Research Methods: Lisa Chang Lee
29th November
Lisa Chang Lee explores the complex relationship between nature and culture, as well as our intrinsic connection with the natural world. Through her work, she attempts to challenge the anthropocentric perspective on nature and the values associated with it. In the 29 November lecture on RESEARCH METHODS, she mentioned that her commitment to reading and understanding her position and any giving dynamic is inherent in her approach to making work. At the same time, she records things that flow through her mind, from taking photos and making notes to fleeting thoughts, how she develops ideas, and how she makes sense of the world through visual memories and captures of fleeting experiences. These image as reflection of herself and she revisits those moments when deciding how to construct a body of work.
I think this absolute digging into one's own position and the quick capture of fleeting perceptions is a fascinating form of creativity, which retains a great degree of rigorous rationality and poetic sensibility in its creation. It reminds me intuitively of BLUETS, a novel based on autotheory (the basic theory of my current work, Introduced in Critical Reflection section)-which is a "formal experiment" that contains an arrangement of 240 loosely-linked prose poems which Nelson refers to as “ ropositions”(2009). Fleeting perceptions is like the keyword of "propositions", and the absolute understanding of any giving dynamic is just like the core of philosophical and personal meditation on the blue that is always at the centre of BLUETS.
Lee's works carry her personal journeys into landscapes, the weight of cultural history, and the continuity between the past and present. From the time she from Beijing to London, her work Seeing is Believing piece responds to the re-examination of identity in the form of Braille or the collision of Taoist cosmology with religious paintings and Renaissance pictorial narratives. Lee's approach to creation has certainly inspired and validated the practice of “the core” of autotheory. It also reminds me of what my tutor said to me during the group crit: "Don't try to find a certain element to unify your work, but rather, let yourself be the 'unity'."
Paul Coldwell : Thinking through drawing
29th November
In the lecture Thinking Through Drawing, professor Pual Coldwell analysed the focus, methodology, and philosophy of different artists in their work. From Philip Guston's focus on the relationship between objects and the edge of the paper as a line to Morandi's focus on shadow, and space around objects. From Kathe Kolloritz seeing beauty in hardship, suffering, and death, putting her own strong emotions and deep compassion for the sorrow of others in paintings, to Hokusai's work on the celebration of "twilight years" of a man's life; expressing the understanding and subtlety that comes with a lifetime of looking at the world. By explaining the different formal aspects that could be focused on, I have gained a deeper understanding of how to interpret works of art.
As a point of comparison and absorption, I reviewed the solo exhibitions of Philip Guston and Morandi that I saw in 2023. I start to think about the motivations for the two artists' different focuses in representing objects and the changes in creative development. One similarity is that after facing World War II or great inner turmoil, both artists simultaneously simplified the compositions to an extreme: Guston turned to increasingly abstract compositions while Morandi only concentrated on just a few forms of objects laid out with minimal but continuous variations. These transformations took place over time, and their goals and developments became progressively less relevant to the acquisition of fame. I can't help but wonder if artists are the group of people most responsive to the perspective of most observers in the context of war and social change. Even though most of what they depicted were objects of the material world, could the simultaneous turn to abstract, minimalist imagery among them be considered a commonality of the human mind in forms of artistic presentation in particular circumstances?
Similarly, can we look at our inner transformation while our painting style and focus change, find something principles to the drawing, find the benchmark in the right direction, and think through drawing? Just as Pual mentioned in the lecture, "We need to give others an opportunity to stand in our shoes, to see the world we see." This may be the collective subconscious of an era, and the brush in the hands of the creator is the outlet for this change and demand to be presented.
The work of Morandi shot at Bogotá Museum of Modern Art, 2023
The work of Philip Guston shot at Tate Modern, 2023
Artist Talk: Fay Ballard
23th November
Hassan II Mosque, 2024,
Photographed in Casablanca, Morocco
Fay’s studio practice is centred on drawing, underpinned by an interest in psychoanalysis. She believes that drawing is both a conscious and unconscious act and is interested in psychological ideas about the creative process. During the talk, she introduced us to different periods of creative content and the corresponding inspiration. As I am now in a transitional period from illustrative narrative to fine art creation, I paid particular attention to the transformation of Fay's work and what is behind her paintings.
Fay's previous autobiographical work explored memories of her childhood growing up after her parents died. The objects that hold the memories are reproduced in immense detail on large format paper, taking the theme of art as reparation, exploring the notion of personal belongings being companions to our journey through life and 'Mending the Psyche'. The first thing that comes to mind is Hideko Yamashita's notion of ‘Dan Sha Ri’（Decluttering & Detaching）, even if it's outside the realm of art-making: she categorises people who cling to objects as escaping the present, clinging to the past, and worrying about the future. I'm not judging whether one state is superior to the other, but I've genuinely perceived that being caught up in an object's obsession and freeing oneself from it are two very different states, and I feel this is reflected in Fay's later work.
Fay has been working on a series of concentric circle drawings that began after a trip to Iran to see the early archaeological mud and brick settlements, the ancient brick caravanserai and the mosques with their domes of paradise. She also spent a week in Morocco on an intensive course learning to draw Islamic patterns in Fez. These concentric circles remind me of the mandala used by Swiss psychologist Carl Jung for psychological healing, which allows the painter to better understand the self, return to the self, and spontaneously have a psychological healing effect.
The Royal Mausoleum of Mohammed V, 2024, Photographed in Rabat, Morocco
I also traveled to Morocco in the winter of 2023-24 and visited the ancient city of Fez, the Royal Mausoleum of Mohammed V, and the Hassan II Mosque, and was struck by the grandeur of the religious architecture and the beautiful Islamic patterns. I saw these patterns with this statement: The beauty and complexity of Islamic geometric patterns are deeply connected to spirituality and symbolism. Believed to reflect the underlying order and harmony of the universe, Islamic geometry is a manifestation of the Divine. The combination of countless geometrical figures represents the existence of an infinite being beyond the visible material world. The myriad geometries symbolise God's infinite, world-filling creative attributes. The process of creating Islamic geometric patterns was often considered a meditative practice, involving a deep focus and concentration. It was believed that by engaging in the artistic process of creating complex geometric patterns, artisans could attain a state of spiritual elevation. It is believed that contemplating these patterns can lead to a sense of transcendence and spiritual enlightenment.
I can't help but wonder if the power of the spirit world is embedded in the repetitive, rule-based process of Fay. Like sitting in Zen, meditation, the Japanese Karesansui in wabi-sabi aesthetics, or polishing the stones of printmaking or the ink of a printing plate over and over again, can it find a similar experience in the process of experimenting with printmaking? The concept of concentric circles gives me good examples as a physical presentation of the concept of spirituality, it was also an acceptance and healing of the present moment and inspired me to work on a series next.
