Josiah – Emo

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1. Fragile –

Delicate and vulnerable; easily broken.

Technique: Tearing pieces of black paper and piecing them back together, slightly further apart.

The lines of the broken paper give off the tense feeling of everything about to break apart. The sharp and jagged edges accentuates the need to be gentle and careful towards vulnerability.


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2. Anxiety –

A feeling of worry, nervousness, or unease. Walls closing in around you; like being pierced by the very air around you.

Technique: Monoprinting with white and black paint.

The sharp and heavy white lines cut across the paper – like the piercing sensation in your lungs when you have difficulty breathing. The grey spots almost seem to creep out from the paper, giving the feeling of unease. The layers and layers of black paint slanting walls close in – suffocating.


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3. Exhaustion –

Fatigued; low on energy. “Shag, cannot think” – Every Singaporean son.

Technique: Different sized marker pens and blind drawing.

The lines make little sense and also progressively get fainter. Strokes get shorter and more half-hearted. The short strokes also occasionally sink lower, getting fatigued. This creates the effect of feeling exhausted.


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4. Rage –

Violent, uncontrollable anger. Expressive and explosive negative energy.

Technique: Crushed charcoal glued on paper.

The marks made look almost like an explosion from a point the causes debris to fly in all directions. The debris even bounces off the left side of the paper, ricocheting back. It seems to start off centre to accentuate movement. Similarly rage is erratic, uncontrollable, and explosive.


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5. Desperation –

A state of fear that results in rash or extreme behaviour; potentially losing one’s sense of self in the process.

Technique: Sand glued on paper.

The ink blotches loses its sense of self as it is dragged backwards while trying desperately to stay ahead. In the process of doing so, it gets ripped apart. The tiny black sand gives the sense of chaos that is tearing the ink blotches.


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6. Turbulent –

Confusion, disorder, and disorienting.

Technique: Tea leaves glued on paper.

The tea leaves  start off as dark swirls of confusion that become lighter as it gets dragged by the forces around it. It starts off at the bottom of the paper before immediately being swept off the ground, unable to land for even a moment.


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7. Despair –

The complete absence of hope, like being stalked by the abyss.

Technique: Letting flame from candle lick the paper.

The lone black dot is stalked by the burnt marks and brown lines of the abyss – the unknown darkness. Just being there in a form of stasis, there is no hope.


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8. Patience –

The absence of annoyance and anxiety; inner peace and calm. Tolerant.

Technique: Marker pen and ruler

The straight continuous line moves along with no quarrel to its destination. The white space gives off the feeling on lightness and inner peace of the black line.


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9. Jolliness –

Happy and cheerful.

Technique: Dripping Citronella oil on paper, then tracing with marker pen.

The bubbly, bold blobs are just floating around in space, having the time of their lives, doing what they please.The variations in thickness of the lines give a 3 dimensional feel to it, making it look at though the blobs are floating around.


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10. Nervousness –

Sweating at the thought of your worries, typically about an imminent event or something with an uncertain outcome.

Technique: Rolling gel wax on paper to form a layer on the paper, then applying a flame to certain areas to remove the wax. Lastly using a marker pen to colour over the exposed area.

The paper is reflective, looking like it is sweating at the impending dark, unknown, unfamiliar blocks that look like they are approaching fast. The empty space is a metaphor for being at a loss for words like the mind blanking out at the thought of the imminent event. The dark blobs get lighter as it approaches the white space, showing that the worries are less scary that we imagine them to be.


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11. Eagerness –

Keen interest and excitement; sparks of high energy.

Technique: Coffee glued on paper.

The mini explosions are trying to contain itself but alas, eagerness gets the better of them and they burst out into smaller bits. The small bits look like a wave flowing through the mini explosions, like being carried by the excitement.


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12. Indifferent –

The absence of emotion.

Technique: Monoprinting with linoleum board.

The paint marks have no beginning, middle or end, just the paint of uniformity and towards the right side, wiping itself off of having any emotions.


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13. Contentment –
Being in a state of tranquil happiness; satisfied.

Technique: Tea leaves glued on paper with masking tape, which was later removed.

The bars of the tea leaves and the white space may vary. There might be discomfort within the bars, shown in “noise” of the tea leaves, but the bars of tea leaves still remain vertical, tranquil, and happy.


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14. Melancholy –

A feeling of pensive sadness, typically with no obvious cause.

Technique: Charcoal on paper.

The faint lines thrash in the pain of sadness, seemingly being attacked by the darker marks. The lines seem to have no beginning, it just exists and it experiences the pain.


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15. L’appel du vide –

The feeling you get when you, for example, see a car driving by and have the sudden urge to jump in front of it. “Anyone whose goal is ‘something higher’ must expect someday to suffer vertigo. What is vertigo? Fear of falling? No, Vertigo is something other than fear of falling. It is the voice of the emptiness below us which tempts and lures us, it is the desire to fall, against which, terrified, we defend ourselves.” – Milan Kundera, The unbearable lightness of being

Technique: Using the foam netting used to wrap apples in, stretching it out and spraying spray mount onto the paper, before pasting tea leaves onto it. As a result, only certain areas of the paper has tea leaves stick to the paper.

The white space in the centre is being lured into the hypnotic lattice of the void. The white space is turtled up in defence but the call of the void is strong and has begun penetrating the white space.


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16. Grief –

Deep sorrow, especially as a result of the loss of someone’s life.

Technique: Letting flame from candle lick the paper – even burning it a little.

A hole is burnt with the loss of someone. What follows is the deep, dark, shadowy embrace of sorrow – calling out to the scars left by grief. Eventually, grief passes and wounds heal, but the scars remain – represented by the grey marks and the burn marks without holes.


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17. Compassion –

A gentle feeling of fondness; the kind of love without expectations.

Technique: Marker Pen on paper.

The pillowy embrace of the curved elements endures through the cutting pains of loving,


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18. Paranoid –

Delusions of persecution and a general distrust of others; a form of illogical fear.

Technique: String glued on paper, with dirt loosely scattered on.

The wormy lines of the string give goosebumps on the paper; overwhelming it even. The strings are harmless but it still gives off a sense of unease. The “dirt” on the paper, complimented by the wormy lines, give off the feeling of being buried alive.


 

 

Honourable mentions

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Confusion
Feeling as if you can’t think clearly. Disoriented and having difficulty focusing. Incoherence of thought.

Technique: Pen on paper.

Random styles including dots and lines and swirls make it difficult to focus. There is a lack of coherence in the overall make up of the lines and marks – coming off as disorienting.


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Depaysement

Being without a country. Exhilarating and disorienting swirls of giddiness from being an outsider.

Technique: Tea leaves glued on paper.

The swirls give rising up spinning around, like a roller coaster, but being swept to the side in the midst of it.


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Dejection
Heartbroken and feeling down.

Technique: Monoprinting with paint on lithium ion batteries.

The balls of black get heartbroken and it feels like a hole in their chest. They get broken and sink to the bottom of the paper as nothing more than dots of black.

So, you could say Dejection got dejected. How poetic.

Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf

I spent the weekend trying out all sorts of mediums to create my lines. The results are as follows:

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It was only much later in the day when I realised that light brown is not going to work. So I decided to paint over the sand.

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I also tried using the nasty nasty stuff inside cigarettes to create something that I felt would give off an off-putting vibe. Again, the colour was a darker shade of brown and adding black paint would have just felt a little too forced. I really thought that it could have been something.

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This was a weird one. I had gel wax lying in my room (don’t ask), so I played around with trying to apply it on the paper. It did not stick so I wrapped the paper in cling wrap. The cling wrap just over powered the entire piece and the wax was looking more 3-dimensional than I would have liked, so I rolled the wax down onto the paper until it formed a thin layer. The resulting effect in quite unique.

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Excuse the blurry photo

I made attempts to use coffee beans and tea leaves to create interesting pieces. Though the result is slightly more 3D than I wanted, I feel that it would hold up when looking at it from a 2D perspective.

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One of the several attempts at using tea leaves on paper to express the feeling of bliss or tranquility.

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The mess made from using the tea leaves. No email complaints sent so we’re good.

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Just before night fell, I took the picture of materials I used. Red candles were no good but I used the flame to create burn marks on the paper. I also tried burning charcoal to then make marks on the paper but not much happened. Lastly, I tried using this indian incense thing (name of which escapes me) given to me by a friend for a shoot that never came to be. The smoke was promising but alas, nothing happened to the paper.

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The charcoal on paper did not give me anything to work with organically.

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Why light a candle and drip wax at night when it’s dark outside? Because it would have been too easy otherwise.

With all my experimentation done, it would now be time to select my final pieces.

When You Try Your Best

But you don’t succeed.

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When you get what you want // but not what you need.

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Long story short, it doesn’t work. I bought hard parmesan cheese in the hopes that it would stay together when trying to wedge a wafer in. It crumbled.

The wafer was no help either. I thought that the wafer, being light, would be manageable for the cheese. I was wrong.

I couldn’t even get the grape in because the first part would not work.

I then collapsed on the floor in exhaustion next to the wafer crumbled cheese.

I tried.

Hakuna Masala

Since making prata and cooking chicken is not particularly feasible in the time between Critical Writing and Foundation 3D, here is the product in all its digital splendour.

The light, crispy prata wedged into the skewer of tender tandoori chicken, with a ball of garam masala embedded into the prata which dissolves onto said prata when the curry is drizzled over it.

Food for Thought

Haha! Witty title because we’re talking about food. Is the title in any other way relevant? No.

Let’s dig in!

I spent the weekend thinking about what kinds of food would work in my model for Atlas.

The first thing that came to mind was prata. Indian food is amazing. I thought about letting the crispy prata wedge into a skewer of tender tandoori chicken with a ball of spices that just break open to titillate your senses when the curry is poured over.

Then of course, I realised that I wanted to make something that didn’t require so much work considering the fact that I have Critical Writing class before 3D.

Desserts. Dry desserts tend to be easier to work with right? Maybe teatime snacks?

I thought about slicing a croissant in half to be used as the cone, with a disc of solidified chocolate. As for the subordinate flavour? A single coffee bean to provide that special kick to the entire dish. Again- all well and good, but how well I would be able to work with chocolate? I really don’t know – especially with time constraints

So down to my final idea, which will probably stay that way: a very local take on the tea time snack of cheese and crackers.

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Tada!

Okay it’s not going to win any Michelin stars but the effort was there.

Now I have to explain what exactly you are looking at. The disc, for non-locals or if you are just too young, is a Biscuit Piring Wafer – a snack that most Singaporean are all too familiar with. The cone is the cheese of choice and that little reddish dot is a single grape to cut through the creamy richness of the cheese.

Now, I just have to hope that this will stay assembled on Friday.

Curves and Endurance

In which the featured image was not shamelessly taken from the internet.

Curvilinear Volumes has been challenging for me so far. Simply for the fact that I am not that great with the foam cutter. It has been frustrating trying to make the foam models that I envision. I don’t mean to complain, but that’s just how it has been. Understanding visual hierarchy is only a tiny fraction of the troubles in the transition from rectilinear to curvilinear volumes.

Nevertheless, the foam models emerged.

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My neighbour
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The light cannon
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Atlas: The Titan

Of the three, I liked the Atlas: The Titan and My Neighbour. I decided to work with Atlas as my final model. In my opinion, it has the most potential.

Atlas: The Titan was eternally condemned to stand on the Western side of Gaea (Earth) holding the heavens on his shoulders. Atlas was also the Titan god of Endurance – A characteristic that I need so much more of.

I am strong. I can do this. I am become Atlas.

I will work on the 2D sketch analyses on The Light Cannon and My Neighbour, and fix up a proper final model for Atlas.