RESEARCH- Beili Liu's Installation

Recently, I get to know a Chinese- American artist Beili Liu whose works I am really interested in now especially her installation works. She is good at using different material in space work. 

The installation consists of hundreds of Chinese scissors suspended from the ceiling, pointing downwards. The hovering, massive cloud of scissors alludes to distant fear, looming violence and worrisome uncertainty. The performer sits beneath the countless sharp blades of the scissors, and performs an on-going simple task of mending.

The overwhelming situation presented in The Mending Project is balanced and softened by the silent persistence of a simple mending action. The large quantity and intense force of the scissors elevate the confrontation between the objects and the performer. The installation/performance evokes urgency, concern, and fear, while simultaneously influence viewers through the calming and healing aura of the mending action.

As each visitor enters the space, one is asked to cut off a piece of the white cloth hung near the entrance, and offer the cut section to the performer. She then continuously sews the cut pieces onto the previous ones. The mended fabric grows in size throughout the duration of the performance, and takes over the vast area of the floor beneath the scissors.

Recall is the third project of The House Phase Installation Series.  These site-specific installations are based on the artist's parents’ hand-built adobe home in northern China. The installations take on a simple one-room-house structure, and are built using a wide range of materials, from traditional adobe bricks (see The Little House Stands On the Prairie), to delicate 8-foot-long wax drips.

Recall was made from approximately 600 hand-made Paraffin wax drips. These delicate wax drips measure 5 to 8 feet in length, and shatter easily to a light touch . Suspended in the center of the space, the installation echoes the angle of the rafters and the roof of the barn. Sun light falls through the gaps in the roof, and projects hundreds of light circles, which glide across the space and the house structure throughout the day. The house form speaks of a familiar domestic space, though the fragility of the material calls for uncertainty within the viewer about what a house stands for; shelter, protection and home.

'Taken' is a tangle of wicker suspended from the ceiling. This loose, looping ball of thin wooden reeds contains half circular curls that repeat themselves over and over, forming an airy near-sphere measuring approximately six feet in diameter. The reed (wicker) has been dyed brown (black), and is secured in place with a series of glinting, near-invisible lines of monofilament. “Taken” possesses an organic form, but is not intended to move with the draft generated by a passing observer. It’s a complex, open knot that seems very carefully constructed, with one curve mimicking another, first opening one way, and then the opposite. Despite its airiness the work possesses a sizable heft".

--Adrianna Grant, Visual Art Source

"...made primarily of wool and thread, extols the virtues of the transfixed state. Mystery shrouds the work. It could be made of many a thing: hair, cotton, shredded rubber, etc., and in its presence, one feels at a great loss to know the many stories it could tell. Yet it is the X factor ingredient of acrylic medium that pulls and stretches the wool and thread into an unrecognizable and unworldly realm. Both erotic and ghostly, the hanging strands mark an arrival at such a precise and wonderful choice of materials that you almost give up trying to figure the thing out." 

Work in Progress- Final show

I rethought about the model practice and tried to extend the ideas and realize it to a 3D space. Importantly, installation and space work are still my most interested area. As I mentioned, disorientation of the urban life is also the theme I want to show, and the fickle and stressful atmosphere is what I want to create in an interactive exhibition space. Through the test, I decided to create a mirror effect that will be like an illusion of urban life. In my work, I am exploring the stressful and fickle nature of the urban life and it's suppression of its inhabitants' emotion. My approach is to create a participatory space with a mirroring effect, with relevant themes to contemporary society. Here I am acknowledging that urban life develops rapidly, and that there are numerous pressures, like work and living situations, that make inhabitants feel lonely, discouraged, oppressed, and passive. I'm trying to make the stressful nature of the urban environment visible to the public. Additionally, my interest for 3D graphics and participatory design are clearly exhibited in this installation. The experience of models was an important step in my development. I extended my ideas and methods to a new stage, and got to know what area I really interested. As a result, some practice and test will give you a useful development.

Work in Progress-problem with situation

At the first, the black-out material was installed loosely and looked not as professional as a gallery space. As tutors' suggestion, to solve the problem, it's better to swap the space with Chris. I have thought about it, but for me, changing space will be more hard to realise my installation, because I need to place the projectors at the end of the opposite wall in the original space, which takes more than 3 metres away. If I move into a new space, it takes more time to reconsider the situation and material especially the mirrors. So I came to the space to remove the black-out material and re-installed it from another side by myself. It can be seen that it's very strict now. After that I took off the light tubes which I don't need, and left one light for Melis. Than the problem of light was also solved. By the way, I whitewashed the wall which I want to put my projectors. Everything looks good, and I am happy with the situation now. It's time to set up the mirrors for the next step.

RESEARCH- "Urban Life" Photograph by Raquel Paiewonsky

Raquel Paiewonsky is a contemporary artist who currently resides in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. Her work has traveled across the globe. It explores human body, urban life, social constructs and social issues. 

The project that came out of the Raquel's concern for the environment and tells a story of integration with nature as a strategy for growth and expansion of our lives and our planet. Children with their heads under the roots of the plants are the seeds needed to fulfill the mission to heal the Earth.

Raquel said that the photographs, unfortunately, don't fully show all the work that was done to realize this project: the conversations she had with the kids to explain the project and why she is doing it, their curiosity and enthusiasm, and two days of work and play on the beach.

RESEARCH - Exhibition of Mona Hatoum

I visited the The Fundació Joan Miró in Barcelona recently, and it was really fortunate to see the British artist Mona Hatoum's work. This was the first time I saw her works. and her installations attract me a lot. The exhibition looks like a dialogue with avant-garde movements in modern art.

The exhibition "Projection", curated by Martina Millà in close collaboration with Mona Hatoum, is the artist's first monographic exhibition in Barcelona. The show includes close to forty pieces from the last twenty years, with a stronger presence of recent work. Its aim is to open up our view of this artist and place her beyond the geopolitical references that have become practically synonymous with her production.

With this collection of installations, videos, sculptures, and photographs, "Projection" aims to subtly stretch the semantic field that we usually identify with Hatoum to open up new possibilities, glean new meanings and lead viewers towards a complex, renewed interpretation of her universe and her vast body of work. The exhibition attempts to show an artist who establishes a dialogue with movements in modern art such as surrealism, minimalism, arte povera, body art, land art, or site-specific art.

For me, it's important to see how she use the space to show her installations especially how to create the relationship with views. In particular, there is a nice using of graphic language in a 3D installation or project in her works, which is really important for my final project.

for the MA Graphic Design Catalogue

-Title of work (project title): Disorientation of Urban Life

-Subtitle for photo (work photo title): mirror effect of stressful life in a participatory space.

-100 words text:

My work was to explore the stressful and fickle modern city and the suppression of emotion in urban life. The way of expression was to create mirror effect in a participatory space. Generally, the theme is highly relevant to contemporary society. It is acknowledged that in modern city, everything are developed fast, and there are a lot of pressures in urban life, such as individual ‘s work, study and living statement, which make them feel lonely, discouraged, oppressive and passive. In my final show, I tried to make the stressful city visible to the public. There was my interest for 3D graphics and participatory design; especially the visual works in an exhibition space.

Work in Progress - test the effect

Tested the effect and thought to use mirrors