Artist Statement

Team Members: Gekkie, Pin, Son Tra, Raj

Artist Statement:

Bijinga is term used to describe pictures that contain beautiful in Japanese art. The type of print for these pieces of art are called Ukiyo-e, which are woodblock prints. These pieces were meant to focus on the beauty of women during the time, hence the meaning of Binjinga. Women were depicted in a mysterious way. The artists of these Bijingas had the faces of the women either angled or partly covered. The backgrounds were flat to emphasize on the women of the pictures.

One artist who was known for creating his own bijingas was Yoshu Chikanobu. He created a series of Bijingas, which included 50 prints. This group of prints were known as Shin Bijin. Learning from artists whose works including Bijingas, Chikanobu adapted his own style of depicting women. His prints had women who were taller and thinner that recreated interest of these prints to before.

During the time of creating Dancing with Fan, Japan was going through major changes because of their integration with the rest of the world. There was western influences that were affecting Japanese art and Chikanobu included them in this Bijinga. He was using more vibrant colors compared to before.

Our response to the piece by Chikanobu was to include more relevant objects in the Bijinga that shows how women have changed over the years. Women were always dressed in similar traditional clothing but today women are seen wearing much more than just traditional clothing. Today, women are dressing in suits because they are out there in the workforce and hold jobs and careers that are equal to men. They also wear casual clothing as well because of their balanced lifestyle between working and enjoying life.

Essay Introduction and Paragraphs

The Emperors of China did not want their bodies to be alone in the afterlife, which resulted in the creation on Chinese Tomb Art. Chinese Tomb Art served a purpose to give the Emperors a home in the afterlife along with all the aspects from their lives that mattered to them such as servants, objects, wives, pets, guardians and food. All of these objects would be included with the burial of the Emperor. The Qin Shihuangdi tomb belonged to the first Emperor of China, Qin Shihuangdi who’s reign lasted from 221 BCE to 206 BCE. This short lived Empire introduced a lot to China such as standardization of currency, weights and measures and a single legal code. When he passed away, he was buried along with over 7,000 figures in his tomb. While pieces of his tomb are still being discovered today, the Terracotta Warriors were a huge part of his tomb occupying at least two of the three vaults of his tomb. Two prominent examples of the Terracotta Warriors were the armored kneeling archer and the armored general. These two pieces of art were similar and different in a few ways.

The armored kneeling archer and the armored general had a few similarities such as they were both armored and created the same way with similar features. Both of these figures wore armor that covered the shoulder and bodies of these warriors. This signifies that these warriors were valued in the eyes of the Qin Shihuangdi. Not all of the Terracotta warriors had armor on them, including certain archers, which explains there is a clear distinction between the sculptures that were armored and the sculptures that weren’t armored. Another similarity between the two figures were the way they were made. These figures were created starting from the feet and working up the body. The body parts were produced in bulk and then attached depending on the figure that was being built. Then they would be heated to make the figures. Both of these figures were painted but the paint has gone away after being buried for centuries. One feature that these figures have is that their faces are all different fro m each other. Each and every face of the Terracotta Warriors are unique despite the body structures being fairly similar depending the position of the warrior. These Terracotta warriors also did have weapons in their hands such as the infantryman that were equipped with their lances and crossbows. Despite some of similarities there are some differences between these figures.

These two figures have a few differences such as the number of figures, their positions, and their features. The number of figures found for each of these types of warriors are very different. There are thousands of the kneeling archers while only nine generals have been discovered so far. While the tomb hasn’t been completely excavated, this is still a huge difference. This shows how high of a rank the General was. The kneeling archer is kneeling while the general is standing. The archer is kneeling because they were kneeling during combat and that is why armor for the top half of their body was enough to protect since their bottoms halves were covered. The General’s position was standing to show the power he and his hands were put together to show that he did not participate in combat as a general. While the basic structure for the figures are similar, there are little features of the figures that lets any viewer know the position of the warrior. The hair of the archers was braided and arranged into a topknot. The hair of the general was put back and they wore a headdress to let people know who they were. The Generals had ribbons that showed their ranks while the Archer did not have any ribbons or indication of rank. The Generals had more distinctive features considering they had the highest rank. These were some of the differences between the two figures.

Week 4 Journal

I was very happy to be part of the group I am apart of currently for the presentation. It was nice to see a change in the dedication of my group members for a group presentation. Back in the states, whenever I have a group presentation to do, we typically just split up the talking points and work on the slides ourselves and then just show up presentation day and hope for the best. While we were not able to practice the presentation in a full run through, we did all work together on making the slides and helping each other with our talking points for the presentation as well.

Favorite Buddist Temple

My favorite Buddhist Temple in Singapore would be the Buddha Tooth Relic Temple in Chinatown. I was able to visit this temple while my team and I went to visit the Sri Mariamman Temple in Chinatown as well. The Buddha Tooth Relic Temple was a huge and beautiful temple. The outside of it looked amazing and the inside was very nice as well. All the pieces of art within the temple were very intricately made. The main area of prayer was able to seat many followers and allow everyone else to walk along the perimeter to observe the prayer. The statues they had in the room were very large as well and I would have never thought the inside would look like that from looking at the outside.

How I Learn Best

I am still trying to figure exactly how I learn best today but from my experiences so far, I can say that experiential learning has been the best for me so far. This means actually going out there and using whatever I have learned and applying it. Back in the US, my school, Drexel University, is known for having a cooperative education program which means that most students choose to do various 6-month internships during their time there. I have already done two of these co-ops and have my third to complete when I go back home after my exchange.

During my time at my first two co-ops, I’ve noticed that most of what I am learning in the classroom doesn’t really help with what I was doing work wise. While I do understand that I was an intern, there is still some expectation of applying what I am learning in school. It’s important to note that prior to working at these internships, I did have an understanding of the basic foundations of the work I was conducting, which I received from the classroom. Interning just transitions these learnings or theories into practice, which made me understand more on how the field works. Every time I would make a mistake, I would make sure to understand how it occurred and what I can do in the future to prevent it from happening.

When it comes to studying for an exam or quiz for my classes, I try to my best to connect what I am reading to real life situations. I am a business major so it’s pretty easy to find real life examples for something like this.