My ADM Journey
My chosen item that was dear to me was my Buddhist charm that I often carry around. Thus I decided to make a small art piece that represented my devotion to my religion and at the same time it created a halo reflection when the light reflects from the water in the curved bottom of the artwork. The metal spiral was representational of the incense that we regularly used during prayer and the halo was often represented in artwork where Buddha is featured in.
Example:
My Final Artwork:
These are the Final 4 Visuals that I have selected for my submission:
First: “I see dead people” – The Sixth Sense
Based off the context of the scene from the sixth sense, I wanted to portray the death that the character sees constantly but at the same time, I wanted to portray the character’s ability to see the supernatural by placing a third eye on the skull instead of placing the grim reaper’s image in the sockets of the skulls. I also changed it to 6 skulls instead of the previous 5 as this movie is all about the “Sixth Sense”
Second: “There’s no place like home”- The Wizard of Oz
Basing it off the context of the story where Dorothy thinks of her uncle and aunt back home at the farm and her yearning to go back home. Thus I placed a farmhouse and tractor on a heart to represent what it truly meant when she said that there’s no place like home.
Third: “There’s no such thing as love. It’s a fantasy.”- 500 Days of Summer
This phrase was mentioned as the main female character felt like that love was never something that is real thus a fantasy. I decided to portray it as something surreal and the two people in the centre, one a sun and the other a moon shows two different people falling in love but everything is nothing but a fantasy.
Fourth: “You had me at hello” – Jerry Maguire
The visuals for this was based off the emotions between the two characters of which before they had the conversation, the man had already captured the woman’s heart thus the phrase you had me at hello. I used a fishing rod, which managed to fish the heart (represents the woman’s heart).
Printing of the silkscreen:
Throughout the process, I went through 2 reviews and brainstorming of visuals for multiple quotes and different versions for one of the quotes to see which works best.
First Review:
The meaning was too literal for the first two (Mean girls and Dracula). As for the Lion King, the idea could be expanded beyond its literal meaning. For the 500 Days of Summer, after the consultation, the feedback given was that since I decided to focus on the aspect of fantasy, the visuals should look more surreal and at the same time, the birds in the current pieces looks too realistic for something that is supposed to be surreal.
Second Review:
I worked on more pieces and followed up on the pieces done for 500 Days of summer and the Lion King.
I pushed the idea further for the Lion King by basing it off the context of that scene where Mufasa (Simba’s Dad) was pushed off the edge by Scar (Simba’s Evil Uncle) into the herd of stampeding wildebeest below causing Mufasa’s death. As for the visuals on 500 Days of Summmer, I made it more surreal through the addition of flowers to signify love and the fishes with eyes as their bodies to show fantasy. I also decided to give two other quotes a try, one from the Sixth Sense and the other from Dirty Dancing.
Based off the context of the scene from the sixth sense, I wanted to portray the death that the character sees constantly but at the same time, I wanted to portray the character’s ability to see the supernatural by placing a third eye on the skull instead of placing the grim reaper’s image in the sockets of the skulls.
As for the Dirty Dancing visuals, it was a literal play on the words.
I continued working on the process and decided to scrap the idea for the Lion King and Dirty dancing. So I started working on another two and finalized my 4 designs with 1 chosen as the Final piece
Before I started on the brainstorming for the 4 visual pieces that I had to come up with, I first started off by researching on various movie quotes.
These are the quotes that caught my interest:
Transfigurations by Agatha Haines
I assume that the materials used is clay or plastic from the looks of the artwork. The artwork consists of sculptures representing 5 babies, each with a surgically implemented body modification. Each of the modification is designed to solve a potential future problem for the baby, ranging from medical or environmental issues to social mobility issues. For example, Thermal Epidermiplasty, Podiaectomy, Bibuccalplasty, Epidermal Myostomy, Extension Osteogenisis.
Preliminary Read:
My initial impression of the work was the amount of curiosity that it sparked in me. Social issues were the things that motivated the artist due to the fact that all the modifications were done with the intent to solve future problems. By having lifelike sculptures, it invokes a greater sense of realism thus causing people to start thinking about the possibilities of the future
Secondary Read:
It relates to my initial impression as the message has been conveyed clearly through the use of the sculptures.
Euthanasia Coaster by Julijonas Urbonas (2010)
I assume the work is made out of metal at first glance. This artwork is hypothetical euthanasia machine in the form of a roller coaster, which is engineered to humanly with elegance and euphoria to take the life of a human being.
Preliminary Read:
My initial impression was awe due to the fact that the roller coaster looked tall but I also questioned why the artist would create such a model that technically feasible but possibly something that not everyone will use. I thought that it was motivated by technology as it looks like an advanced looking roller coaster.
Secondary Read:
The text allowed me to understand that this work draws on research in aerospace medicine, mechanical engineering, materials technology and gravity to discuss about the end of life and the ethics of euthanasia. I would suggest placing images related to euthanasia to show people at first glace that its a euthanasia roller coaster.
Love: the union of 2 souls in a turbulent surrounding + different tones and spots representing memories
Joy: represents confetti during parties, light marks
Surprise: from light to dark to show how instantaneous the emotion of surprise is
Anger: Sharp edges and quick marks to represent how anger can cause pain
Sadness-Depression: broken pieces, feeling “broken” – I scraped the surface of the paper with a penknife to show the hidden pain
Fear-Anxiety: Irregular patterns to show the lack of focus and being “out of place”, giving a sense of anxiety to the viewer