MY IDENTITY
Art is a mirror of identity in individuals or society. It is a reflection; of what we feel, think, practise, ritualise, believe and our character. It is a method of presentation that communicates and reflects in our identity. The personal project that I will be looking at is to identify myself. I have spent half of my life abroad living out in Hong Kong, as it is a personal project, I will be looking at all the things that resemble my character. Such as music, food, animals, nature, people, architecture, sports and games. I was looking through books that puzzle your eyes, trying to work out what was in the picture. I want to relate things like that; blending myself within surroundings that remind me of who I am. Tweaking the idea could consist of starting with an outline of myself and put all the things that i like; and through to my final piece create a mix of different shots shaped into words or my face?
Artists to include in my work: Chuck Close, David Hockney and Beijing artist Liu Bolin
The aim . For this project is to collect things that revolve around me. As I am from two different backgrounds and now in the U.K, my aim is to incorporate photography layering and art within my surroundings that I have been from. It will be like an illusion,, painting on people to deliver a message to the viewer who will be looking at my work; trying to work out what is in my landscape.
Things that I could do:
1. The beach- summer things such as bucket n spade, icecream, corona, friends and family, surfing...
2. Music- a walkman of the music that i like, music on albums lyrics within my work.
3. Travelling- favourite places you've been to, maps? Where's Wally theme? of finding you...
4. Art- painting on people, showing what art you like and why?
5. People- people that inspire you- artists and photographers
6. Food
7. Architecture
I started researching in things that i had been to, what music i liked and usual things that I would come up with that defines me, but I had a tutorial and people seemed to think it was funny in what i recall 'Where's Pippa', in taking a similar aspect in children's books of Where's wally? So I had a long thought about this, I intend in my research to jot down all the things that revolve around me but get to the real deal of doing iconic photography in music; I love music, most of my life has been revolved around of it and whenever i listen to music, it sparks a memory of a place, a person or a general activity that i have done listening to that music.( For example, Circle of Life- by Elton john, reminds me when i first watched The Lion King, but also going on a family holiday to Nairobi in Kenya as there are the obvious animals that would relate to the film. )
TESTING/EXPERIMENTING- By doing this, I have messed around on Photoshop incorporating photographs from my childhood and up to now, including art, old photographs and landscapes.
LIU BOLIN- Liu Bolin's art is intended to show how city surroundings affect people. He claims to make a statement about his place in society. He sees himself as an outsider whose artistic efforts are not always valued, especially in his native country. He uses himself as a blank canvas. He paints his body to merge as seamlessly as possible with what is behind him. The inspiration behind his work has a sense of not fitting in to modern society and was a silent protest against the persecution of artists.
'Some people call me the invisible man, but for me it's what is not seen in a picture which is really what tells the story'.
What can you see?
He examines the ways in which the real events depicted can serve new purposes. Liu created a space for the Chinese artist, preserving their social status and highlighting their often troubled relationship with their physical surroundings. ''Shadow'' in his work draws the concept of the helplessness of the individual; instead of taking the individual in the face of society as its a focal point, it explores the relationship of the individual to its natural environment. I did a few demonstrating on behalf of his work; as i am from two different backgrounds, i feel like I've been an outsider because i was brought up differently living in China for half of my life. I created a submerged photograph of myself within an atlas with some text saying 'lets get lost' which states saying lets get lost in a world we don't know, have an experience learning things yet to come to ourselves.
TRAVEL
Testing these ideas, i opened an atlas and picked a random page and put scrabble pieces on it, random things came to my head and what i did to incorporate other photographs was to layer myself within the background. I made it possible by using opacity, filter tools, played around using different methods in Photoshop, using the original photographs for evidence that it was my photograph. The artist that inspired me was Liu Bolin. I did another photograph of these from the four seasons, I took a photograph of leaves with its reds and oranges back in the Autumn term and used the same photograph of myself within it.
I then went into experimenting with different photographs put together as one. Such as the tree in the background, the photograph of me and my friend when we were little; looks as though we climbing through the trees and entering a world that is 'half-caste' of China and the U.K. The chinese symbols relate to where i was brought up, the never ending traffic jams whereas coming back to the u.k in the summer was a change, being by the british sea and living with
the british culture.
But this also reminds me of the artist Chuck close; whose visual elements- shapes, textures, volumes, shadows, and highlights or the photograph itself. With a paintbrush clamped between his teeth, he developed a new way to paint. 'The event' he'd developed a method of assembling imagery from tiny loops and lozengers of colour arranged in a grid; its an art at once richly human and hugely distanced.
Through experimenting; i've come across a link between Chuck Close and my work combined; the landscapes that i use and then put it into filter mode and use opacity to submerge myself in looks like a photographic version of Chuck Close!
I then went on to looking into the artist David Hockney, whose work i am very interested in which is the photography cubism. His motivation in producing them was to introduce three artistic elements which a single photograph cannot have, namely layered time, space and narrative. Hockney points out that single photo expresses a single instant, and so cannot represent time or narrative. When it comes to photo cubism; I love creating a collage made of pieces from a landscape, a piece of art and making it into something so much better.- David Hockney website.
As a kid, i was always a big fan of 'where's wally'? Catching out where was wally etc, so i intended to take out pages of where's wally illustration and put myself within making it harder to find me. Almost like a puzzle! and called it 'where's dowie'?'
