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Artist Statement

Project: Beyond this Space.

The theme of the project is ‘Beyond this space’, and I set up the meaning of space as a ‘restrictive condition’, namely it is the restriction which makes human cannot see the truth. People cannot recognize the restriction because it is a daily life and always be with us. This may be the one’s homeland, mother tongue, economic power of parents, religion and culture. People cannot choose them, but they think in the restrictive conditions. When people overcome this, overcome this space, they will be able to know that there is more to us than meets the eye. So I suggest the notion of this work that ‘as an object of experience I belong to the sensible world, but as a subject of experience, I inhabit in intelligible world.’

The frame means a human as an individual, and I would like to break away the frame by the notion as a universal human. The philosopher Immanuel Kant(1724-1804) said a human not as an individual being, but as a universal human. For example, the reason that we have to respect the dignity of other people has not to do with particular individual. Kant’s respect is different from this way. It’s unlike sympathy, solidarity, fellow feeling or altruism. Because loving those other particular virtues are reasons for caring about other people who are in particular. But Kant’s respect is respect for humanity which is universal, for a rational capacity which is universal. The universal human is telling us continuously to see the truth, but people also ignore the voice continuously.

I made 6 rectangle shapes with timber by using some tools such as ‘slide compound saw, drill and corner clamps’. Then I produced 3-dimensional volume with wire and paper to make a prominent shape of eye. The video image and the sound vitalize the object. To produce a video, 2 computer soft wares, Premiere Pro and Photoshop, were used. I considered the size, height and distance to match the objects and the video image.

There were simple narrations related to the concept. Voices were distorted, and it sounds strange. I intended to jangle on audience’s nerves to deliver the message. No one is talking to us about the truth, but ideal voices always talk to human regardless of the space and the time.

Studio class mates, Lilly Buttrose, Joe Carter and Joan Boylan helped me to record the narration. We talked about the concept, voice tone and speed of speaking. I appreciate them.

Graphic soft wares: Premiere Pro, Photoshop

Classmates Joan, Lilly and Joe helped me to record the narration.

I made 6 timber frames to present a video installation art.

Corner claps was so useful to make the precise corner frame, and also it need for safety.

Preparation of material and tools.

: Timber Thickness 4x2cm, length 180 cm.

slide compound saw,

drill and screws

corner clamps’.

Final installation in the lecture room.

Artists Statement

Project: Collaborative Installation in public places

Daniel Jo and Joan Boylan collaborated as we enjoyed each other’s thoughts and ideas in the first installation project with the class. We looked at possible sites across the City West campus and watched the number of people passing through, the structures and the paths people take within the building. We were interested in a work near the Library and found a thoroughfare where we could safely hang items from the staircase balustrades and have enough height for the work to hang above the heads of passing viewers.

Firstly we shared some Contemporary Art and Arte Povera installation art research and gradually narrowed the opinions about the main concept. We both were interested in nature and human intellectual growth, and start creating alternatives based on our discussion. A number of clay heads would hang with closed eyes at the level of a tree root while wax eyes would flower on the tree branches.

Each head has closed eyes which can be interpreted several ways. They seem to be thinking, meditating or growing. They are connected with the root, and the tree bears many eyes like fruits. Students in the university are growing like this. They are learning the ability to see the universe through having many points of view. They close their physical eyes, but they can see the universe by many views beyond physical phenomena. We tried to display this idea by metaphysical expression, and wanted to suggest the question to the audience: why have they closed eyes and yet the tree bears the grotesque eyes like fruits. In Homer’s odyssey, there is a monster ‘Cyclops’ who has only one eye. A monster is not a person who has different appearance, but a person who has one point of view like Cyclops. The growth means having many views like these eyes on the tree.

We each agreed to use a skill learned previously including a 3-dimensional making technique that Daniel has experience in as well as his interest in Classical Greek mythology. Joan made wax sculptures last semester, has a place in the country and knowledge of the right type of tree in its recently dead state that still had horizontal root growth shape.

We have worked up a mould of a head with recycled clay and put glad wrap over it then covered it with air drying clay to make the shell of the head. Seven heads were generated considering the anatomy of the human head. Daniel tried to express the shape of a realistic head, so muscles and wrinkles were sculptured delicately. Also we considered the angle of audience’s view and anchored a loop before the paper clay is dried out.

Joan melted wax then pour it over partially inflated balloons to create a 3-dimensional eye shape. A wax crayon were melted to add colour to the iris of each eye. There were several trial and errors, and finally a wire was inserted to create an egg shape of eye and its branch. The dead acacia tree was carried from Yorke Peninsula. The shape of tree was reflected in our thinking. The colour palette remains neutral in keeping with the colour of the tree, the wax and the human heads.

We really enjoyed creating work not only the final result, but the whole process of the project including site research, artist research, discussion, art criticism with Bradley Lay, creating details and installation.

References

Birch, Stephen. Looking out my backdoor, Sydney: Museum of Contemporary Art Australia, 2007.

Christov-Barkagiev, C. ed. Arte Povera, London:Phaidon Press Limited, 1999.

Judith, Collins. Sculpture today, London: Paidon Press Limited, 2007.

Knights, Mary. Hossein Valamaesh: Out of nothingless/ Mary Knight and Ian North, Adelaide: Wakefield Press, 2011.

Smith, T. Contemporary Art: world currents. New Jersey: Laurence King Publishing, 2011.

Collaborative Installation

Writer: Daniel Jo. (Collaborator: Joan Boylan)

It was so lucky for me to work with Joan for the collaborative installation project. Before starting the project I was bit cautious for teamwork, because I had many experiences of collaborative works for architectural jobs and I knew that it was quite a sensitive thing. But Joan has quite an open mind and positive when it comes to the conceptual ideas and sharing them.

Firstly we looked for the site for installation, and briefly planned a schedule. At the first meeting, we shared many ideas and examples in the library and discussed about each one’s interests. Detailed examples and sketches were quite helpful to narrow the ideas, and gradually we understood mutual interests. Joan was interested in organic and sustainable ideas, and I was interested in philosophical themes. We tried to find the common ground and created the ideas. There were three meetings with Dr. Lay, and we developed our idea through several sketches and examples.

We both tested materials and techniques, and found that Joan is quite good at painting and she has abundant knowledge of wax making. I was confident of 3d-forming technique, and tested the forms. I was totally satisfied with her styles and techniques in terms of shape, texture and colour. We also discussed about shape and size of tree. She suggested an acacia tree. Acacia trees have strong roots and it makes the soil enduring against strong wind. So they were often planted on the barren soil, and their nitrogen fixing capacity leads to it being a ‘pioneer’ tree. This idea quite befit with our concept, and she brought a tree from Yorke Peninsula. We thought that deep roots are similar to human’s deep thinking, and this makes human valuable existence. Maybe the audience wouldn’t know the meaning of the detail of background story, but it was just one of our pleasures as a collaborative process of work.

Our concept is talking about human’s intellectual growth and enlightenment. Like the concept, we had a view of eyes to know each other, and we enjoyed the whole process of the project.

Hans Haacke (born August 12, 1936) is a German-American artist who lives and works in New York.

Helmsboro Country (1990): silkscreen prints and photographs on wood, cardboard and paper box: 30 1/2 x 80 x 47 1/2 in (77.5 x 203.2 x 120.7 cm); cigarettes, each: 6 1/2 x 6 1/2 x 69 1/2 in (16.5 x 16.5 x 176.5 cm)

German artist Hans Haacke is known for taking uncompromisingly critical positions in high-profile exhibition sites around the world. In the 2000 Whitney Biennial, for instance, he exhibited Sanitation, a text-based installation of quotes from New York's former mayor and current Republican presidential hopeful Rudy Giuliani. In the piece, Haacke attacked Giuliani for his aggressive public maneuvering against the highly publicized Brooklyn Museum show Sensations of the previous year, which featured Chris Ofili's expressive rendition of a black Madonna adorned with bits of dried cow dung. In Haacke's installation, three quotes from the former mayor were reproduced as a wall-text in Fraktur Gothic, a typeface popular with the Third Reich, in front of a row of garbage cans out of which emitted the sounds of marching troops or an advancing army. The installation incited a kind of ruling-class furor from both the Giulianni camp and at least one of the Whitney heirs and namesakes of the museum who rescinded her planned $1 million donation to the museum for that year and threatened to dissociate the family name from the institution.

Assignment-3. Space and Site

Several materials were tested, and we learned that paper clay is good to create shape and texture. Also it dries out fast. The face size is about 8 x 17 cm.

1. Make a shape of face roughly by clay (recycle clay).

2. Wrap the clay to separate the clay from white paper clay.

3. Spread out white paper clay and cover the wrapped clay.

4. Create a face and details (closed eye, ears, mouth, nose, wrinkle, spot and so on)

5. Drive a small ring on the top of the head to be able to hang later.

6. Cut the skin half. (later, paper clay becomes very solid, then it's difficult to to separate)

7. Make the skin smooth by finger of water.

8. After dry, separate skin from the wrapped clay, and combine them with paper clay.

# Assignment-1: Alumination.

The Roman poet Ovid recreated the Greek myth about Narcissus, who is depicted as a beautiful man, and many nymphs fell in love with him, but he rejected them. One of the nymphs, Echo, was so distraught over the rejection, and she faded away as a plaintive whisper. The goddess ‘Nemesis’ heard the rejected girl’s prayers, and she put a curse upon Narcissus to fall in love with his own reflection. He stayed watching his reflection and let himself die.

Later Caravaggio (1571-1610) reinvented the story, and painted ‘Narcissus’ in 1599. In his picture he is looking the illusion reflected in the water. Then if you look carefully at the reflection, the face looks doleful, gloomy, old and wrinkled.

I received hint from Caravaggio’s idea that a mirror reflects a distorted image in a viewer’s eyes. A mirror reflects people’s mind rather than the truth. In Caravaggio’s work, Narcissus watched the gloomy part of his inside rather than his beautiful feature. When we are looking an image, we are looking the feature that we would like to see. These two objects are facing each other. One of the faces looks rough, and the other is bit more delicate. But it is not clear that which one is original and which one is an reflector. It depends on the audiences’ view of reflection.

The shape of mirror was made simple rectangle to convey the idea clear. The aluminum foil is quite fragile, so it is fixed by fishing lines from 7 points, and each head is held by 2 wires not to be turned on.

Narcissus, by Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio (1597~1599)

Drawing for Installation

Material: Aluminium foil, Fishing line

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