Allison Zhang

Bonnies 2024

[caitcull]

Breakthrough Contemporary Artists

My collage gives insight into the societal pressures to look a certain, and perfect, way as a woman in the digital age. I included a variety of images of women in portraits and several different mirrors. These symbolize how women have to be "picture-perfect" and how we always are looking into the mirror to ensure we look flawless.

In contrast, the piece could be interpreted as looking to many different women with diverse appearances and empty mirrors without expectations for a more positive outlook!

This assignment was very fun, as I liked putting together so many different gold clippings with elegant vibes. I also boiled down some pink flower petals to make a dye to paint the background.

[allisonzhang]

I think boiling flower petals to make a dye is incredibly creative and adds a refined touch to your piece. Your piece emits emotions of elegance and refinement, which I associated with concepts of “back then”, in a historical-sense. I would love to have this as a wallpaper - great job!!!

[abbeyberes]

[allisonzhang]

I love the background of your piece - it looks so organized yet with a splash of ideas. It feels very freeing. I think the physical tears in the collage are beautifully done, both casual in appearance but purposefully torn and attached to the piece.

[miko-synowiec]

My concept was based on the societal expectations communicated through magazines targeted at an older female demographic. I have two women gazing at the text “forever young: how to reduce body fat naturally” to suggest that this is the messaging they are subject to. Then satiricalIy I added “eat salads” as a response to the text above coming from an overweight man off to the side.

[allisonzhang]

I love how your piece incorporates some conversation but represents how women usually aren’t offered or allowed to share their opinion. I think it’s a beautiful and accurate representation of how society works - and your piece raises a lot of awareness about this!

[allisonzhang]

For my final project, I incorporated three different themes: Earth Art, Feminism, and NYC 1980s.

In relation to the Earth Art theme, I used dandelions as brushes to craft a gradient background. I dripped paint onto my canvas and mixed colors together using the dandelions. As a result of the pressure, the dandelions would crumple, break, and essentially lose their initial integrity. Because of this structural weakness, I had to pick several dandelions to curate the background. The destruction of something beautiful is symbolic of the Feminism theme I supplemented to my piece.

For Feminism, I used an advertisement for “Your Best Winter Skin”, a guide in my magazine that underscored the societal expectation for a woman’s skin to be flawless. Surrounding and on the advertisement, I added empowering phrases, such as “I’m a fighter” and “The painful truth proves she’s one to watch”. I consider these collaged words to be empowering and challenge the status quo regarding the role of women.

At the bottom of my piece, I added my third and final theme, NYC 1980s with a focus on Keith Haring style drawings. From left to right, the figurines grow in size, with thought bubbles that coincidentally increase in confidence. Across the chest of each of these figures is the word “HER”, which is representative of all women and female-identifying individuals. This symbolizes a young girl growing up and gradually finding her voice to challenge the societal standards she is subjected to, observable through the blue lines that fade in strength and closeness to her. The same blue lines can be found outlining the collage.

[allisonzhang]

My piece challenges societal standards of beauty, specifically regarding weight. The scale is symbolically cut in half because for many, weight is not just simply a number, it’s much more. The basketball movement aligns with the concept of exercise and weight loss, which is further supported by the words, “the skinny version of me”. Crosswords are confusing and tricky, similar to learning how to lose weight and balancing concepts of society.

[allisonzhang]

My piece is inspired by Keith Haring’s work by the figure-like movements that display happiness and love. The phrase, “love always”, is something I associate with a sweet method of saying “goodbye” to someone you love. My figures are different colors and colored in different patterns because I want it to symbolize how everyone has differences, but love transcends those gaps.

[brookebobbey]

Futurism Assignment:

The phrase I chose to represent my relationship with technology as a child was "Overnight Takeover." Looking back on my childhood, I realize that my immersion into technology wasn't gradual but all at once. For instance, I have very specific "pre-technology" memories from my childhood, including riding bikes, dancing in the rain, and even playing ghosts in the graveyard with neighborhood friends. However, I only remember a few times like these after I got a cell phone. I like to think that it was a coincidence that getting a phone had nothing to do with why these outdoor activities seized. However, now I realize that my generation might be the last to have these fantastic childhood memories. Nowadays, technology is being introduced much younger, and kids would rather stay close to the house where there is wifi than explore and be adventurous. Therefore, I am thankful I witnessed technology's takeover because I got to exist in a pre-and post-technology world.

[allisonzhang]

Your piece portrays the evolution of technology and machines into nature very well. Additionally, your mentioning of technology at a younger age applied to me - so the vision of being a child again created nostalgia. Great job!!

[kcaccamise]

So the advertisement I decided on was one for beauty products. These products are over priced and claim to make you look younger and have better skin. This implies that as you age, you might be less beautiful and see's aging as a bad thing. I decided to change the ad from "Products you seriously need - now" to "Products you seriously need - never" as a way to say that you don't need these products to increase beauty. I also went for a sloppy look to this piece, as we were allowed to design it however we liked. I thought a sloppy piece would bring out the fact that perfection isn't needed to make an impact, and that people you might be defined as "rough around the edges" have the same beauty and elegance as someone who might be "perfect".

The song I decided on this week is "Just a Girl" by the band No Doubt. My most listened to genre of music is 90's alternative and grunge so this was the first song to pop to mind when thinking rebellious and feminism.

[allisonzhang]

I really like the concept behind your artwork! Last week, for this assignment, I used a similar concepts that discuss society’s standard of living”beauty”. I think art like this is incredibly empowering towards women.

[maggiemetcalf]

Surrealism

Character Bio

Name: Frank

Favorite Food: Tacos

Hobbies: Long walks, photography, learning about space

Attendance:

[allisonzhang]

I like that you put this character together and made typical features, like his face, obscure and other features recognizable. I think it pushes the scope of normalcy and what we consider to be “beautiful”. Despite what we look like to one another, we share certain characteristics in common.

[allisonzhang]

The background of my piece was blended together through flowers from my front lawn, replacing the purpose of brushes. Because of the intensity and use of the flowers, residual petals dried along the background, leaving small ridges in my artwork.

“all the good girls go to hell” by Billie Eilish addresses the concept that humans have destroyed the earth, and are unaware of how to fix those issues. Billie is known for creating music that pushes the status quo on “acceptable” or “mainstream” behavior.

[allisonzhang]

The phrase I attached to my piece was “Best?” because it juxtaposes the advertisement to buy the moisturizer. The initial purpose of advertising skincare was the concept that skin must be smooth, scar-free, and essentially flawless to be considered beautiful and “the best”. Society’s perception of a woman’s beautiful skin is her youth and flawless appearance towards others, a standard that is unkind to those who suffer from acne and considerably ageist. The way in which society expects a woman’s skin to be flawless is representative of the many unfair beauty standards that the world places on them. In this case, skin can bear scars and wrinkles and still be beautiful.

[allisonzhang]

[allisonzhang]

My article of clothing was the Lakers 6 jersey, worn by Lebron James, a decorated world-renowned basketball player. I added words of “beauty” and feminine pronouns to emphasize that women, too, should be allowed to be recognized, decorated, respected, monetarily rewarded, and celebrated, in the same way that their male counterparts are. The background was inspired by my favorite movie series, “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse”, which has a cartoon-like background, with bright colors to emphasize the jersey.

The song I selected was “What Was I Made For?” by Billie Eilish, who wrote the song in parallel to Greta Gerwig’ “Barbie” movie. Billie’s song challenges the double standard that women are forced into through society, coinciding with the true meaning of the “Barbie” movie.

[allisonzhang]

The background to my work incorporates a comment on my midterm piece about notebook doodles. I took this literally and drew/wrote things that you can find my notebook!

The song I used was correlated to Apple’s commercial about the length of the iPhone 15’s long lasting battery. The wall outlet says it misses the charger and the phone itself, which it rarely sees, because the battery life is so long. I thought this song was really catchy and creative way to sell the new phone’s best feature.

[allisonzhang]

[allisonzhang]

[allisonzhang]