Artwork 03: Liu Kang-Inspired Artwork Assignment

As continued from after the Liu Kang Exhibition in the previous post, this post is going to show the development of my work :)

At beginning, I was stuck with an artist's block and I was not sure of what to do, as I personally felt no attachment to any of his works. However, in terms of subject matter, I was decided on doing dance. Since we went to view the Liu Kang exhibition, I decided to break down and analyse Liu Kang's style to see which aspect I was going to emulate, and hopefully find my missing link to the project. Below was my main guiding theory in doing my mindmap board.

This is a full picture of my board...

As you can see, I categorised it into media, colour, composition, technique subject matter, and to sum up, my final decision about how I would be going ahead with my project.
This was my breakdown for media...

...subject matter...

...colour...

 ...composition...

 ...technique...

 and my final decision about what I would be doing.

As you can see, I was actually most moved by Liu Kang's self-portrait.

It told a story and it was a self-portrait containing much emotion despite its simplicity. Also, I wanted to emulate his self-portrait as my previous self-portraits were only meant for the building up of technique in using different media, but it held no true value for me. I wanted to do a self-portrait that held and contained my own emotion and thoughts, one that I would have closer attachment to.

In the picture above, it shows what I wanted to achieve through this first board of research on Liu Kang as I was fully aware many other of my classmates would generally use this research board to provide background information of Liu Kang, which I personally felt was rather redundant in this case, other than to gain more marks for providing information and having done some sort of research for the sake of just researching.  Instead, I decided I was going to do a personal take on my own board by providing things from my own perspective, "defining (define) Liu Kang's style for myself".
The second board was supposed to be 'starting points':

In which i arranged the sequence of my project planning from square one onto the final piece.
Before we even visited the Liu Kang exhibition, we were told that we were to do this Liu kang artpiece and thus many of us searched online for cultural icons in Singapore, however I was always more interested in actual human forms rather than some architecture or inanimate object. As mentioned before, I wanted to do something based on dance. As we quickly needed to do a collage to be used as an experimental design for some printmaking, I then rushed to just search for pictures that could represent dance in Singapore as a cultural mine. Below is a picture of the four pictures I had previously used to make the collage.

I simply drew a collage of these four pictures using the method of cross-hatching on a piece of paper the same size as the piece of plastic we were eventually going to use for the printmaking, around an A5 size. From there, we all scratched our individual designs onto the plastic piece. It was an interesting experience as it finally gave us an opportunity to use printmaking as a method for our art. Below are pictures of my three attempts:

I was actually very dissatisfied with the way my prints had turned out as my scratches were not deep enough, thus causing the lines in the print to be rather faded and I tried to re-scratch over the my first scratches, but this only caused more inequality in the lines as on top of the faded lines there would suddenly be bold and dark, deep lines. As I found out later, if I was unhappy with my print being too faded, usually the artist would redo the entire scratching process. However, I found this much too tedious and I decided to abandon the idea of printmaking.

Also, I found that I did not want to use these pictures as it still had no attachment to me and were simply a very superficial way of representing my ideas (this starting point of collaging was before I started to lean towards the idea of a self-portrait). I tried looking at other pictures to use:

 One of my ideas was to trace these two photos in a simplistic form on tracing paper and layering them, and I actually rather fancied this idea but I decided also to abandon this idea as it was equally if not more superficial than my previous collaging to represent Singapore's culture.
However, when I went to the Liu Kang Exhibition, it finally hit me that I need not be constricted by having to paint out a representative of Singaporean culture but rather I should broaden my mindset and perspective by looking at more than Liu Kang's usual subject matter. When I went to the exhibition, I noticed Liu Kang had done quite a few portraits...

...and I wondered: Why not do a portrait? Why constrict myself solely to the subject matter of Liu Kang's art?
I then searched of the meaning of self-portrait, and it was stated that it was only usually the face and facial features but it was more of the significance of self being involved rather than the actual face. Since I also wanted to incorporate dance, so the fact that the face need not be the focal point of a self-portrait made it easier. I started to make plans for dance poses and such that I could experiment with...

This joy of finding a link which could spur me on to do this project made me even more enthusiastic about the project and I also felt really inspired. So soon after making these plans and developing my concept (shown below)...

I then took out the time to take the reference pictures I expected I would need in the process of doing my final piece.

Among the 100+ photos I had taken that day, I shortlisted a few of the poses as shown above, and the pictures outlined in pink were the pictures I had decided I would be using. I did not want my self-portrait to just be a single piece, but rather with 3 poses, which showed different parts of dance, in a sense, with a single move, a floor-oriented move and a leap. This would make the art piece more dynamic as well.

Here are the actual pictures of the 3 poses I chose for my final product just in case the previous one was not very clear:

The next board was for experiments:

 These are my oil colour tests on regular paper, thus the oil stains...

 A small photocopy of the page I was doing my tests and experimentation of limbs on.

The actual experiments...

 A photocopy of my experiment on pastel paper.

My experiment on the pastel paper using oil colours actually turned out a lot better than I expected and I decided to keep it for my final :) 

I had never worked with oils before, so it was a new experience for me as well and I was genuinely surprised hen I managed to use it so successfully. Throughout my experimentation, however, I had limited myself only to one method of blending the colours and I regret not having done more experimentation with the technique and brushwork. Instead I had used a labour intensive method - dabbing. Much as it was tedious, it paid off in blending the colours beautifully.

Series of Self-Portraits, 2011, each 406x305mm, Oil paint

Above are the pictures of my final piece, and at the end of my project, I found that I was truly satisfied with my paintings, and considering it was my first attempt at oils, I was even more encouraged. However, I felt that I could have been more patient with the blending as one can see that by the time I came to painting the last picture of the leap, I was already starting to "slack off" and got lazy to do the blending properly. Despite this flaw, I was still quite happy as I felt that the paintings were considerably realistic and I could truly feel my pride in my self-portrait for the first time.

Writing 01: Singapore Biennale 2011

We went to the Singapore Biennale at the Old Kallang Airport and this was a very different experience compared to other art exhibits, being in a completely different setting as compared to established art museums in Singapore like the Singapore Art Museum (SAM) which incorporates very sleek and modern design in its interior design whereareas the Old Kallang Airport was left just as it was as the exhibits were supposed to be very site-specific. Also, the type of artworks being shown in the Biennale were rather different compared to the usual things, which would often be paintings after paintings, all on a 2-dimensional scale, and the biennale offered a fresh perspective, in which most of the artworks were on-site installations of great variation. However, I found that installations were much harder to interpret compared to paintings or drawings, and thus this may have affected my interest in the artworks, and it did not leave much impact on me (truthfully and personally speaking).Over here, I am only going to post in here which exhibits I truly found more intriguing or those I liked :)

Firstly, I wanted to talk about this exhibits were giant rolls of paper (2 storeys high) and wire were just stacked next to each other. Although no strong message came to me concerning this exhibit, I liked the spaciousness of it, the way it seemed to maximise everything, and almost making me feel like I'm in a world of giants.

Ok, but I didn't understand the paint cans at the side, but they made nice pillars :) Ok, just joking though :)

Another art installation that I liked was this:

Within, 2008, Gosia Wlodarczak

So basically what the artist did was to sit in the room all day for seven days and use liquid corrector to draw on the windows whatever she saw, creating a dense web of random objects and persons outside the window. The artist called the drawings 'frost drawings', which would somewhat permanently keep the moments on the glass such that it coexists and interacts with the ever-changing world outside of the glass.

Don't Worry, Martin Creed
The next exhibit I want to highlight is this Don't Worry signage made of the flourescent lights. It was one of my favourites because of the way it was being portrayed. It was in a dark room, and this was the only source of light, other than the flash cameras clicking away. The words as well as the dimmed lighting made the atmosphere in the room seem so calm and it was almost therapeutic. The concept was so simple and minimalist, yet it had great impact on me, and that's what I often like to go for in my own artworks :) Also, it had a rather positive hint to it, with the light being yellow, like a ray of hope in the midst of darkness. So that was probably what appealed to me about this installation.
However, when I went back, I suddenyl thought about it and did a little reserach on this artwork and I found this:

"The still air, stuffy environment, dingy setting, confined space and the fact that I was alone lends an isolated and lifeless ambience to the room, causing the atmosphere to turn claustrophobic. Needless to say, I wanted out. Assuming that the two doors positioned right next to the artwork was the way out, I made my way towards it.

However, upon closer inspection, I realized that of the two doors, one had a “No Entry” sign, whereas the other one was locked. This heightened my anxiety and claustrophobia, I felt trapped! Suddenly, Martin Creed’s omnipresent voice of a Saint whispering “sweet words of encouragement” is given a whole new evil twist. With the stifling heat making its presence felt by the minute, it was as if Satan has finally bared his true colors, seducing one into the depths of Hell with his sultry words.

Evidently, I managed to leave the room unscathed (by going out from where I came in). Nonetheless, I went through a range of emotions in that room: from the initial sense of calm and liberation, gradually shifting into claustrophobic calamity. This makes the experience exhilarating and special. Just about anybody can enter the room, sneer at the artwork, question its artistic value, proclaim “Even I can do this” and leave in a matter of minutes. The issue that Creed’s “Don’t Worry” subtly highlights is the importance of interaction between an artwork and its audience, in order for any concrete understanding to come about. Rather than being too quick to judge, why not take time to explore the artwork and see if you can make any resonant meaning out of it? Only when a connection is forged can appreciation or the ability to critique an artwork occur, and sometimes it takes awhile for this connection to take place."

From: http://ohnotebook.wordpress.com/2011/04/27/when-words-spell-irony/

Wow! I read this and realised I had missed out on such a big detail of the artwork and I had missed out on one of the big points of the artwork. But looking back, I really do agree with this writer about her own take on the doors and its relation to the words of 'Don't Worry'. I truly truly agree with the ast two sentences she wrote: "Rather than being too quick to judge, why not take time to explore the artwork and see if you can make any resonant meaning out of it? Only when a connection is forged can appreciation or the ability to critique an artwork occur, and sometimes it takes awhile for this connection to take place." 
I do regret not having taken the time to explore this exhibit...

In conclusion, the biennale offered an atypical view of art to me, but honestly, none of it really inspired me as I could not find much connection between me and the works. I mean, usually things only have a big impact on you if it really does pertain to you or has a great deep meaning, but in this case, they didn't.  However, I have also learnt that through observation, not merely looking, can really change a lot of things and even challenge you; to appreciate, one must understand, and to understand, one also has to observe.