Week 1-3

One week ago, before Joy gave us the brief on our project 1. It was the annual Ghost festival, every year during this month I would accompany my family to this nearby coffee shop for a massive gathering prayer with my dads longtime friend.

And the following week after Joy brief us on our assignment, I was like “eh! Why not?” and so i went back home, look through the photos I took and did some research on the ritual and things used during prayer.

Also I remember Joy showing us some of our senior work, one did her final work with tree twig, and another one did his work with fish bone. So, after brainstorming, I though “why not i create my work out of material used during the Chinese ghost festival prayers?” It’s kind of creepy I know and I don’t know if i would offend “them”. But oh well, if i didn’t steal from the one used to pray but I buy it for the project, I guess it is just a type of paper medium:)

So, I gather some materials and try it out.

After trying out, I was pretty stuck here because I thought that the strips could only consist of design make up from lines. But after week 3 individual consultation with Joy, I realize what I did previously was wrong. The line represent the strips itself and not the design in it. I also discuss my concept of using prayer material as my medium and she gave me wonderful suggestion whereby i could think about the rituals, e.g praying, splashing alcohol. to create my design.

I try with mediums like :

• Joss Sticks
• Tea
• Candle
• Rice
• Salt
• Paper Money
• Chinese Ink
• Paper Coin
• Dried Vegetation e.g Dao Gi, Facai, Tang Hoon, Mu Er
• Longan Stem
• Rambutan Stem

Since I’ve decided to use mainly Chinese Ink and White acrylic ink. I decided to play around with the paper medium and I’ve realize different paper medium fives a total different effect even with the same technique.

• Newsprint
• Paper Money (Kim Zhua)
• White Copy Paper
• Tracing Paper
• Black Paper

Back, I tried with Joss sticks. Now without the restriction of creating only lines, I finally realized how fun this project is. I have so much fun creating so many different mark making design with just only joss sticks.

Week 4

Week 4 marks the end of the Lunar Ghost Festival, as well as the week for group consultation.

I guess I was having too much fun playing with the praying material and creating different marks before the group consultation, but totally forget that the main aim of this project was to create strips that represent the emotions Love, Fear, Sadness, Surprise, Joy and Anger.

After looking at the marks created I could link them to my emotions. But now that i have decided the strips for the emotions, Problem come. How am i suppose to link my emotions to my concept. Yes I could say that this strip represent this, this strip represent that, but what does it have to do with my concept.

But my wonderful classmate gave me very very very helpful idea during group consultation. They say that I could I use the theme “外面看里面， 里面看外面”, which means how the outside (us humans) see the festival and how the inside (Ghost) see the festival. And I thought this is a wonderful idea!! And i’m so thankful for!:)

Now that I have my concept and Marks ready, it’s time to purchase some papers and construct my final work!!!