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‘One for you and one for your dog’, Tony Schwensen, 2011, performance documentation 

Research: Schwensen stood in public with his two middle fingers erected for as long as he could in an act of defiance. But even while doing such a bold act, his arms got tired and shook after 30 mins, showing the weakness of a prolonged, single rebellion. 

Inspiration: As we’re not really making art to please our audience, Schwensen’s rebellion is quite relatable. We liked his defiance of the norms and expectations, especially of art. We plan to incorporate this in one of our drawings, where the colouring in reveals itself to be a phallus, a more hidden form of rebellion that would initially go unnoticed even in a purchasable colouring book. 

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Research: Sean Kerr’s misbehaving machines use slapstick humour to entertain their audience in an unexpected manner, as though he is making art out of failures and glitches.

Inspiration: we’re playing around with the idea of glitching and failure. It’s almost paradoxical when the purpose of a work is to fail, and we’re trying to incite frustration from the audience. We want to subvert the idea that art is supposed to be liked or approved of by making it unlikeable. 

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https://www.guggenheim.org/artwork/143

‘Impossibles’ Josef Albers, 1931, sand-blasted flash glass, Guggenheim Museum

Research: originally, the use of simple colours and geometric patterns was so that the viewer could expend their focus on the trans-dimentional effect of the glass and hence question how they themselves see. 

Inspiration: we liked the minimalism and the simple use of colour and design. It’s lack of detail and simplicity makes it attractive and the images has the effect of taking form despite only being 2D. 

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Evaluation + Execution

Evaluation: The process of making the colouring book was quite simple with simple, crisp and clear lines. However, the process of actually designing it was quite complex. We were constantly questioning ourselves if the design is too simple in which it will not be successful in our aim to confuse others and making it a stressful process.

Execution: We will print out a few booklets for the students, and inform them to colour the circles in. There will be a key at the back for them to refer to. We will be playing fast paced music in the background to make them more stressed. There will also be a time limit to complete all the pages. 

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RESEARCH:

-  Alexandra Horowitz lamented in her sublime meditation on looking. Instead of mechanically applying or merely implying laws and rules of color harmony, distinct color effects are produced-through recognition of the interaction of color-by making, for instance, two very different colors look alike, or nearly alike.

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PLAN! 

- Title

- Several pages of different colour page options 

- Key

- End Page

Initially, our idea was to create a step by step guide to make a origami. The ironic purpose of this was to destress the audience, however, the origami piece would be too complex and difficult to make. We have not continued with this idea because after further research, we have found out that colouring books made to calm the audience are already existing. We are then able to manipulate this idea into making the audience even more stressed. 

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Delphine Chedru

Wonderful simple illustrative design by Delphine Chedru

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Bibliography

Antonini, J, ‘Lick and Lather’, 1993, chocolate and soap , collection of Jeffrey Deitch, New York

Kam, L, “Constructing Chinese Masculinity for the Modern World: With Particular Reference to Lao She’s The Two Mas.”. in The China Quarterly, No. 164, 2000, pp. 1062-1078, <http://www.jstor.org.wwwproxy1.library.unsw.edu.au/stable/655927?seq=2#page_scan_tab_contents>.

Ng, N, “What is Asian Masculinity?.”. in Asian Movement : Introspections on Culture and Community, , 2017, <https://medium.com/a-m-awaken-your-inner-asian/the-presentation-of-asian-masculinity-by-natalie-ng-and-shadowsweep-11583d9d09ff> 

Nomidou, V, "Let it Bleed", 2010, paper maché, cardboard, wire

Shlian, M, ‘C1′, 2008, paper <https://www.businessinsider.com.au/this-engineer-makes-kinetic-paper-sculptures-2017-1>

Smith, J, "Instruments of State", 2007-2014, money, paper maché, wire

TIMUR, K, “THE BLOOMING OF SOFT MASCULINITY: FLOWER BOYS AND K-POP.”. in Woroni, , 2017, <https://www.woroni.com.au/words/the-blooming-of-soft-masculinity-flower-boys-and-k-pop/> 

Tsikouta-Deimezi, L, “The vulnerable- strong figures by Vally Nomidou.”. in , Wordpress, 2011, <https://vallynomidou.wordpress.com/>

Tunstall, E, “Un-designing masculinities: K-pop and the new global man?.”. in the Conversation, , 2014, <https://theconversation.com/un-designing-masculinities-k-pop-and-the-new-global-man-22335>

Xu, R, “Muscularity vs. Masculinity: The Western Man’s Burden.”. in The Harvard Crimson, , 2005, <http://www.thecrimson.com/article/2005/2/15/muscularity-vs-masculinity-the-western-mans/>

Yang, J, “Asian men shouldn’t need to meet Western masculinity standards to be considered “hot”.”. in Quartz, , 2017, <https://qz.com/898521/why-cant-asian-men-be-hot-steve-harvey-perpetuates-harmful-stereotypes-about-asian-men-and-masculinity/>

Yao, S, “Review of Kam Louie’s Theorising Chinese Masculinity: Society and Gender in China.”. in Australian Humanities Review, <http://www.australianhumanitiesreview.org/archive/Issue-September-2002/souchou.html> 

Zhou, M, “Masculinity in Chinese History.”. in Monsoon, , 2005, <http://people.brandeis.edu/~monsoon/articles/zhou_masculinity.htm> 

“Asian American Manliness and Becoming Men”. in , Bigwowo, 2011, <http://www.bigwowo.com/2011/03/asian-american-manliness-and-becoming-men/> 

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Final Work

‘Saving Face’,

Paper maché and aluminium foil sculpture, 2017, Elianna Han

 In this work, I wanted to examine the binaries of financial wealth and spiritual poverty in relation to traditional Chinese masculinity and our understanding of success. The title ‘Saving Face’ comes from a common Chinese saying “mei you mian zhi”, literally translated into “no face” and used to describe those who are shameful and without honour.

In traditional Chinese society, scholars and merchants were the most flexible of classes, meaning that entire families could be elevated in social status and wealth because of their sons’ academic achievements and economic wit. It was (and still is) expected that children, sons in particular, would take care of their parents as well as their own families after growing up which was an act of filial piety, humility, respect and honour. It was on these grounds that we now have a lot of Asian stereotypes and expectations that prevail today. For example, it’s still expected that children study a lot in order to get a good job, in order to get financial security, and in order to earn enough money to ensure a comfortable life for both their own family and their parents. This is now true for both men and women who have been schooled since young to aim for a life of wealth for the betterment of their family. 

It is interesting to see how such a pure and honourable origin of East-Asian masculinity as being ‘one who can look after others’ has been perverted to become ‘one who is wealthy’. Indeed, it is no longer about masculinity but a matter of a certain kind of success that all must aim to achieve. This success is all about money, a new currency of honour. It is about having money not necessarily for one’s own benefit, but to give to others in order to sustain this image of being ‘honourable’ and ‘having face’. Is it selfless? Or is this selflessness just to mask an innate greed for status in the eyes of society?

 I see it as a different kind of poverty. It’s an ideal that pushes us to exchange money for self-worth. We’re beggars in a different way, where we need to busk to strangers and relatives alike, showing off our money and affluence to garner recognition and respect.

I created this sculpture in light of this. The image of a person bowing their head and begging while being seemingly made of or covered in money is striking as a visual paradox. The paper notes peeling off the hands and mingling with the loose $100 bills suggests that there is an over abundance of money, yet it also appears as if the hands themselves are falling apart, as if the sculpture itself were on the brink of collapse. The very reason I chose to use paper maché and printed fake money is because we regard money and wealth in very high esteem. In this age of capitalism, status is not about blood or family, but about financial wealth, and yet money in itself is really just paper. It is a fragile thing to base all our worth on, and it breaks and falls apart. I wanted to convey this vulnerability and fragility in the sculpture through the materials I used, a state that very much mirrors our own vulnerability and fragility when we see ourselves through our own material wealth.

This idea of success is, therefore, ironically not very successful at all. The words “please take generously” reflects a sense of security that comes with being able to help others because of our own wealth, as if our affluence were enough to save the world and ourselves. It is this arrogance that causes us to be blind to our own needs, and be unable to see who the true beggars are: ourselves. We are beggars of worth, as opposed to wealth, constantly seeking out approval and needing others to verify our sense of worth and honour. Success should be stronger than paper and foil, and yet this deeper success, this self-dignity and sense of worth is sorely overlooked by shinier, tangible things like money.

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Experimentation and Mounting:

I stuck the face to the inside of the aluminium foil hood with sticky tape.

I made a sign saying “Save my face. Please take generously” and used it to cover the wrists of the hands so it looks like the sculpture is both holding the sign and holding out their hands at the same time. I had some leftover money so I decided to put it into the palms of the hands to make it seem like the sculpture is offering tangible money to the audience --> money that can be picked up and touched, but is in effect worthless. 

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Experimentation:

I knew aluminium foil was another material that had ‘memory’ (as Schlian said of paper), so I decided to wrap it around a form a few times to mimic that form. I wanted the image of a person bowing and begging, but I couldn’t really use myself as a model. So I used my mum instead, wrapping the foil around her a few times and securing it with tape. It was surprisingly simple! 

I squished the foil in places to make it more compact and solid, and when I took it off her, it retained its shape. 

I included a place for the face, but not for the hands, so I’m still not sure how I should display them.

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‘Ghost’, 2007, Kader Attia

source: Saatchi Gallery

I remember seeing Attia’s work at the MCA during one of our excursions last semester, and it really struck me as interesting because of the materials that he chose to use. I would have never thought of using aluminium foil to make a sculpture. 

At first, I had thought about mounting the head and hands on a wall, but after thinking about it, I decided to make them look more like a person. 

At first glance, I had thought that Attia’s sculptures were supposed to be beggars, not Muslim women bowed in prayer. That’s what gave me the idea of making a body out of aluminium foil to resemble a beggar. I thought it had a rather ironic twist to it, having a beggar made out of money. 

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Experimentation:

Since the money on the face looked enough like newspaper, I decided to make the hands more uniform with the face and covered those with money as well. I used the same glue I used for the face, but found that I had to soak the notes for a longer time to make them fold nicely because the paper was thicker. Some of the notes were peeling off because they weren’t in a smaller shape, and it did make the hands more bulky, but I liked the effect. It was like money was literally covering and peeling off them, like having one’s hands full of money. 

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First Experiment (re-upload; for some reason the original post disappeared, so now the posts are not in order)

This idea came pretty randomly to me. I was zoning out and staring my hand randomly when I realised that hands that held out in a begging position also look very similar to hands that are giving something to someone else. The more I thought about it, the more I thought that this was actually quite true. When people offer things to other people it is usually for something in return; that is the nature of our world. We are constantly exchanging things, many of which are intangible. For example, some people might offer to pay for a meal so that the favour might be returned next time, hence instigating a kind of relationship and the unspoken promise of a ‘next time’. In my own work, I feel like people often exchange money for face and recognition, in the sense that I pay for the meal to appear more affluent and respectful. It seems like I am helping someone else and being gracious, when really there is a very selfish motive behind such an action.

I was inspired by Nomidou’s process of first making a base out of plastic wrap to create more organic shapes. I thought about Shlian’s statement that he chooses to use paper because it has a ‘memory’ in that it stays in the form it is has been manipulated into. With this in mind, I decided to use sticky tape. As anyone who has used tape before knows, once it folds over itself and sticks to another piece of tape it loses its flexibility and becomes virtually unusable. In this case, this would be an advantage to me.

Using a cheap kitchen glove to keep the tape off my skin (so that it wouldn’t stick to it later), I wrapped strips of tape around my hand, creating a mould of it as the tape thickened and layered. When I could no longer move my hand because the tape-glove had become solid enough, I used a small scissors to cut my hand out of it and then taped it back together. The final product was a plastic mould of my hand.

Bibliography:

Vally Nomidou, ‘Let it Bleed’, paper maché, wire and cardboard, 2010

Matthew Shlian, ‘C1′, paper, 2008

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Experimentation

I was really inspired by Smith’s money works, so I bought a normal costume mask from the dollar store and stuck fake money that I had printed and cut out all over it. I contemplated using Australian money, but decided on using American $100 bills instead since they have a more uniform, black and white aesthetic. They almost look like newspaper instead of money, which gave a rawer look to the piece than if I had used the more colourful Australian notes. 

 It gave a really nice vibe and had the same unfinished impression as the paper maché hands and I really liked it. 

For this version, I used more of PVA mixed with water to mould and hold the notes together, since PVA had a smoother finish than the glue stick. 

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Experimentation

I just layered strips of newspaper and glue over the tape-glove base to create a paper maché hand. Not really knowing what glue to use, I used a combination of non-toxic glue stick and hobby PVA glue. I regret not taking pictures of the glue, but I think the greatest experimentation I had in this particular process was finding the right ratio of glue. The glue itself would dry strong, but the newspaper was still too stiff, so I had to use a lot of warm water to break down the glues so that they properly mixed together and also to soften the paper and make it pliable enough to fit around the glove exactly how I wanted.

It turned out pretty well, but I’m not sure if I’m just going to leave it like that or paint over it.

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Collectively named ‘Instruments of State’, money, wire and paper maché, Justine Smith

Individually (from left to right): ‘Iran’, 2009; ‘Boom’, 2014; ‘Collateral Damage’, 2007

source: 

Smith primarily uses paper in her works, lately shifting to making works out of money instead (which is really just glorified paper anyway). She uses money to represent different countries, and the problems that plague those countries. This collection focuses on the violence and war that affects each of those countries, bringing our attention to the money and economy that funds those weapons by literally turning the money into weapons such as the grenades pictured above. 

I really like how she has used money as a sculptural form through papier maché. It really brings another depth of meaning to the work, I think because it has affected everyone’s lives and is such a fundamental part of our global ecology, just as Smith says. Everyone has it, but everyone fights for it. 

Since I’m focusing on the relationship between success and masculinity, I think that using or incorporating that image of money into my work somehow will help me explore how money is engrained in my cultural heritage and expectations.