I get the inspiration from the gaming I am playing, in which monsters like a dragon is a non-player character I need to beat over to win. I also gain “money rewards” and EXP that make my character stronger.
I aimed to express my mind status in front of the upcoming fear symbolized by the monster. I want to show how fragile I am in front of upcoming threats I don’t know. In the image, most part of the monster is covered in the dark, and only its eye and a part of the claw is revealed in the light. The dragon is looking at the human. The only thing between them is the weak shutter, emphasizing that the “monster” could easily reach the guy.
In this stage of life, my peers and I all have different kinds of challenges and uncertainties. In the image, the guy is standing still; therefore, it is unknown how the guy will react to the “monster.”
When I explore around my art studio, I found an abandoned factory that no one comes to it and sun lights barely illuminate it. I asked my teachers about it, and they said that the factory was built at the same time as the studio. The studio I am working on right now is well used, but the factory is abandoned and not used by people anymore. However, I still find the view in the factory pleasing to look. I want to create a sense of calmness to the audience and raise their awareness of undiscovered corners and different space within the city.
I took a photograph of the view I want as a reference. One of the hard parts would be the depiction of reflection of a pillar on the wet ground, and the scarce light on the foreground, as well as the control of light on the back.
We are striving for our dreams and are no longer around our relatives and friends. We have all left this place with happy or sad memories. The building also goes through the process of aging. It starts from being a square space and gains more and more trace of time as time passes. I want to freeze the age of the house to remember my childhood. Although I am ready to leave the “box” to explore the new world, my childhood is still the softest and purest place in my heart.
I tried to mimic the color scheme of film photos to create an intense atmosphere of the past. The low-saturated color creates peacefulness to the image.
I live in a post-truth era. In front of the fake and bright appearance that media illustrates, people first believe it, but then, we as teenagers begin to have the ability to think critically, and begin to evoke and seek for the truth. In social media, media intentionally post biased information and authorities control information depends on their purpose and what they want the public to see.
I put watercolor and Chinese painting onto paper to create a “bright appearance” and experimented with creating a different texture. I extracted egg liquid from the egg and put acrylic into it. I then smash the eggs onto the paper that represents a “bright appearance formed by fake truth”. The process of egg crushing onto the paper was a mimic of the process of a new generation breaking the “bright appearances of truth”. Eventually, the eggs break and scatter once they collide on the paper. However, as more and more eggs crowded on the paper, the stain made by eggs will cover the entire paper. The choice of color is carefully made to express the tension between the new birth and the “bright” appearance.
This triptych explores the relationship between humans, nature, and plastic. It reveals how the overuse of plastic could eventually be vicious to humans and examine how humans use plastic to “wrap up” nature and give commercial nature value.
I print the original triptych out, then burn a hole on each of them using a butane gas bottle. I also took a series of photos of a skeleton, then invert them using photoshop. Then, I retook some photos by placing the skeleton image on the bottom of the original image.
I chose to use bright and highly-saturated colors to create contrast and tension to the audience: the phenomenon of overuse of plastic is vicious. However, the color is vivid. The light reflected on the plastic was dazzling, adding a hidden sense of uncomfortable to the audience due to this high exposure. I used symbols such as barcode (indicates “value” of nature), objects from nature to strengthen the concept.
It was fun to experiment with how lights reflect on plastic could create multiple effects. The lighting was one of the challenging parts, where I try lightings from different angles to test with mixed feelings.
This triptych aimed to expresses the process of finding a way out in anxiety by showing the fragility of humanity and conflict within one's mind.
The heart is depicted in color different than red, creates defamiliarization to the audience, which makes them distanced from the artwork, adding to the sense of frustration. The mid-parts was inspired by the idea of using exposure in photography to make the “ghost image” effect. I decided to create a scene of an individual’s panic and suffering and finally “recover” by seeking a way out. The depiction of a person looking into space with a phantom indicates isolation between the one and oneself. It shows the process of losing its orientation. Human portraits on the left represent the fragility of humanity by showing distortion and defection.