n10997831

[n10997831]

Sougwen Chung

Installation/Exhibition Series Vancouver Art Gallery

Exhibits a research that links humans and machines in a compelling collaboration

Human and machine meet to make and create art

Performance art - video documentation of collaboration

Intriguing design-based elements

[n10997831]

Chantal Gibson Untitled (Redacted Text)

Vancouver Art Gallery

Installation incorporating books as a material and the process of redaction

A series that I can relate to my own practice, yet reveals methods in which I can expand my approach to text

E.g. Instead of using individual pages from a book, use the entire object (as seen in Gibson's work)

[n10997831]

The Imitation Game

Vancouver Art Gallery Exhibition

Installation following a chronological narrative that first examines the development of artificial intelligence, spanning from the 1950s to present

Featured Artists and Artworks

An installation of text, to which I have related to my body of work across the semester

Ada Lovelace "Note A" to "A Sketch of the Analytical Engine invented by Charles Babbage" by L.F. Menabrea, published in Richard Taylor ed., Scientific Memoirs, Selected from the Transactions of Foreign Academies of Science and Learned Societies, and from Foreign Journals, 1843

Single page of text with black background

Alan Turing "Computing Machinery and Intelligence," Mind: A Quarterly Review of Psychology and Philosophy Vol LIX, no. 236, October 1950

Series of two images stacked atop each other

[n10997831]

Experimentation Influenced by Raoul de Keyser

Higher focus on design elements, rather than abstract shapes and expressions

Repeating series; nine different iterations

Different focuses; shape, line, movement, negative space, layering and balance

Black and white monochromatic

Area/s for Improvement

Employ different mediums (like Raoul de Keyser)

More focus on abstracted expressions with medium rather then the design quality?

Upsize scale? Or create a large series based on the mini-canvas outline

Opportunity to employ colour; different inks/pens/canvas-colour etc.

[n10997831]

Artist Research + Experimentation with Pattern/Design

March 7, 1990, 2022 Pencil, Ink, Gesso Raoul de Keyser

Whilst my current practice hasn't predominantly focused on pattern-based design, I was still drawn to this installation/exhibition for its boldness in visual elements (bold black against stark white).

Abstract design of Keyser contrasted against my more literal approach

Reminiscent of previous work Impressions In Text

Repeating singular grid structure/formatting (more spaced out)

Research of Work

Geometric forms

Focuses on the invigorating action of scribbling (process)

Combination of intention and inadvertency visualised in mark making

Selective and concise iterations of Keyser's bigger body of work

Sharpens senses towards shapes, colours, textures and size

[n10997831]

Scattered Images | Detailed Images

[n10997831]

Scattered Images | Digital Print

[modification] of previous letter/text-based work

Images taken across installation of MDF letter-based installations

Exhibiting the same/similar design in a different format

Skin-like shades in background tones, reminiscent of tattoos printed on skin

Horizontal and stretched out installation design, as opposed to the wide and vertical install of [Untitled]

Black-lettered pattern

Varying warm shades, suggestive of skin tones

Reminiscent of animal print when viewed from a distance

[n10997831]

Experimentation | Part 3 | Video 2 of 2

The world as a blur, text as a constant

[n10997831]

Experimentation | Part 2 (of 3) | Video 1 of 2

Travelling through the studio using text as a lens

[n10997831]

Experimentation | Part 1 (of 3) | Combining Works

Experimental images combining two previous works

Cut-out text MDF boards used as a lens to view the behind scatter of text

Text within text

Formatting of experimental photography series is inspired by Lukas Quietzsc's gouache on linen series titled 'Parallel Warnings In Simple Arrangements', specifically the panel below:

[n10997831]

Impressions of Text | Acrylic Paint on Cartridge Paper (A3; Off-White)

Paper used as a base/protective sheet whilst painting the MDF letters seen in previous installations

Organic strokes and brushes of paint contrasted against the mechanical and industrial construction of letters

Stark black and white contrast

Movement and action in paint

Repetition and pattern constructed in the dotted impressions

[n10997831]

Concept or Construct | Found Material; Functioning Analogue Clocks (11) and Watch (1)

A series of clocks with their own individual and unique characteristics, each presenting a different time

Characteristics based on differing designs and connotations audiences connect with object material (e.g. simplistic design of plastic white wall clock associated with a school classroom)

Observing clocks as a material and/or object, as well as in their functioning setting (a teller/dictator of time)

Exploring concepts of time, whilst psychologically real, it is not fundamentally real

Audio plays a significant element within the work, viewers are consumed by the "ticking" of all twelve clocks, emphasising a sense of and consciousness of time passing

Audiences are consumed by a wall of clocks, each telling an incorrect time to the (socially accepted) "correct" time; viewers are left wondering "what time is it?"

Exploring time as a societal construct; an entirely meaningless manmade concept that we use to create a sense or order and/or structure to our lives

Device instructs us when to wake, go to work/school, eat breakfast/lunch/dinner, go to bed etc.

Highlights an idea of social constructionism

Meaningless concept made to create meaning in our lives, but to what end? For what reason? What is the point?

Promotes an existential train of thought



Area/s for Improvement

Edit and/or change all twelve clocks to resemble a fluidity in visual stimulation. Each is added upon to better reflect/emphasise the manmade aspects to time. E.g. flipping a clock upside down, removing the hands from the device and displaying, or covering the clock in painted numerals.



The concept behind the work is inspired by Joseph Kosuth's solo exhibition Existential Time, addressing the abundance of meaning that surrounds the experience of being in time, past and present. In addition to this, Kosuth also encouraged the idea to utilise and include analogue clocks within my work.

Find images of the installation below:

[n10997831]

Playful Redaction | Digital Prints 120 x A5 (15x21cm)

PART 2 PREVIOUS WORK REVISITED | MOCK UP

Format/process influenced by previously research artist/work; BANK (2022) by Simon Bedwell, John Russell, Demo Demosthenous

Digitally constructed on Adobe Illustrator

Emphasising a playful process in a redaction/addition based process

Movement, character and fluidity as opposed to the previous Mock-up which exemplified a more solid-based structure (emphasised in the redaction-oriented method of blocking)

Still repeating the action of blocking-out references to the storyline or characters in each of the pages, however, due to the design, this element is only half-achieved (lines were drawn at random)

Black/white monochromatic colour scheme has remained

Whilst visually stimulating, I believe the first mock up of this work (Beginnings: Redacted) achieved the intended message more effectively. However, this repeating pattern of curved lines is an interesting element and I would like to explore this process further in the future.

[n10997831]

Beginnings: Redacted | Digital Prints; 120 x A5 (15x21cm)

PREVIOUS WORK REVISITED | MOCK UP

Digital scans of the first page/chapter title of each of my own books

Any references to pop culture, religion/beliefs, linguistics, names of cities/countries/capitals and characters (e.g. names, roles such as sister/mother/father, titles such as king/queen), were redacted from the digital prints using Adobe Acrobat as a text-editing software

References were redacted using a black-out/block-out method

Implementing a secrecy to the work.

Plays on a curious nature of audiences to know the words being blocked from view

Blocking out individual and unique characteristics from the respective pages, leaving a strain of seemingly random words.

A series of half/almost-there stories

No inherent or obvious meaning in the written word

Original work removed the first page from its known environment (the book), and suspended its meaning and written word on the gallery wall, which worked towards creating a series of beginnings with no ending.

The revisit builds on this series of suspended beginnings, but adds a sense of incoherence to the work.

No unique identifier to each page (such as character references)

Further highlights (more effectively highlights?) questions of ownership and authorship in the written word. If the page's fundamental details and attributes (unique details that directly connect story to author) are stripped back, are these words any more mine then the authors (and vice versa).

Who owns these words?

The process of "blocking-out" is inspired by Jenny Holzer and her series Top Secret. See version 3 of the work below:

Image sourced from:

[n10997831]

Cut Out | Detailed Images

Notice: - texture and hexagonal print in the MDF board - shadowed prints on gallery wall made through casted light

[n10997831]

Cut Out | MDF Board 3mm

Three columns of two MDF boards, featuring the cut out sections of letters used in previous works

Incorporates light and shadow as an element; made with the cut-out lettering

Emphasis on negative space

Tonal values seen in the natural colours of the MDF material, in addition, burn marks and scoring from the laser-cutting machine

Industrial tones/themes; manufactured cut-outs, rather than natural expression (e.g. as opposed to physically carving these letters out)

Straight-cut/edges - solidity in its manufacturing - in regard to the overall boards themselves and the individual lettering

Warm tones in the wooden fibreboard

Height in the double panelling sections, balanced out with the three columns

Space and negative space

Hexagonal print leftover from laser-cutting machines

Texture and depth in hexagonal burn marks

[n10997831]

[Untitled] | Acrylic Paint on MDF Board

A series/collection of letters exploding/spilling out from a centre point

Corner placement; reminiscent of the cornered structure between two pages in a book

Letters/words falling out of a page

Continuing the Alice in Wonderland theme; literary nonsense presented in a nonsensical way.

Hypnotising and dizzying aspect when viewing up-close

Viewers are consumed by the repetitive black and white pattern in conjunction with the hypnotic aspect of letters repeated

When viewed from a distance, the work appears to employ a stippling technique for depth.

Black and white monochromatic palette

Scale - medium-scaled installation

Shape - the body of work as well as the individual letters/shapes

Space - space between and in letters, inverted space, overall space used for the piece

Repetition of letters

Area/s for Improvement

Larger scale (covering an entire wall, or the majority of, for example)

Range in text/font size

Incorporating capitals

Implementing a word search for an interactive aspect?