw my experience of the sea in Montenegro. The image on the left-hand side depicts the sea that I saw and the one on the right shows my feeling of the sea in my memory. It depicts the transparency, the reflection of the sunshine, the smell of the sea and the movement of the sea waves. Moreover, according to my essay, every time we recall something in our mind, it will differ from the original memory based on our current situation and emotion. This is the reason to use this title, like our memory, the colour of the sea will change under different weather condition. However, I consider this style still need to be developed, the idea can be present in a better way and I feel there is room for more improvement. Due to the short time frame, the difficulty to obtain a larger graph paper (about wall-size) and the high expense on the material, I plan to continue this style of work in China.
01.01.2019 Macao 20:37
21x29.7cm
Colour Pencil on Graph Paper
01.01.2019 Macao 21:35
21x29.7cm
Colour Pencil on Graph Paper
03.01.2019 Zhongshan 13:57
21x29.7cm
Colour Pencil on Graph Paper
I used to go home and spend my summer holiday with my family during this time, but this year I am still in the UK. Recently, I am looking at the photos on my phone that I took in the new year before I go to bed. I missed my hometown and my family, so I drew this set of images. I think this is the normal state of life for everyone today because the images recorded on the screen are too similar to real life. Every time I open an image, there is a kind of illusion of being back to the moment, but in the meanwhile, I understand these images are just a combination of pixels. Perhaps, memory should not be so detailed. Not only remember, but forgetting is also important as well. Is it because our memories are being recorded too clearly, so we are always looking back, nostalgic, remembrance the events that have passed.
19.04.2019 London 14:56
21x29.7cm
Colour Pencil on Graph Paper
02.06.2019 London 13:13
21x29.7cm
Colour Pencil on Graph Paper
20.06.2019 London 14:28
21x29.7cm
Colour Pencil on Graph Paper
This group of drawings records my life in the UK this year. I always go to see different exhibitions on weekends, the first one depicts the exhibition space of Tate Britain, where I often visit this year. Every time I went there, I saw this installation by Mike Nelson. The other one depicts an orange building that I will pass every time on the way to the White Cube Gallery and this special street sign always attracts me. The third drawing is a wall painting about the advertisement of Levis’ Jeans that I saw at Covent Garden where I always walk past by.
07.07.2019 Liverpool 14:08
21x29.7cm
Colour Pencil on Graph Paper
01.08.2019 Brighton 11:18
21x29.7cm
Colour Pencil on Graph Paper
I travelled to Liverpool and Brighton during the summer. I love the seaside city and especially like to walk along the coast in this season. On the day in Liverpool, I saw a lot of colourful ice cream van on the shore. The drawing depicts my memory on the coast, there are people leisurely sunbathing or walking with their puppies, accompany with the laughter of children and the refreshing breeze. The last one depicts a bus ticket in Brighton. We were very surprised when we saw such an old-style ticket, the design is very special and we have never seen one like this before. This is the most treasured ticket that I have got.
She raises up the question of whether I am concern about using someone else‘s application to create a digital image. I think what I enjoy is the process of filling the colour, and what I care about is the visual effect that the image comes with. I consider the application as my helper that assist me to draw and present my idea from the artworks.
After this discussion, I start to rethink and tidy up my concepts. I ask myself why using this way to create and what I really want to express from it. In the material aspect, I use A4 size paper because it is the most common object that carries the information from the digital space to the physical space. Moreover, I like to make art in an easy and approachable way, the way that everyone can do, and to use the materials that can reach by hand.
The issue I want to address is a current phenomenon, which is also caused by an incident that I have met recently. The images on our mobile phones are always in the cloud storage, but I realised the images are gradually corrupted or glitched one by one over time. And not long ago, the cloud website that I used to store my images was closed down and all the photos inside have disappeared. Interestingly, I have got a feeling of losing some part of my memory.
Thinking about the presentation of the drawings on paper.
If no frame, how to hang and place it?
If I need a frame, what kind of frame?
06.08.19 Tutorial with Mark Fairnington
Through the tutorial with Mark, I find another way to present my drawings. He points out that my drawing needs more weight to support, and the value of the work itself needs to be emphasised so it is not enough to just stick the blu tack on a white wall, consider to use a high-quality frame. I am concerned about the difficulty of transporting the frame and the high cost to customise twenty frames. The second suggestion is to use very small and thin nails to hold the paper but I do not wish the paper is damaged by nails. Finally, Mark came up with an idea by using a colour block on the wall as a “frame”, but the colour must be selected carefully. The colour cannot highlight the edges of the paper, I need to find a colour that can merge the work and the wall.
Also, I need to reduce the visual interference by smoothing the folds on paper, and the walls and space must be very clean.
21.08.19 Conversation with Geraint
I experimented with several colors on my laptop, but I still cannot decide between grey and pale blue. And I am also considering the bright red wall next to mine, I am afraid that space will look uncoordinated. I asked about the two questions and Geraint explained that the red wall will all be covered by paper, so it would not be affected. Then, he suggested using the same blue of the grid on the graph paper to paint the colour bar.
I am also looking for the best height for the piece and the width of the colour bar. Finally, I decided to use the height to my eyebrows, hopefully, could attract viewers to carefully watch the details of each piece. Moreover, the colour bar should not be too wide, otherwise, it will affect the viewer‘s attention to the artworks.
Final view of the Degree Show
Memory in Pixel 2019
20 works 21x29.7cm each
Colour Pencil on Graph Paper
Conclusion
During this MA course, I obtained a better understanding about the role of painting in the art world today, how painting evolute to the present stage and its history from seminars and lectures. Base on the knowledge, I start to think of the ways to innovate. The compact curriculum motivates me to create more works and create a habit to constantly question my concept. The tutorial and group crit help me to find the best way to present my practice. The most impressive part is the Interdisciplinary Practice Unit. The cooperation gave an opportunity for me to make a connection with the other field and realise that I can develop my work from another angle. In the future, I plan to find some artist residency in Beijing, Tokyo, and the United States or any opportunity to stay in these three places for a period of time. I would like to meet people and things under different cultural backgrounds and gain different experience. I would also like to cooperate with the IT and engineering area in China as a continuation of my interdisciplinary practice.