Space arrangement
As all of us are evolved in series things happening in first half of 2020: Corona virus pandemic, the death George Fried, Black lives matter... Also as Chinese people, we have been face serious political condition with US. All these things make the world into a turbulent time.
While I was locked in the student hall for all most 3 month without get in touch with friends physically, I did feel very depressed and unstable emotion. My time schedule is mess. I am easily turn to be mad, sad, and feel lots of pressure that I do not know why it happens for. Especially when I saw the video recording online about the death of George Fried, who is helpless bearing for breath, one of the most basic human rights with his calling for mom. Then the whole world start to flight back for this.
I was overwhelmed by this feeling of "can't breath" not only because of the reality of that accident but also my personal feeling about recent living condition. Because I am in the student hall, all my art supply was locked at studio. I do have enough material to paint. So I plan to create a digital format Installation.
Firstly, I draw a simple sketch and pattern on paper to give a clear view about how to display each cube in this installation.
Then I start to use Adobe Dimension to create digital form. There are 298 cubes included in this artwork I have to remember every position and angle of them, in case if they need further changes I can correct them quickly. Here is every detail information below.
Also, by using Adobe Dimension they offer different types of material and light scours for use to try. Here are some picture record about testing material. I try glass, colour acrylic glass, also print image on to the glass to text the outcome.
Here is a work in progress video recording. In this one, there is not any environmental space effect yet. It only show the angle/position of light source: From the top and the shadow reflection. It declares every position and angle structure.
By the time making this installation project view, I felt the 2D abstract pattern, mark turn to be 3D cubes and they became some kinds of anthropomorphic objects. Eg: Each cubes are building block for each other, they are locked in a single unit, especially we see the shadow structure on the floor. Also, these cubes are planning to be made by glass which is a reflection to the industry world we are living in. We have to see things trough the window, glass from home in recent period.
Meanwhile, everyday when I see the number of infections, death rates the helpless of all of us make me become more vulnerable. Chinese government post flight restriction: each native airline can only offer one flight back to China every week. And if passenger need on board they have to offer health condition for 14 days. The ticket price became higher and higher and my flight back to home had been canceled twice finally I gave up to go home. My depressed and negative emotion were amplified. So I am thinking about to create a series of work to reflect what is happening around myself, around us who been trough 2020 together.
I plan to paint a floor and wall drawing as way to remember to depict the number in relation to the population, infections, death rates... Because for me this half year the most object I saw is graph, number...
Here is the actual statistic of the world infection numbers from February 2020 till now.
Option 1:
Coloured graph with layered pattern to show the large number of quantity.
Line chart with thick volume.
Option 2:
Bar chart graph with single black/grey colour, single layer.
A lifeless feeling, just mathematic graph, numbers. We are numbness to things unfortunate.
As a reflection about human life vulnerability and a sense of bleeding heart to the social reality, I also want to use acrylic glass cubes filled with different volumes of liquid, free piled up in corner. Or using wire mesh one interact with each other and display the light source in the corner as a way to expand the shadow on the wall to create a feeling of things out of used.
I finally go with the first option: build glass made cubes piled up in the corner. Because I kind of want to use the same material, acrylic glass as way to emphasise what these cubes are meaning for. I think glass offer much easier connection for viewer to relate with our recent everyday living condition than the wire mesh. Because I think glass made texture/material can express the fragility and vulnerability which has the same character with human life.
(Right: textile of the glass.
just an expression of different volume of red liquid inside the cube.)
During the group critic, many people said my works remind them to the Holocaust Memorial (Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe) which give me a inspiration of continue create a final memorial like artwork as a conclusion of all traumatic, unexpected, sadness experience we have been through in 2020. Also I got inspiration from Richard Serra's forged rounds. He displayed nine very large scale rounds inside the gallery space which I feel like it transform the space to a common place. And it might deal with issue about industry, humanity. I still want my work to show in the gallery space because I do not want them be so straightforward linked to the public issue. I just want to create a feeling which can left something behind, very effective in viewers' inner thought. So I enlarge the scale of cube which I think them turn to be something lifeless as wall display inside the gallery space. Here are some quick sketch for organising structure.
