2DII Project 2: Singapore’s Chinese Garden (Final)

After doing site-research and exploration, I decided to focus on elements that made a garden a Chinese one for my infographic. It was something I found extremely interesting as I could distinctively identify Chinese Garden apart from Singapore’s many other garden’s and park regardless of them sharing similar objects.

In my class presentation, I started off by giving a brief timeline of Chinese Garden.

And the various landmarks of Chinese Garden. Some of which I have mentioned in the previous blog post.

Next, my infographic:

My infographic is a dissection of the four elements of Chinese Garden observed in Singapore Chinese Garden. This piece of dissection is then presented as a piece of “China” brought and pasted into Singapore, represented by the red and white MRT and HDB blocks surrounding the dissection.

A closer view of the dissection. I split the explanation into four elements: Architecture; Plants, Flowers and Trees; Rock Decoration; Water Element.

For the architecture, I decided to illustrate the building design I saw in the Bonsai Garden of Singapore’s Chinese Garden. Similarly for the Bonsai Plants. For the illustration of the rock element though, I illustrated it using one of the many rock table and chair sets I saw throughout the entire garden, which I found really interesting. Lastly, the water element, modelled after a pond of Koi fishes I saw in one of the Pavilions.

Final thoughts, challenges, and reflection:

For this infographic, I faced challenges of colour scheme and visualisation. My initial visualisation was just mainly the dissection zoomed in the presented. However, to make it more Singapore site specific, as it was too generic, it would be better to place it within Singapore landscape. I struggled a lot in trying to visualise how to do so. I also struggled to incorporate the information into the illustration. I think if given a chance to redo this project, I would have changed the style of illustration, and not do such colouring, as it does not reflect as well as a bigger picture.

To move on from here, I’m looking forward to the zine project next, and hope to develop my graphics and style while presenting the Singapore Chinese Garden in a creative way.

 

2D II Project 1: Que Sera Sera, Why not? (Final)

 

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The overall theme for my Project 1 is that of Taboos in Society.

In my message, there is no sense of defiance or calling to go against society by bringing up these taboos. All I wanted to conveying is a form of inquisition, a questioning of “Why not?” Why not accept these taboos topics that as such an big, integral, and most importantly natural part of life.

The jobs I have chosen act as vessels to represent each taboo topic I have chosen. They are Seamstress to represent Sexuality; Crow woman to represent Feminism; Wanderer to represent the Unknown; and Time keeper to represent Death.

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Firstly, the seamstress. Here, the medium of embroidery is used to convey the idea of the seamstress. The unfinished embroidery with the needle carefully stuck in place suggest movement of the sewing in progress. The motif of the red “A” is a reference to Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne. I chose to use this reference as within this piece of literature, the theme of sexuality vs society is widely discussed and questioned. Thus, I felt it was extremely appropriate to use that to bring out my taboo topic of sexuality. With the scarlet letter, I included the floral motif of white lilies, representing innocence and purity, to contrast and bring out the bright red sexuality of the “A” more.

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Next, the Crow woman is portrayed by the use of black feathers as a patterned print covering the entire blue background, reminiscent of sky and flight. The idea of feminism here is brought across through the medium in which the feathers are made. The feathers are made of metal sheets, and thus, even though at first glance, viewers might be fooled into thinking the feathers are soft and fluffy, they are actually strong and stiff. This mirrors the way society expects and often portray women as fragile and weak characters, they are actually resilient and dominant in their own right.

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Thirdly, idea of the Wanderer is portrayed through the extremely abstract and textured surface of the background and the metallic type. This abstract background suggests the unknown the wanderer is exploring and the metallic reflective “A” acts as a window of opportunity and encouragement for the viewers to enter this world of foreign things and changes. Thus, the concept of both the unknown and the wanderer is portrayed as a whole in this composition.

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Lastly, the Time keeper is presented in the medium of metallic embossing and foil sheet, evoking the imagery of gears, machinery, and in turn clocks. The roman numerals within the type is a combination of numbers of my different death dates and timings calculated with online death calculators, and thus, they suggest the topic of death. Furthermore, the numbers add to the imagery of time and clocks.

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The format of my final presentation. In whole, I really enjoyed exploring these new mediums for this project even though they were really time-consuming. I met many challenges in time and skills, but I learn to be flexible and handle each problem correctly. I am proud of what I have achieved, and am glad to have completed this project. Looking forward to Project 2!