2d Project 2 Final

Identitty

I chose the subject matter of breasts as I felt like the topic of breasts is very It’s mostly a taboo topic and usually it’s also a very personal topic but I wanted to explore the various points of view towards breasts.

FIRST PERSON POV

Breasts in the point of view of a Male-Female Transgender is One Step To Completion.

For this work I used the puzzle pieces to create the idea of ‘missing pieces’. The puzzle pieces were arranged to outline the flesh and mimic the body shape of women (Curves) and to have a masculine image underneath the puzzle pieces where the breasts would be and to have the outline of the breasts. This was both physical and metaphorical in sense that it is a physical transition but also an internal transition and I felt that the idea of using the puzzle pieces allowed the idea to be better conveyed and not become too ‘science textbooky’. The pieces arranged on the face is also slowly coming together to form a new identity. For this work I had to cut up puzzle pieces to fit the body outlines. I wanted this work to also have a background different from the rest because I wanted to represent a sense of void so I used black and felt like it was more appropriate for this work alone.

Personal Thoughts :

This was actually my favourite out of all the six because I just think the use of puzzle pieces here really fit and it was actually the first concept that was solidified so I was really excited to work on this one. I also had problems regarding the wordings because I wanted to be accurate in the portrayal of breasts from the POV of a transgender and at first I was thinking ‘Completion’ or ‘Identity’ but then I asked one of my transgender friend and she told me that it was ‘simply one step to completion’ and I used it to build the puzzle pieces around that concept and left some pieces jaggered on the face and empty around the neck so the boobs are just one step in transitioning.

Breasts in the point of view of an Anorexic is Out of place

For this work I wanted to use the puzzle pieces to represent the breasts as ‘excess pieces’ and that was obviously out of place. So I made use of scale and colour contrast to really make the puzzle piece stand out. While the skeleton is painted with gaudy and dull colours the puzzle pieces were painted with bright flesh colours. Also a kind of commentary between the healthy and unhealthy and how an anorexic would see the breasts as unwanted and out of place eventhough having natural fat (breasts) is healthy. So the skeleton was first painted in acrylic and scanned and then had small mini flesh puzzle pieces layers around to represent the little skin on an anorexic woman. Also pieces together half a face to give the idea of femininity to the skeleton.

Personal Thoughts :

I really enjoyed doing this one because I love painting skeletons(Weird I know) but I really liked the illustrated feel of this and how simple it was. The problem I had with this was how to show the puzzle piece as ‘out of place’ and for this one scale was the major factor because I had to get bigger puzzle pieces to really make it stand out and chose the pieces that looked like breasts in the more basic shape. That was also how I decided to not crudely represent breasts like just in your face but use the shapes to suggest the anatomy of breasts.

Breasts in the point of view of a Breast Cancer Survivor is a Medal of Healing

For this work I wanted to take on a more hands on approach. So for the breasts they are represented (kinda like the transgender one) in a way where the puzzle pieces are missing but I wanted to use stitching to show patching and healing. So I had cut out puzzle pieces from the breasts and other parts of the body and then stitched them together to show that a survivor is also transitioning and that the flesh itself does not define them anymore. So instead of having a background for the missing piece I left it backgroundless and able to be seen through the threads to show that the survivor is not defined by the breasts anymore and that the breasts represents a sort of societal judgement that isn’t imposed on her anymore and that superficiality in terms of breasts does not apply to the survivor. So the sewing was really tough because I didn’t want the paper to break and tear and then I would have to restart so that was tiring.. and using red a very sexual colour, I wanted to show how a survivor is not define by the societal imposed sexuality standards. The stitches on the face represents the healing and reforming of a new identity for the survivor. Also adding on to the idea of playfulness in this work I placed a medal around her neck to literally represent the medal of the breast (overcoming cancer) and using pink because it’s the colour of breast cancer awareness.

Personal Thoughts :

I wanted to represent the removed breasts as triumphant and I had a hrd time thinking about how should I represent it and the idea of sewing came to me and the biggest challenge was the routine of poking the hole and trying to have a consistent pattern in the sewing. I was really happy with the outcome though. I felt that this one couldn’t really be too playful because it was too serious a topic for me and my grandma also died from breast cancer so I wanted this to have a sort of toned down mood.

SECOND PERSON POV

Breasts in the point of view of a Plastic Surgeon is a Puzzle waiting to be rearranged.

This was based off the idea of fat transfer in the world of plastic surgery. The idea of taking other parts of the body to place it around the breasts are really shows how some women really treasure breasts as an asset and also the funny concept( maybe it’s just funny to me) that breasts are essentially fat but some women take the same fat from the other parts of the body just to put it into the breasts. I illustrated a mannequinn as the base body form to sort of give it a ‘plastic’ barbie doll look and how a plastic surgeon would see the human body as a toy that could be easily manipulated. So I blacked out a couple of puzzle pieces at the lower area of the body and having the puzzle pieces placed ontop of them to tilt outwards to show the idea of removing the puzzle pieces to place it elsewhere. For the boobs they were balloons(thought that it’d bring out the playfulness in this work and also having rubber balloons which are synthetic) that were painted skin colour and then had the congregtion of puzzle pieces placed on top of them to show how pieces that didn’t actually belong there is actually being ‘forced to fit in’ now and so I wanted it to look overcrowded around the balloons. Having the background as pink I felt complemented the mannequinn’s colour and gave off a very ditzy, plastic vibe.

Personal Thoughts :

THIS WAS SO FUN TO DO. I loved the colour scheme and everything for this it’s just so cute and so Mehgan Trainor’s All About That Bass. The visuals and the song was playing in the head the whole time. The balloons were really fun to play around with (okay sounds weird when I typed that out) and I loved the simplicity in this. Just thought this was a really cute piece.

Breasts in the point of view of a Conservative is Censorship

So for this I appropriated the greek sculpture to reference the idea of male dominance in the modern day patriarchal society. A sort of playful POV of how many modern day women whether in religion or culture are told by men to cover up. So the greek sculpture without arms actually puts the idea of society still living in the past and how nothing much really has changed since then and that men are still having a dominant position over women and that they are still controlling them. So I felt that the greek sculpture having no arms actually it quite well and that the hands of the men are actually controlling the woman’s entire being. So I layered a translucent film over to create a layer of ‘censorship’ and to place the puzzle pieces as part of the sculpture that could be manipulated. I also wanted to use many colours for the hands to contrast against the dullness of the greek sculpture to show the colourful male hands making the female sculpture dull. The puzzle pieces are then used here to represent censorship of the breasts.

Personal Thoughts :

Had a hard time thinking of how to represent the body in this one and was just scrolling through Pinterest and finally when I typed ‘Woman no arms’ this came up and thought it fit the concept pretty well.

Breasts in the point of view of a Baby is Food

For this work it has a greater sense of nonsensicality because I represented the female body as meat in a slaughter house. For this work I represented the breasts as packaged meat similar to that in the supermarket. I photographed the puzzle pieces in a print-out of a styrofoam box and wrapped it in clingfilm and photoshopped a barcode on it. I just wanted to represent the breasts as outside of the body now and being represented as food for the baby. This work was one of the outrageous one and had the most problems with regarding concept because I did not want to represent it with just milk bottles and too literal and so I decided to take it a step further and made it more on the outrageous side.

Personal Thoughts :

I liked that this one mixed traditional medium and photography and somehow it worked to put contrast on the photographed puzzle pieces. This one I had so many ideas of how to represent the breasts as food and they were either too crude or too literal and I finally saw a photo of a slaughter house on google images and I was like THAT’S IT!

Consistency

For all of the works I wanted them to have a certain similarity in the body and the scale of it and to let the different portrayal of the breasts give different messages for each work. The pastel colours of the 5 works also give a sense of playfulness with contrasting bodies in the forefront and the background also serves to create a background in which the bodies could stand out of the borders and to really be ‘in your face’.

Reflections :

I loved being able to paint and manually create works but through this project I’ve actually learnt that it could actually be fun to merge the two! So for project 3 I would probably want to do a mix of both traditional and digital mediums and actually bring the two together after 2 Semesters of being in a dilemma going back and forth between traditional and digital mediums

2D Identitty Process

Medium :

I’ve chosen to use the medium of puzzles to lay over images. Searching through for inspiration I’ve found that the idea of layering segmented images would really communicate my idea well as the subject matter of breasts, being part of the female body, could be represented as physically attached but emotionally detached(I know bit confusing ah I don’t know how to explain) As in like for a transgender it could be represented as a puzzle to make one feel whole. And I find the idea of having cracks/spaces between the segmented pieces because it shows that it is not a true original piece but it could be formed and created to ‘finish’ your own puzzle.

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I’ve also decided to split the 6 images into two categories of perspectives:

1st person perspective vs 2nd person perspective

Positive Breast

Trasgender | Baby

Superficial Breast

Anorexic | Plastic Surgeon

Negative Breast

Breast Cancer Survivor | Conservative

Inspirations :

I wanted to have a minimalistic illustrated look to mimic certain magazine covers that I felt had a really clean look and to convey a message quick and easy but not too literal. So that was the main challenge for me which was to find a balance between too symbolic and too literal.

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I’ve decided to go with a consistent female body through all the compositions so give a sort of flow and simplicity to the works. I did not want it to be messy and all over with different representations for every work.

Mock-up of the puzzle pieces being placed on the body

For this work I began with a painted mock-up of the idea with a plain puzzle set from ArtFriend and during consultation the problem that was brought up was that the message of the work would be better conveyed if the puzzle pieces weren’t placed all over. So I’ve decided to rework it and place the puzzle pieces around the body instead, representative of the human superficial flesh in contrast to the inner body of a Transgendered person.

First basic mock up

Leaving of spaces

Creating spaces between the positive and the negative which shows the dissipation of the old identity and the reformation of a new identity.

Testing out with typography

I felt that the typography would actually create more visual mess and take away the focus from the work and message itself. So I decided to do away with the text across all 6 works.

Breasts in the POV of an Anorexic is Out Of Place

The first mock-up idea

The first idea for the POV of an anorexic which showed a crucified skeleton weighed down by shackles on the ribcage and the puzzle pieces represented the media covering up the ‘healthy lifestyle’ and only showing the ‘superficial’ pop culture.

The problem with the first mock up from the consultation was that it was very crowded and messy and had too many points (Media,Social) and that the focus was taken away from the breasts themselves.

So I decided to just remove everything around the skeletal figure and just focus on the figure itself and represent then breasts as puzzle pieces that were ‘out of place’.

Painting the figure

Personifying the skeleton. Giving a human face to her

Final arrangement of the puzzle pieces on the skeletal figure

Experimenting with the background colours to see which would best fit in terms of contrast and the mood and decided to go with the warm colour of yellow because I felt that it gave a happy but creepy feel with the illustrated skeletal figure in the forefront.

Breasts in the POV of a Breast Cancer Survivor is a Medal of Healing

Mock-up of the healing body

The idea of using threads as stitches to show a physical representation of healing and I felt that having it be real-life and not printed would give the effect of physical/superficial scars and to be able to see through the threads allows the message of not allowing the breasts t define them superficially anymore.

Painting the healing body

I realised I forgot to take photos of the sewing because I was trying so hard not do break the paper so yea :/

Breasts in the POV of a Plastic Surgeon is a Puzzle To Be Rearranged

Breasts represented as puzzle pieces to be fit together

Making of the breasts using balloons and rubber as a synthetic material that adds to the quirkiness of the work

I had to blow so many because I kept getting unequal lopsided boobs

The left breast had to be reblown because it was too small

Breasts in the POV of a Conservative is Censorship

Breasts in the POV of a Baby is Food

Wrapping the puzzle pieces up in styrofoam and photographed

Idea of depicting women as meat. I had trouble trying to find a balance between depicting the boobs as food and not some sex trade mysoginistic way

Miscellaneous :

Just some initial ideation for my own use

Overall it was a tiring process and mostly because of conceptual problems and I’ve realised that the concept is the hardest part for me and execution usually goes smoothly! Hopefully I’ll be able to conceptualise faster for Project 3.

Art History Presentation Research

Kwan Im Thong Temple – One of the 2 temples that we visited

So here are my thoughts on the field research and presentation on Buddhism about 3 weeks ago. So our group was kiasu at first and we thought we’d start early on the research and so we decided to visit the Asian Civilsation Museum in week 3 when our presentation was in week 6. We decided to first visit the Asian Civilisation Museum to first get an idea of various forms of Buddhism but we felt that the information was so diverse and it was condensed into basically a showcase of various Buddhist iconography and symbols around the world without much specifications. We then decided to visit the Kwan Im Thong Temple at Bugis to get a first hand look at the buddhist symbols but since we went so early on(Week 3), we went in clueless and not knowing what to look out for and on top of that the temple restricted photography and it was so crowded (as it was closing to Chinese New Year) and even if we wanted to learn more about the temple, the monks or caretakers were probably really busy with the crowd anyway. If we had any takeaway from this temple visit it would be to see how devoted the worshippers are as they fought the crowd and heavy incense to get their prayers in for their families and themselves. It was also a sight to see the temple caretakers constantly clearing the joss sticks to allow new devotees to put their joss sticks into the urn.

Technologically advanced ; Had wifi in the temple and their own website for enquiries

Since we did not benefit much, we decided to go to a temple which my parents had brought me to when I was young. Just memories of the large Mani Wheel and iconographic sculptures and the lit lotus candles to me felt like this other temple had more educational potential compared to the Asian Civilisation Museum and Kwan Im Thong temple combined. This temple was known as the TekChen Choling Temple. What was so amazing about this temple was that it was chucked away in a corner of Lavender( A place where crowds are seldom seen) and it was basically a neighbourhood temple. This Tibetan Temple just seemed like a dream temple to research with it being a 24 hour temple and amazingly nice monks and caretakers who actually took time to answer our questions as we went in clueless. When we first step foot into the entrance of the temple, we saw a sign which actually guided the devotees on how to pay respects and to pray in the temple. We decided to base our research on these 7 steps and use it to bring our audience(for the presentation) on a journey with us through the temple.

Lighting of lotus candles as a form of offering to ask for blessings

Burning incense as a greeting

Relic Hall where the tablets of the deceased lie

Here my group mate Huizhong is offering incense

Each step of prayer ritual was important as we had to greet the deities before entering the temples and minute details such as not stepping on the step of the doorway as a form of respect and the burning of incense as a greeting. Since we were learning about a new culture we did not want to offend anyone. We also decided to spend $20 each on a prayer blessing (we prayed for a smooth presentation so I guess it was money well spent).

Giant Mani Wheel – Spinning it as a prayer

Prayer template that we bought

We had to read this out while kneeling down when praying to Buddha Shakyamuni

One thing that really struck me was that the different iconography in the temple wasn’t limited to just Chinese Buddhism. There were Hindu icons as well as Taoist influences. This temple was truly a representation of Singapore(being multi-cultural) as this was not just a temple which had rituals and icons of a specific religion but different sections of Buddhism uniting as one in this temple.

After we left the temple, any unanswered queries were so easily clarified with the temple being opened 24 hours and there was this lady caretaker who was so gracious and helpful and even asked us to head down again so she could explain clearly in person.

Our group at the Asian Civilisation Museum

I think why our group enjoyed this project so much was that we genuinely were excited to learn more about this culture in Singapore that are hidden in our everyday lives such as the act of burning incense and offering joss sticks and for us we saw it as an eye opening experience. It was really enjoyable working with Val and Huizhong as we were really passionate about presenting this temple to the class and wanting to give justice to it since they really helped us so much.

POV Research during recess

So I’ve finally decided on a concept which I’m excited to execute! Been quite sometime since I actually got my hands dirty for 2D and so I’ve decided to go back to traditional mediums of illustration and painting.

6 Concepts are :

Breasts in the point of view of a Transgender Woman is Identity

Breasts in the point of view of a Porn Actress is Money/Livelihood

Breasts in the point of view of a Baby is Food

Breasts in the point of view of the media is censorship

Breasts in the point of view of a Plastic Surgeon is a Blueprint

Breasts in the point of view of an Anorexic is Fat/Burden

Medium :

I was inspired by images like these 2 and I felt like it could create dark humour

Ideation :

Breasts in the point of view of a Transgender Woman is Identity

Initially I had the idea illustrating a male’s head on a female mannequin’s body but it was too ‘in your face’ to me. So I’ve decided to use puzzle pieces to represent the different perspectives of breasts. (Missing Pieces)

Missing Pieces representing identity

Breasts in the point of view of a Baby is Food

Puzzle pieces forming the components of nutrition in breast milk. (Normal Pieces)

Breasts in the point of view of a Plastic Surgeon is a Blueprint

(Pieces altered; Puzzle pieces are broken/replaced with new ones)

Breasts in the point of view of the media is Censorship

(Blurred puzzle pieces/Transparent Puzzle pieces but one opaque?)

Breasts in the point of view of an Anorexic is Fat/Burden

(Puzzle Pieces that don’t fit in? Too big pieces. Out of place)

POV Initial Research

-Oh my gosh I realised I saved this as a draft without posting it-

The first thing that came to mind when I was researching on this project was the idea of angles and how certain angles could bring out a different perspective of an object/subject matter. So I began researching on angled/optical art. But when I thought about it I realised that I didn’t have to be limited to optical illusions but I could also lay layers over so that once moved it could reveal a different image.

My initial explorations led me to exploring the female breasts. Initially I wanted to take on a more light-hearted and comedic tone but then i realised that if I could balance that with a message behind the comedy it would be more effective that way.

I wanted to create something that was visually similar to Banksy’s artworks where there is a sense of grim comedy that really gets to you.

Initial Ideation :

Boobs from the point of view of a grandmother

Boobs from the point of view of a pervert

Boobs from the point of view of a baby is food

Boobs from the pov of a bra

Boobs from the point of view of a teenager is transformation/change

Boobs from the point of view of a transgender is identity

Boobs from the pov of a porno film maker

Boobs from the pov of a butch

Boobs from the pov of a gynacologist

Boobs from the pov of a plastic surgeon is a blueprint/work of art/clay

Boobs from the pov of a sculpture

Boobs from the point of view of indian buddhism

Boobs from the point of view of an anorexic is fat/burden

Boobs from the point of view of a fashion magazine

Boobs from the point of view of pop culture is photoshop

Boobs from the pov of an american

Format/Layout :

For Layout I would like to present it in a book/magazine format and was thinking of incorporating typography in the works to further enhance the message.

Something like this. But I wanted to go for an illustration style where the subjects are not photographed.

Initial Plans :

Boobs from the point of view of a transgender is identity

I wanted to mount a male head on top of a female mannequin’s body to show how eventhough the body and head are separate they still come together to form the identity of a person

Boobs from the point of view of a baby is food

For this I wanted to use a milk bottle to represent baby’s food but replace the feeding rubbery part with a breast.

Boobs from the pov of a plastic surgeon is a blueprint/work of art/clay

Thinking of overlaying blueprints over the body.

Boobs from the point of view of a teenager is transformation/change

Not so sure about this idea yet

Colour :

Colours also play an important role for me because the mood i want to suggest also heavily relies on the colour since I will be illustrating. So I would probably contrast the colours with the image. E.g if I am presenting a gory image maybe I could use vibrant colours or if I am presenting a comedic image but with dark, desaturated colours. I feel like this balance would also contribute to the dark humour I want to portray.

In Banksy’s works there is also an apparent high level of contrast and I feel like this adds to the grim atmosphere of the work.

Symbolism/Depiction of Subject Matter :

I felt like with my subject matter, breasts, I had to be careful because I did not want it to end up crude and tasteless and at the same time I did not want it to be a work which did not visually convey the subject matter clearly.

Like what my classmates said in class it cannot be portrayed too ‘in your face’ and it turns out looking cheesy and cheap and it can’t be too symbolic either where the entire subject matter is not communicated through the work.

So I began looking for things that resembled my subject matter.

I’m still exploring so hoping I find a path

I feel like the these 3 components would be important to me in this project :

Colour/Contrast

Layout

Something rom the pov of a blind person

KFC from the pov of an animal lover

School in the point of view of an American is a shooting range

School in the point of view of a student

From the point of view of a terrorist

Fashion from the point of view of a guy

Book from the point of view of a dyslexic

Book from the point of view of a nerd

Book from the point of view of a tree

Book from the point of view of a cat

Book from the point of view of an escapist

Book from the point of view of a bimbo

Book from the point of view of an illiterate

Book from the point of view of a tree

Book from

Food from the point of view of an artist is an instagram photo

Religion from the pov of an atheist

Beauty from the pov of pop culture is anorexia

Beauty from the pov of feminist

Beauty from the pov of a plastic surgeon

Beauty from the pov of a

Breasts from the pov of a transgendered person

Breasts from the pov of a plastic surgeon

Breasts from the pov of a baby

Breasts from the pov of a bra

Breasts from the pov of an anorexic

Breasts from the pov of a woman

The glasses show different standards of beauty

Animals in the pov of the fashion industry is clothes

Animals in the pov of KFC is food

Animals in the pov of a zookeeper

Animals in the pov of

A book from the point of view of a tree – murder

layering background to change the meaning

arrange things in a mass gestalt

gestalt theory. Looks like smtg

the mind’s eye

negative spaces

push the image on its own

colours also to make something seem like smtg

image has to look closer

I was thinking about

Animated vs photographs vs drawing

Something rom the pov of a blind person

KFC from the pov of an animal lover

School in the point of view of an American is a shooting range

School in the point of view of a student

Art History Research Outline

What is Chinese landscape painting? Compare Guo Xi’s Early Spring to a bird and flower painting by Emperor Hui-tsung.

Peach Blossom and Dove, Emperor Huizong

Early Spring, Guo Xi

What is chinese landscape painting?

Compare the style between the paintings (Artist background, medium, subject matter, style, meaning behind paintings)

Introduction :

What I plan to achieve through presenting the research paper

What are the points that fall under the umbrella of my point

Definition and contextual analysis of Chinese Landscape painting – Using the definition and context to post as an umbrella for both artists and how they branched out from there. (Putting a historical/social context behind chinese landscape paintings and use this information to define both artists’ intentions)

Introduction of Artists :

Both artist were from the Northern Song Dynasty and thus have similar cultural influences. However they have different social backgrounds as Huizong was an emperor while Guo Xi was an artist(Ironically, since Huizong’s paintings did not carry much of a political message)

Comparing Similarities and Differences

While both artists may have similarities, there are also differences for that particular characteristic (e.g. Both have similar subject of nature, but different portrayal and style)

Subjects for comparison

Medium

Subject

Style

Message and intention

Cultural influences

Techniques

Conclusion :

Linking back the sub-points in each body paragraph to give credit to the main point of the entire essay