Rhymes play – 1 – Humpty Dumpty = unity

The circle: an ancient and universal symbol of unity, wholeness

I decided to work on the rhyme humpty dumpty, a few of the images i found are showcased below.

for humpty dumpty, i wanted to have a concept where i would base my compositions on. this are some of the ideas i have explored:

-humpty dumpty as the symbol of unity and, and when broken, anyone in the world, regardless of ethnicity cannot put him back tgth again.

-humpty dumpty representing the neutral equality of men, where the phrase comes in ” all men are created equal” once broken, people segregate into hierarchies,and even thought some peoplel try to fix the hierarchies, it will never ever go back to the beginning of time where everyone was truly equal. might go on to explore adam and eve, where at the start of time, adam and eve were equals.

-humpty dumpty symbolizing the unified korea. where broken as it is now, seems impossible to reunite given the social and political tension going on now within the 2 countries.

these are just some few ideas i have researched and explored on, with more research i would pick a concept to go for and work with it in my compositions.

toby-

mīrārī

mīrārī
The origin of the word  “mirror” stems from Old French word “mirer” to look at, from Latin “mīrārī” to wonder at.

 

for my project, i wanted to explore the uncertainty of our own reflections, how everyday we assume what we see is correct.

but what if it wasnt,

what if what we saw in our reflections changed?

what if what we see wasnt what we saw yesterday?

what if what we see was never us to begin with?

i tackle this issue with a protagonist on his journey to find his reflection back after gradually losing it.

i wont reveal to much, but this is what i have worked out so far.

there will be an addition of a narration in the final cut.

enjoy.

ps. there’s sound, so turn it up a lil,

UNCLUTTERED – 18 – FINAL

 

 

 

 

    “Done.”

After many hours in the print room, hours lying on the floor of ADM, I finally uncluttered my mind and finished my final submission for the first 2D assignemnt.

final 1
And boy did i have fun with this one.

 

 

Final pieces:

 

final3

 

From the top down:
SENSUAL [smooth wave Ragwork/Reduction]
FRAGILE [Crumpled paper collage]
INDECISIVE [Folded Paper]
AMBIGUOUS [diluted Ragwork/Reduction]

final 4

TURBULENT [wavey Ragwork/Reduction]
EMBARRASSED [self initiated paper collage]
LYRICAL [Modified folded paper mono print.]
PSYCHOTIC [Magazine face collage, without eyes]

 

 

final 5 
AGGRESSIVE [ Modified Shadow play]
EXHAUSTED [gradient roller method + Ragwork/reduction]
SPONTANEOUS [spontaneously placed foam pixels]
NONSENSICAL [Thread and roller work, mono printing]

final 5 (2)
BIZARRE [rectangular collage ink ooze]
AWKWARD [ single paint splatter]
SYSTEMATIC [plane collages, with red line skipping across]
ANXIOUS [squeezed paper collage.]

 

of course, all these wouldn’t be nearly as fruitful nor fun if not for my friends.

final 2

uncluttering – 5 – Geometric Collaging

“Albers is best remembered for his work as an abstract painter and theorist. He favored a very disciplined approach to composition.”

Josef Albers did a lot of his work revolving around geometric shapes, namely rectangles and squares.

Works:

The way he laid out the squares and rectangles had a certain composition and looseness to it. that i wanted to attempt to grasp.

I cut out strips of paper and laid them out on monoprint ink slabs and printed them, trying to emulate the looseness Josef Albers had in his compositions.

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initially i applied a little too much ink and the ink seeped through the pieces of rectangle paper, however the seeps led to quite an interesting composition.

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i laid out the pieces of paper and let them dry to resuse once again.
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The second time, the lines and shapes came out more cleanly, but instead the ink oozed through the cracks and formed weird wave-like shapes that eventually made it to me final ices as the feeling of BIZARRE.

Perhaps i did not manage to get the looseness and composition that Albers had in his works with my shapes, but i think through the process i gained even better works that have imperfections, and that i can call my own.

And at the end of the day, isn’t that what art is all about? finding your imperfect piece of perfect art.

Uncluttering – 4 – Reduction/Ragwork

“Koichi Yamamoto is an artist

who merges the traditional and contemporary by creating unique and innovative approaches to the language of printmaking.”

Yamamoto inspired me with his mono printing with his huge roller and his ability to create structured compositions based on just mono printing alone.

 

Works:

1163642533.jpg (297×400)

 

His works made me delve deeper into the mono printing process and i found out that much like putting paint onto paper, we can just as easily remove it. I then experimented with his reduction techniques with a wet rag, removing paint as i cleaned or “painted” the ink slab.

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the water from the rag stayed on the ink slab, and created interesting water spreads and the monoprinting roller pushed against the slabDSCF4507
By tightening/lowering one side of the roller more than the other, i was able to achieve gradients from light to dark within the same mono print. 

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I attempted to form crashing waves as i swept the wet rag across the ink slab repeatedly. This later led on to be my TURBULENT line in my final piece.
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When things dont work out the way you want it to, it might be for the better, for instance in this case, where the water diluted the ink too much that it created blank splotches of negative space. those negative spaces, then moved on to add to the composition, and ultimately be come my AMBIGUOUS line for my final.

Uncluttering – 3 – pixel play

“Invader accepts arrest as an occupational hazard.”

Artist: Space Invader (street artist)

One of my favorite artist would be Space Invader, the street artist. He is well known for “invading” countries with his pixel art on the streets.

He himself is anonymous and wears masks for interviews and appearances.

Works:

 

 

I was inspired by him and decided to play with pixels.I made flat pixels with foam we had left over from our 3D assignment.

I laid them out on a ink mat and mono printed over them.

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i played around with the pixels and achieved a few interesting compositions with just pixels and ink alone.

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i felt they provided a nice and stark contrast to the lines and  other monoprints that i was doing.

 

 

 

Uncluttering – 2 -Shadow play-

“Shadows are always on a 2-dimensional plane, but are formed cause of a 3-dimensional form.  “

I had the idea to play around with shadows along a 2-Dimensional plane to form lines for the Project. I had a few ideas right off the bat, but I did some research to further push my initial ideas.

Artist: Kumi Yamashita

Works: 

shadow 2 shadow 1 shadows 3

 

After some research, I found Kumi Yamashita’s work. I was so blown away that I was determined to play with shadows. Of course not to the extent of how she so expertly and intricately does it, but perhaps to my own style.

I documented the process of my trials in the series of pictures.

IMAG1205i worked with simple post it notes first, forming a line of shadows while the post it notes weren’t in a line themselves.

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i proceeded then to cutting out shapes and bending them out of their original plane to create abstract shadows. in this case, the spikes cast a wide array of shadows as the light hits it from above.
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i moved on to more complicated shapes like arches that cast oblong shadows depending on where the torchlight is shining from.IMAG1234

lastly, i played around more with the composition and added subjects into the shadows.

Currently i am still in the midst of exploring this aspect of playing with shadows, hopefully ill be able to form a solid idea soon

 

and use my new gained knowledge on to further projects in the future.

 

-toby.

 

Toby in Wonderland (final submission)

Toby in Wonderland-

“The needle pierced the cloth repeatedly, dragging a thread along, binding the pieces together and bringing it closer and closer to the final product. Watching the pieces come together was therapeutic for me, always had been. Hence the addition of the stuffed toy I made as a subject.

Dreams were also a big part of me, I would even go so far as to say that it is half the reason why I even go to sleep. The other half being, well, to rest. My dreams came in the form of adventures, where I constantly switched perspectives between the first and third person perspective, either participating with or observing a singular subject or person going about the adventures. Hence the girl as the protagonist.

My eyelids slowly parted as I woke. My body quickly drifting back to reality as quickly as my dreams left my conscious mind.

Fragments of the dreams remain like photographs,

but faces seem to always lose their way.”

 

-Toby (Tan Xun Yi)


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Processed with VSCOcam with c1 presetFinal installation.