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Preview: Catalogue

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8th - 10th of May

The main priority of the week was to finish setting up the exhibition before assessment on Thursday. Alongside this, there were other parts that needed finishing - such as the catalogue.

Monday

I found out in the morning that I was allocated quite a nice position next to the door in the studio. Majority of the day was spent filling noticeable holes in the wall and applying extra coats of white paint. I had originally anticipated getting two plinths for my exhibition, but Jane gave me one longer plinth instead. This was because having the pots on two thinner plinths would not be as secure, leaving it in danger of being knocked over. As a result, I had to change my original vision for the space and work with the longer plinth I had.

Additionally, Esther proof read my catalogue during the day. Aside from a few minor changes, she said it was fine. With the catalogue checked, I can design the catalogue in tomorrow but I think it’ll be one of the last things I’ll do.

During the afternoon and night, I finished the other two paintings as part of the series that accompanies the family tree. I was initially a bit unsure what colour scheme to pick as a contrast since the two I did previously had pinks and greens. I decided to use blue as the main colour as the subject matter for the other two paintings consisted of the sky and the ocean. The colour schemes did work well together, whilst providing a contrast. However, I feel like I overdid the detail for the painting of the sea in comparison to the others. This would be probably due to the fact that I returned to painting after weeks apart, perhaps the vision for this became a bit faded after so long. Whilst I was painting, I thought it would have been better to add more marks to show the reflections in the water. The fourth painting had the same level of detail as the first two, but generally the paintings go well together and reflect a calm mood. 

As suggested by Tilly, I added bits to the mountain painting I had previously done in order to balance out the composition. Testing it out on photoshop helped me figure out the best places to add things, however because this was an additional layer onto existing gouache paint, it did not layer very well. Unlike acrylic or oil, the paint does not really pile on top of each other. In contrast, the water activates the layer below, mixing some of the colours together. Hence, it was a bit difficult to get a true white for the additional clouds I added. I had to accept this and work with the colours below. It blended in a way that may look like shading, but I would have preferred a cleaner look. This may be a good lesson to remember the next time I paint with gouache - plan the composition more carefully before jumping too quickly into it.

Tuesday:

The morning consisted of finishing off the last painting that tied all the names together in one landscape. In order to make sure the whole series was cohesive, I took colours from both colour schemes together. I looked for reference photos online of light sunsets with a mix of light pinks and blues. Lighter shades of colour are a running theme in the works, hence the light mix of blue and pink works quite well with the rest of the pieces. This painting was in a longer format as I thought that it would sit well with the more rectangular shape paintings. Although I thought there could have been more detail, this painting was not planned out extensively, rather more of a quicker intuitive piece. Before heading to the studios, I arranged the paintings on photoshop to see what kind of layouts would be more suitable. I personally feel that the first trial with the alternating colours works better as there is more contrast.

When I went back to Wellington Terrace, I used blue tak to lay out the paintings. Placing all four in a row suited the space more as placing it two by two create too much of a gap. A copy of my comic from the zine was placed alongside. As it is the highlight of the zine, having a copy would perhaps reflect the detail better and fill the space more. Underneath the comic, John created a small shelf to sit underneath to hold two copies of the zines. Having two copies would allow more people to flick through it as opposed to only having one. The shelf is drilled slight towards the left as makes the exhibition pieces seem more connected rather than three separate parts. This decision was made based on the helpful feedback from the tutors and peers.

At night, I designed the layout for the catalogue. Since the intention was to make an accordion book, I designed the pages on one page so that the parts could be folded together. Each page was A6, a good size for a small booklet. It was difficult to find out the best ways to lay out the text in a way that made the catalogue seem more digestible. To stick to the theme of my exhibition, I kept with a earth colour scheme of three colours. This allowed me to switch around with the colours to give each section some uniqueness. In total there were 12 pages, making the entire book stretched out quite long. But I think this format suits the project as if it’s telling the whole journey and process to the reader. I’m not sure if the booklet will be very thick, since I may decided to use 200gsm for a sturdy but light outcome. To test if the format of an accordion book worked well, I printed a small trial in grayscale to look for any errors. There were some pages that were not aligned very well, hence I was able to make alterations after this. 

Wednesday:

I spent the first few hours of the morning finishing off the design for the catalogue. Afterwards, I went to woodlane to print all the pages, as well as better copies of the zine. Printing in A2 turned out to be 9 pounds, so as a cheaper alternative, I moved the pages in A3 pages. Aside from saving money, it gave me the opportunity to check if the pages and backgrounds were aligned (since I did this originally on photoshop as I do not have indesign). The pages were cut with a guillotine afterwards to ensure sharp edges. In between this time, I continued setting up my exhibition space, pinning works up and checking with rulers and a spirit level to make sure things were straight. My exhibition space seems done, just missing my catalogue hanging on the wall. Although the layout was not what I was anticipated, with the helpful advice of others, I was able to find a layout that worked well with all the work.

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Weekend Review

Tuesday + Wednesday: Working on the comic / zine design

Thursday: Tutorial, last minute editing and printing the zine

Friday: recording the process for the zine, catching up with journal entries.

Due to the bank holiday, the week was slightly shortened but I managed to finish the zine, which covers the upbringing part of the project. The direction of the zine changed as the project came along, although the changes made the message much clearer. In my opinion, it also captured the essence of my experiences more succinctly (a positive since it’s better to be clearer than ambiguous for the sake of the reader). On Sunday, I went to help paint the walls of the studio in preparation for the exhibition.

Next week will be the last week for work, I plan to start putting up my exhibition tomorrow. However, I still need to complete my catalogue and the remaining 3 small paintings that accompany the family tree. Completing all of these will require lots organisation for everything to go smoothly. I think it would be a good idea to record the process of setting up the exhibition, perhaps with sketches of possible layouts.

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2nd - 5th of May

Wednesday

Yesterday and today were essentially spent on finishing the comic. It took much longer than expected, however that is understandable since I did put quite a lot of detail especially on the first part of the comic. Additionally, quite a lot of time was spent contemplating how to write the narrative or monologue, as I was not sure which words would most accurately express what I wanted to communicate.  A large amount of the first part of the comic is spent moving frame to frame, establishing the context. This was the ‘aspect to aspect’ transition that I looked in Scott Mccloud’s book “Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art”. The book really allowed me to understand the history and different approaches to creating comics. It is an incredibly in depth book that covers aspects such as artistic style, timing and frame composition.

I believe food and the environment speaks very much of the place I grew up in. Therefore, I felt that it was important to share that from the beginning since the comic is centred around an actually memory that occurred in a restaurant. Here I experimented, showing different angles in the scene - for instance, a close up or a bird’s eye view. The way the frames were arranged were rather intuitive, really depending on the text and what kind of flow I wanted to give the comic. Admittedly, it was a interesting challenge to only use three colours along with white. There were certain frames where I did not want to repeat background colours. As a result, I had to find ways to match the colours to the scene, whilst making sure there was variety. That being said, I do feel that I chose the right colours to generate contrast in each frame.

In regards to the relationship between text and image, the ending of the comic relies more on text in order for me to express my inner thoughts to the reader. Since text was playing a bigger role in the end, I tried to use images the reinforce the messages I was trying to convey. 

In some ways it was harder to not drag the comic for longer since there could have been a lot of additional details added. But in order to stay true to the nature of memories, I ultimately decided to keep it short. From a more reflective standpoint, I could have used more interesting techniques such as ones I saw in the work of Chris Ware. But due to the length of the comic, I feel that it was slightly difficult to be too experimental. I do feel that if i keep making comics, I will be able to experiment more but I would not say my approach is entirely convention. I still think that my artistic style comes through the comic with the marks and patterns within frames.

Once I completed the comic, I began creating the other pages for the zine. I experimented with different designs for the cover, testing out textured and smooth brushes. I went with a the waves design as it matched the family tree nicely as well. Despite this, one of the designs I tested was inspired by gestural ink paintings. The image below shows the process behind designing as well as the early drafts of the comic. A lot of trial and errors was done in order to figure out which combinations were best. 

Thursday 

Today I continued designing the zine with more final touches. Originally the zine was planned to mainly contain comics based on memories but it went into another direction where it was more of an informative zine that introduced what Third Culture Kids were to others. The zine was based on my upbringing in Hong Kong, therefore it’s stated quite clearly in the first spread of the zine. For the final spread, I decided to include my interview with my friends that I grew up with. I personally found their responses very insightful and interesting, therefore I thought it would be a good way to supplement the contents of the comic, whilst exposing the perspectives of others who share the same upbringing. The whole colour palette of the zine is quite earthy with green and brown tones - as I have mentioned, a deliberate choice.

For my tutorial later in the day, I showed Tilly a printed version used as a mock up. I did not get the page orders correctly and we both agreed that the comic should be placed in the middle rather than the end. The tutorial was more of a confirmation of the things left to do because as of now, I have to finish my Catalogue and the remaining two paintings. I also mentioned that I wanted to do another two smaller paintings perhaps that would reflect all our names. With so many pieces, I would definitely need to spend more time arranging next week to see what would be best. The symmetrical approach may not work as well depending on the space that I am given.

Afterwards, I went to print my zine in the It suite in Woodlane. It was a bit difficult to figure out how to get the right settings, but the guides inside were useful. When I got back to Wellington Terrace to assemble the zines, it seemed that a small section was slightly cut off. This made it really difficult to fold, as well as causing errors (subsequently lots of fold marks). I suspect that this would be due to the fact that I used a ‘scale to fit’ option when printing, as this kind of problem did not arise when I was creating my mock up zine. I plan to print more copies again when I print my catalogue later, but this has been a good lesson that I will surely remember. 

Friday

I spent time displaying my process for this zine in my sketchbook. During the process of working, I had saved lots of images and sketches along the way. Today was simply a matter of printing and displaying the process. There were lots of loose sheets that I had printed out as tiny experiments, as well as reference photos that I used. This particular section of the project was done much quicker than others with the worry of the lack of time. However, the project was still very well informed by the research that I did during Easter where I looked at the works of Marjane Satrapi, Jillian Tamaki, Adrien Tomine, Pam Wishbow and eventually Chris Ware.

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27th of March

(Wednesday - We had a lecture about the details and dates we needed to know before the exhibition. It was simply going over what would happen on what date, as well as revising the criteria for a pass, merit and distinction)

Thursday

In the morning, I showed and discussed with Tilly the two paintings that I made based on my family member’s names. We agreed that the light pink and green colour scheme worked well with my other pieces. Tilly suggested that I could add something in between the mountains for one particular painting to balance out the composition, as there seemed like there was something lacking. The other painting in comparison has a much more balanced composition with the clouds at different positions, allowing the eye to flow from each element to the other. I agree with her suggestion and plan to try out placing a cloud in between the mountains. I will probably test it out on photoshop before hand to see how the composition will look. I know that for the other two paintings, I would use another colour scheme to have more contrast with the current two.

She also told me to make sure that I clearly labelled in my sketchbook which photographs were taken by me and what photographs were found on the internet in order to distinguish primary and secondary research. I voiced my concerns on having some kind of ‘writer’s block’ with the comic I planned to include for the Zine. So far I had collected quotes and comments from my friends about our upbringing to inspire the short comic. Tilly suggested that I could use post its to plan different frames, so that I could swap and try different arrangements.

Afterwards, I tried to experiment with ideas on photoshop in an attempt to spark some ideas. I knew that I wanted colours that matched the other pieces in the project in order to create a sense of cohesion. Green tones were quite obvious choices but I had the option between more muted tones, versus brighter tones. Using darkers shades of blue was a possibility since light blue was used as a highlight for the pots I had previously made, but I ultimately decided to stick with beige,muted green and dark green for my colour scheme. Having a two colours at the ends of the spectrum would allow for more contrast and distinct lines.

Below was the sketches that began the short comic. I began drawing sandwiches (spelt wrongly in the drawing) as I recalled how ham sandwiches were a childhood favourite of mine. Hence, I decided to base the memory on the one instance where I was jokingly called ‘white’ for liking sandwiches when I was incredibly young. This memory stuck out to me as one of the first instances where I was pushed into a category, a moment where I felt like an outsider by those around me. Starting the memory from something seemingly mundane to allude to something more serious seemed like a interesting way express my feelings and thoughts. The small drawings at the bottom are simply me testing out drawing with some of the colours that could have been used in the final piece. For the comic, I want to challenge myself and draw in a more playful manner without relying on outlines. For a lot of the other works, I have used ink to create more gestural outlines but I see this as an opportunity to create something more detailed and precise. This is the first time I am creating a comic on photoshop, hopefully this will mean that the process may be quicker than painting by hand with a quicker work flow. I’ve only reached the point where I’ve drafted the first page roughly. I’m currently trying to find the best way to phrase the narration, whilst deciding how to arrange frames.

Friday - Monday (28th - 1st):

During these four days, I was unfortunately not in Falmouth but I did spend time considering many aspects of my zine before heading back to complete it with a fuller and clearer vision.

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24th/25th of April

Monday 

I began the day by picking out compositions that worked best out of a number of thumbnail sketches. Afterwards, I sketched each design with pencil and began painting with gouache. During the process, I gravitated towards to work of Susan Yung for her gouache paintings of landscapes and the series of illustrations from a project called “Taiwan Highest Mountains“. I liked the interesting use of colours and simplified shapes when depicting landscapes. Before beginning each painting, I created some small experiments on paper to test out the colour scheme I chose. Whilst creating thumbnail sketches, I found myself drawn to the distinctive mountains found in Guilin (China) and it’s interesting form. As a result, I collected some photographs as reference.

I was inspired by the photograph above for it’s rosy light colours, with the mountains fading in the background. Hence, I deliberately picked colours that would evoke a relaxing and soothing atmosphere. The aim of the paintings is to explain the meaning behind each name, whilst conveying the beauty of the landscape. I think it also links to the idea that parents often name their children with qualities that they want the child to have. In that sense, our names reflect the wish that we could resemble the greatness of nature. Painting these landscapes also makes me think about the lecture we had about landscapes. Mountains are becoming a noticeable motif in my work and I would personally see them as watchers of time. The mountains are witnesses of the generations and the passing of our transient lives. I might decided to research a bit more about the importance of nature within the Chinese culture and what that reveals about the people within the culture and their values. 

Tuesday

Today was a continuation of the series with the second painting. Honestly, I have not been able to paint in such a way for a while. As a result, I forgot how long the process actually took. However, I did take more care to showcase my research and thinking in my sketchbook without jumping to the final outcome. So far, the two paintings have matching colour schemes since the subject matter is quite simple. Using gouache gives my work a different feel to when I use ink. Often ink lends itself more to expressive strokes and more detailed brushwork. Gouache on the other hand allows me to create more precise shapes and marks. I’m not sure if I will use the same colour scheme for the other two because a contrast could actually be quite interesting. I will have to experiment with some colour swatches before deciding. For tomorrow, I plan to add and edit to my journal and start the zine.

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2/4 Family names series

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Easter Break -

I finished painting the other two pots to complete the series of 3 for my exhibition. These two were planned with sketches and ideas from development trials. The smaller pot was a mixture of ‘doodle’ like drawings and brushstrokes that contained hints of my upbringing or personality. I tried to incorporate some text around the pot as references to phrases or specific lyrics. This was mainly inspired by Yoshitomo Nara and Grayson Perry, looking at the ways in which Ceramics can convey a story. In Perry’s work in particular, he uses his works as a way of exploring his own identity and past.

The larger pot was more focused on the formal aspect of the marks, derived from my experiments on rice paper. I was not able to create lighter washes because of the pot’s surface but the result was still interesting. The process of painting it was quite organic, similar to the first pot as I was simply responding to the materials and using different gestures to see what kind of results would come out. The shape and size of the pot allowed for larger strokes. In some ways, you can see the progression of experimentation as you look at each pot. The video attached to the post showcases parts of the painting process and the pots from different angles. I thought this was a fun way to document the process, as well as another method to showcase the final outcomes.

As for the zine and small paintings that will accompany the family tree, I did some planning and brainstorming from both. Regarding the zine, I talked to my friends over Easter about our common experience as ‘Third culture kids’ and our upbringing in Hong Kong to spark some ideas. I roughly jotted down ideas and explored the format in which I could present the zine.

The small paintings required more research, so I looked into the different ways of explaining my family names and showcasing the natural landscapes they refer to. The planning involved lots of small thumbnail sketches and reference photographs. In terms of research, I explored the ways in which people incorporated Chinese characters and imagery as this was a possible route to take. Firstly, Serena Yap played around with Chinese roofs to replace certain strokes in characters. The posters she produced were part of her “Retrospect on Chinese Clans” project which aimed to look at Singaporean Chinese and their heritage and Chinese clans that used to hold far more importance. I liked how the words that Yap chose linked well to her central goal or theme. Additionally the roofs tie very well with the focus on Chinese heritage, proving that a clean sleek design can be very effective.

I also explored the work of Shao Lan Hsueh and her creation of ‘Chineasy’. It began as an internet startup with the aim to teach Chinese in a fun and visual manner to English speakers. This format of teaching may not make one fluent, but it is a interesting and non-threatening gateway to the language. Hsueh traces back to the pictorial roots of Chinese characters as a way for learners to remember the meanings of each character. The fundamental characters are then used to ‘build’ more complex words. Presenting characters in such a way makes the learning experience very visual but engaging. This could be a possible method to showcase meaning in my own paintings, however there may be more effective ways.

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7th of April + Weekend Review

Monday: Editing family tree, preparing files ready for print

Tuesday: Research on Hiller Goodspeed and Harry Mckenzie, spraying pots, gouache paintings

Wednesday: Lecture, experimenting with ink

Thursday: Tutorial, Seminar, Research (Sampha, Tomine)

Friday: Reading Jillian Tamaki and Mariko Tamaki’s “This One Summer”

This week was mainly spent organising things, along with some research and development. First and foremost, the print arrived on Thursday and the resolution was much better than I expected. Quite a lot of time was spent on Monday was spent correcting small details to ensure the best quality and I think that came through well in the print. Additionally, the matte paper it was printed on gave a nice quality to the print as it was quite reminiscent of a scroll. Scale wise, it’s much larger than my screen print and it definitely was the kind of size I anticipated when I started planning for the project.

The research and development was spent informing the pots and exploring the different ways I could go about it. I was testing out certain colours with gouache, as well as ways of creating marks with ink. There was a lot of research on artists to inform both the comics and the pots as a source of inspiration. The other two pots were definitely a lot more planned but I was able to use what I learned from the trial to know what to anticipate.

With Easter approaching, I’d like to continue pushing forward (although having a break as well) with more thoughts on the catalogue and the other bits and pieces to make the exhibition come together.

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5th of April / 6th of April

Wednesday 

Today we had our final lecture of the course about Landscapes. It covered a lot of different areas such as the commericalised landscape or landscape and narrative. The pieces of work that stood out most to me Hiroshi Sugimoto‘s photographs of the ocean from different locations. He takes these photographs with the same horizon line, giving a sense of continuity with other photographs. The photographs in black and white film look almost abstract with a sublime quality that highlights the longevity of the ocean compared to humans. The ocean is a fixture no matter where Sugimoto travels, he in fact is the transient one passing through life and seeing the ocean from different locations. 

The mention of John Constable’s paintings of the English landscape raised ideas of heritage within the landscapes, and how there were tours to locations where he painted for comparisons to see how the landscape has changed since. To me, this brought about ideas about the permanence of certain aspects in the environment. For instance, the mountains and ocean have a sense of permanence in comparison to the transience of human life. The environment does change but it witnesses the passing of time on a larger scale to humans. I think this train of thought links quite well with my work and it’s relation to nature. I’d like to this the mountains and the sea witness the generations of people.

After the lecture, I went to discuss with Jane about the exhibition layout because I wanted two plinths for my exhibition space to hold my ceramic pots. I drew a rough picture for her to show her what I envisioned. Since the family tree is quite large, it can be the centre piece with the plinths on both sides. Additionally, I primed my wood board so that I can experiment on it.

The later part of the afternoon was spent experimenting with Chinese ink on rice paper. I wanted to see what kind of strokes and marks I could make with different brushes and washes. The experimentation was very intuitive, inspired by the previous research i did about the contemporary Chinese ink artists and CY Twombly. I played around with larger brushes with harder bristles, which generated interesting and thick strokes. At the moment, I’m not sure if these kind of marks would work well or would it contrast too much with the other designs I’ve come up with. This is something I want to discuss with Tilly tomorrow in the tutorial.

Thursday

This morning I had a tutorial with Tilly to discuss things before Easter. I wanted some advice because as I previously mentioned I was not sure if such the abstract ink paintings would work well on a pot with the other designs which were more graphic and pictorial. It seems that it would actually work well if all the pots were painted in black to give a sense of cohesion and be more reminiscent of writing or calligraphy. The light blue inside the first pot could be used on the other two to tie all the elements together and bring in another light and natural colour. The more that I think about it, I want the exhibition to evoke a sense of calmness with natural elements and colours. The works are a look into myself but the motifs and colours are very much grounded in nature. Furthermore, I showed Tilly some of my experiments with Gouache paint with paintings of mountains and landscapes. She suggested that I could paint similar things in such a way that it explains the names of my immediate family subtly without being obvious. I thought that was a good suggestion since I wanted to educate my audience. This would allow me to paint in a style I was confident in, without needing to create for instance another book to explicitly explain each part. To do this, I will need to experiment with compositions that will best hint at the meanings of the names.

Lastly, we talked about the comics that I was going to do and I got to look at Adrien Tomine’s book “Killing and Dying”. I found the comic translated from Japanese originally to be really poignant and well executed. The narrative is narrated with snapshots of landscapes from the airport to California. The narrator never appears but there’s this sense of traveling from the perspective of an individual, capturing the sights and feelings. I think that links with my ideas for the comic, as I want each one to derive from a quote from a person to reflect a memory. I’m unsure of what angle or perspective to use but that will come with planning.

After lunch, we had a helpful seminar on presentation (this was regarding our exhibitions). The clear messages I got were that firstly an exhibition does not have to have big pieces of work to be considered a successful one. The pieces can be very small but neatly arranged in a way that evokes minimalist sophistication. Another was that putting up the exhibition takes time and that the space that you’re given might change the way you put up your work. As for myself I’m not sure where I will be given but I do have a rough idea of what I’d like to do. Before putting the exhibition up, I definitely would plan different alternatives to see what is best, along with some references to artist or illustration exhibitions. With the day of the exhibition crawling closer, it is certainly helpful to start considering these kind of things.

In the evening, I did some research for my comics on the artist Sampha’s film. It accompanies his album “Process” and it references to his roots in Sierra Leone and his upbringing in Morden, London. I liked how there were parallel shots which showed this kind of duality that makes up him. Also, there were quotes from his grandma and questions such as where his parents were from. The film in incredibly personal without having the meanings too obvious. I thought the approach and aesthetics were relevant to look at, which could assist and inspire my comics. Besides this, I began recording my research on Tomine and another illustrator called Anja Wicki. She has a comic series about the ‘meaning of life’, as she looks as the routines and daily happening of life from interesting angles.

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3rd of April / 4th of April

Monday

A lot of time today was spent editing the family tree to get it ready for printing. I found company online that would print the family tree as large as I wanted it (this seemed like the better option after visiting the digital printing studio in Woodlane). In order to make sure it would not come out pixelated, I took extra care to edit the line drawings that I scanned it. I adjusted the family tree to the size that I wanted and edited with the viewing option at 100% to clean up wobbly lines. It took a few alterations to get it right, along with creating a border for bleeding and formatting the file. The rest of the day

Tuesday

I spent the first portion of the day doing research on illustrators Harry Mckenzie and Hiller Goodspeed. Both illustrators have colourful and playful works that are kept rather simple. I thought that it would be helpful to look at their works since they work more intuitively, using text and image to create endearing and relatable drawings. As for the pots, I would to paint them with more playful images and incorporate some sort of text as well.

In the afternoon, I sprayed another two pots I bought from the charity shops. These two have interesting shapes but because they were originally dark colours, they required more coats of the spray. Unfortunately I ran out of the primer so I had to order more and focus on other areas for the moment. It was quite difficult to spray the primer evenly with the wind. However I do think that it will be alright once I get another can to put another layer on top.

To generate more ideas, I started creating drawings and small paintings that could be possibly used for these pots. The trial pot that I did previously connected very well with cultural heritage, however it might be good to dedicate one pot to my upbringing. I found myself drawing and writing words that connected to Hong Kong. On the other hand, I began painting with gouache to play around with colours and natural landscapes. I chose colours that were used in my family tree and painting small trials inspired by previous research, such as mountain ink paintings and landscapes. To help assist this process, I created a kind of mood board that captured what I wanted to evoke. I am currently still unsure of what the designs will be, it will need more development which I plan to do tomorrow. 

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Weekend Review

Monday: Screen printing

Tuesday: Screen printing

Wednesday: Lecture, Tutorial

Thursday: Research - postcolonial theory

Friday: Research - Identity (postcolonial consequences), “third-culture kids”, statistics and perspectives

The first half of this week was more ‘hands on’, using equipment to screen print my family tree. The experience in itself was very valuable, supported by the the guidance of Becky at the print studio. I have never printed on a larger scale before, so that required printing on acetate and using a frame to hold the screen whilst printing. The final outcomes were quite good but the tutorial I had this week in some ways confirmed that it did not exactly fit the original vision. Instead printing in on a larger scale would be more true to the original intent of the piece.

The second half of the week was dedicated to research. Although it consumed quite a bit of time, I feel that the research that I have made really informs the work I’m planning to produce. Allowing myself to become more well informed about historic and more complex theories and issues makes me feel more prepared. In my zine with comics, I want to focus on my experience as a international student and my past memories that reflect my sense of identity. Understanding Hong Kong’s colonial past and it’s influence on the culture allows me to look more closely into my own life to see where connections are made. This means examining how the course of history has morphed me and my upbringing. It’s a very particular kind of place and culture that I have to convey through visuals and text. Hence, it would be worth considering my audience and how I want to portray things.

During the weekend, I experimented with a ceramic pot I bought from a charity shop as it was one of my ideas to use ceramics as a medium of communication. This links well to my research into the work of Yoshitomo Nara and Grayson Perry with their ways of conveying messages and narratives. The process of creating this involved spraying the pot with primer with a few layers. I feel like I could have been more careful with the spraying to give it a more even finish, but that’s something to keep in mind next time. In some ways, I do like the small imperfections that emphasise that this is something handmade or hand-painted. After the pot dried, I began decorating it whilst experimenting with acrylic paint, Chinese ink and a brush pen. I wanted to see what kind of lines and textures I could produce with different materials. Chinese Ink seemed to work best for expressive lines, while thicker shapes worked well with acrylic paint. The designs on the plot were all done intuitively besides an intention to play with marks and visual motifs in Asian art. This approach worked quite well, but I also found myself influences by paintings I had previously made in my sketchbook.

The ceramic pot worked much better than the other options I experimented with. I had previously made a clay pot as a small trial. Although it had a very interesting hand-made and organic quality to it, I felt that the ceramic pot was more clean and easier to work with. Additionally, I experimented with painting on a paper lantern with different materials. Once again testing out which methods worked best. With the lantern, I was not able to get the precision I wanted, hence with a pros and cons list I decided that the ceramic pots would be best.

The coming week I will try to continue and develop ideas for other pots. I do like the idea that whichever pot I find constrains me some sort of way, where I have to respond to it’s shape. For the moment, I am unsure whether or not I would include the trial ceramic pot in the final exhibitions. Even though it was something that was not laboured through, it seems to showcase my mark making style as well as motifs that appear in my family tree. The others would probably have more preliminary development as I do not want all of them to necessarily look the same. Also, I think there are other potential ideas I could include, crossing the boundaries between the three sections I have laid out for this project.

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30th / 31st of March

Thursday and Friday

These two days were fundamentally spent on doing research to inspire ideas and ways to capture personal experiences. This includes research on identity and postcolonial theory. For the upbringing section, I know that I would like to used ceramics (of some kind) and a zine to do this. The image below is a rough checklist of how the process of this section will go:

The final outcomes are undetermined but I plan to being the execution during the later part of next week once all the research and developmental research is complete. 

Below is a run through of my research findings from Thursday and Friday with my personal evaluation and opinions -

Different angles/ areas looked at for research:

1. What is postcolonial theory? Any links? (yes)

2. How would Hong Kong’s cultural identity be described? What about specific people in the city?

3. Do Hong Kong people identify as being “Chinese”?

4. How International school students face a number of identity issues in relation to their upbringing

Looking at these key four areas allowed me to gain a more expansive knowledge of history and events that influence phenomenon in the current day. Being able to understand the bigger picture and find where I belong in the larger scheme helps me gain a better idea of what I should be expressing in my work. It’s about communicating my own experiences but to do that I have to look at explanations and theories to help me succinctly capture who I am. 

1. What is postcolonial theory? Any links? (yes)

I predominately focused on summarising and editing the research I previously did on postcolonial theory as research for the ‘upbringing’ section. As I went through the ideas of the three key theorists I looked into (Edward Said, Gayatri Spivak and Homi Bhabha), I found was to link their arguments into my own project and some of the ideas I had. Bhabha’s ideas of mimicry and hybridity stood out to me, so I decided to read some journal articles and thesis essays on the cultural identity of Hong Kong. I felt that reading from these sources provided me with a deeper understanding on key events and players in history to explain the complexities of explaining identity. 

2. How would Hong Kong’s cultural identity be described? What about specific people in the city?

The identity crisis is not only about split personality between good and evil, but also political tensions between the colonizer and the colonized, as well as unfulfilled reconciliation between Chineseness and Britishness.

Howard Y.F. Choy (Schizophrenic Hong Kong: Postcolonial Identity Crisis in the Infernal Affairs Trilogy)

The quote above gives a general idea where Hong Kong’s unique culture comes from and the kind of complexities which arise from this. I decided to firstly familiarise myself with postcolonial theories before looking into Hong Kong specifically because Hong Kong is an interesting case in comparison to other colonised countries. However, it seems that Bhahba’s ideas are relevant when looking at Hong Kong as a case study. Aside from the culture in itself not being fully British nor traditionally Chinese, there are members of society that seem to ‘imitate’ aspects of the colonisers. Certainly, in this age people are not actively imitating but aspects of the UK have blended itself into Hong Kong. As one article from the South China Morning post put it “Western concepts became layered over Hongkongers’ core Chinese identity”. “ Some people are more Chinese than Western, some are more Western than Chinese. Having that blend really helps.” Allan Zeman notes. In a sense, everyone can not be put in the same box because many different influences and upbringings within the same city can produce different types of people who fall across a spectrum. 

3. Do Hong Kong people identify as being “Chinese”?

The South China Morning Post was a useful resource when looking for statistics in order to understand how people within Hong Kong identified as. Younger people were more likely to claim a Hong Kong identity as opposed to a Chinese one tended to be “more educated and higher in occupational status”. Personally, I feel that younger people are more likely to identity this way as they are less connected to their family members down the line who originally came from Mainland China to Hong Kong. Additionally, the way culture has evolved has made people stand by the idea that Hong Kong culture is far too different from Mainland China. A quote from Dr Beatrice Oi-yeung Lam, lecturer in sociology at Hong Kong Univeristy captured my attention:

“There are different dimensions of ‘Chineseness’ when we talk about the identification of oneself being Chinese,” she said. “A person self-identified as a Hongkonger may consider oneself as culturally Chinese, but at the same time harbour reservations about the political regime of the People’s Republic of China and how ‘Chineseness’ is framed under this political regime.

To me, that statement is something that I agree with as I do sparingly use the word ‘Chinese’ to describe myself at times, but when asked my place of origin I would always say Hong Kong and not China. I personally identify with the historic cultures and traditions but I do not agree with the political ideals and happenings in China, triggering reluctance and confusion on my part.

4. How International school students face a number of identity issues in relation to their upbringing

The identity issues I am referring to is firstly whether or not one identifies with being Chinese or a Hong Konger (or both?), along with whether or not they identify with local culture or something more westernised. I read an article by Arnold Yung from the University of Toronto called “Searching for identity: the youth of post-colonial Hong Kong’s expatriate community”. The article nailed down different types of people you would find in Hong Kong - Truly third culture youth and ethnic Chinese people who have received western education. The upbringings of these two types of people are incredibly similar. There are additionally subsets of western educated ethic Chinese people who embrace western culture more, those who straddle between both, and others who try to embrace local culture. So this question of identity isn’t only for the children of expats but those who receive a western education in a very different environments. Yung eloquently puts it simply as this:

Hong Kong’s expatriate population has played an important role in cultivating my values and education at the cost of lacking an insight in local culture and affairs

Reading the article has allowed me to see how I should be describing my upbringing and the results of it. Besides being slightly comforting to not be alone in this experience, it’s again affirming that there is not just one type of person. Each experience and upbringing is different but we all face to question of identity.

I felt that the research shown above definitely helped me gain a clearer picture of what I want to express or capture. Besides this, I want to look at artists who use comics to capture memories or days to inform the formal side. Lastly, I’ve begun looking at how musicians weave in aspects of their culture and background into their music and films. I particularly like how recordings of voices are used between songs to weave albums together, adding a personal touch. During the weekend I plan to continue this research.