Saatchi Gallery visit

I took the visit on the same day as the RA for David Hockney but decided to leave them separately so it is less confusing. The last time I went to Saatchi Gallery really was sometime ago but I can still remember how amazing it used to be, it was group show exhibiting contemporary art including Zhang Xiaogang, Yue Minjun, Wangechi Mutu and lots of good ones.

So I was kind of expecting something fascinated me, unfortunately not this time. The major exhibition is GESAMTKUNSTWERK: NEW ART FROM GERMANY 
It has a lot of ready-made found objects seen as installation and abstract paintings,  I doubt anyone would understand.. I didn't take any pictures because I haven't got my camera with me that day but the main thing I want to talk about is not the work itself but how you present it. I personally didn't find this exhibition is connected to my drawings but whenever I visit exhibition I don't just look at the art but the surrounding, I also enjoy studying the detail or minimal issues that may or may not influence the look of the artwork.

Obviously Saatchi Gallery has the prominent reputation and therefore whatever artwork it showcases people would give credit for it. Every gallery has an unique way of curating art, Saatchi Gallery is definitely contemporary, each room has wide big space with not so much artwork, each piece is separate out from each other like if they have their own personal space, the wall is always clean white with over 12 feet high, the illustration next to the art is very minimal, just names of the artist and artwork without further detail, suggested it isn't so child-friendly and possibly aim for audience who genuinely like art instead of people who randomly walking in and out the gallery.

David Hockney's Painting at RA

 (This exhibition is way too expensive and I was lucky enough to look under 18, thank god!)
I am personally not a fan of Hockney's vivid colour oil painting, although I never really look into his work, they remind me of bright blue swimming pool in 1960s American pop art style. Eye catching colours, strong and firm brushstrokes gliding onto the canvas with not so thick oil paint. They look fairly impressive from distance but not in closer look.

That is what I always thought about Hockney's work.

I must say there are certain things in terms of art will attract my attention more than others, and they more or less influenced me to create drawings in this way. I would consider myself have quite traditional taste to some extent, I like highly-detailed skillful art that also comes with surprises (or shocks) conceptually or technically, or any form of art I have never seen/experience before, like WC Escher, Peter Callesen, Mark Ryden, Paula Rego.
However I must say this exhibition changed my view slightly and I am actually quite impressed by some of Hockney's work. I am in awe of the way he uses imagination to build up the painting, it is like he is painting the landscape in his mind rather than seeing the actual view of the landscape, I also adore his way to paint the same environment over and over again just to observe the change of climate, it suggests a total different view to the landscape and each of them evokes different feelings. It is like presenting a circle of life or time frame through trees and colour but not so much to do with the view itself.

David Hockney also brings out a typical artist look to people, for the ones who are not so art-educated would think artist usually paint from life/landscapes/animals or whatsoever sitting in front of the view and do art. But to be very honest, a lot of in famous artists paint exactly the same style as Hockney and they sell their painting 1000 times cheaper than his, I suppose this question raised up a lot of debates and I am not here to argue or stand on one particular side.


I don't think this exhibition has inspired me in terms of my own practice directly, although I am interested to look at natural environment, I wasn't looking for inspiration from the show anyway. I was keen to look at the curating of the show at Royal Academy, to see how it leads the audience to view the show and study the reason behind. The show starts off with four giant paintings of Thixendale painted at different times, it leads the audience an impressive beginning. Size makes a huge difference to the painting, in fact, anything big instantly enhance the power of the insight no matter how crap it actually is. For instance, imagine you see a 1cm big cockcoach walking across your desk you wouldn't be too frighten by it, but if it is as big as your head I am sure anyone would get terrified. Size is a natural thing that affects anything on earth. Hockney's gigantic paintings go beyond the sight and the audience needs longer time to absorbs the vision, and it somehow goes beyond the standard size of a canvas and therefore people found it powerful.


Sometimes art is about packaging, not the artwork itself.

Cute Aesthetic

I recently submitted my application to CCW exchange program to Japan but I wasn't selected, however I do think my proposal is relevant to the study so it is worth to talk about it.
 

My art practice has always been based on my personal thought towards life or experience and there are certain aspects I was particularly interested; Childhood memories, fantasy, fairy tales, fluffy animals and innocence objects. People often described my work as naïve but pretty. To some extend they are inspired by Japanese Kawaii(cute) culture consciously and unconsciously. I originally come from Hong Kong, a city that is very much influenced by Japanese culture. I often get the comments of viewers that my art contains cute aesthetic and therefore it has the power to fascinate people, especially in Asia. But being educated in the UK, I constantly try to adopt or explore new ways to draw. Two years ago I decided to abandon the cute component in my art and created a series of drawings which is rather brutal and not visually pleasant or illustrative, the Eastern viewers have so different comments towards my art from the Western’s. 

Recently I am hoping to pick up the bizarre fantasy and slightly childlike style again in a different way and I am so keen to explore the psychological thought and aesthetic intensity of Kawaii in Japanese Culture by interacting with the local people.

What do you hope to learn from the experience, both short and long term? An exchange program can offer me new encounter of life which potentially stimulate me to create new piece or idea of work. I am eager to draw in entirely new and unfamiliar surroundings. On top of that, working with people from other courses is somehow challenging to me since art has been a solitary activity to me all the time. I am hoping to gain exhibition abroad experience and get to know more about artist in residence in Far East. As a professional artist, this is a golden opportunity to experience the benefit and challenge of working abroad. My previous artist in residence experience in Milton Keynes has given me quiet and subtle environment to create art; I have also met the local professional artists and gained advice from them not only in terms of art but life. Other than that, I am interested to study or experience the aesthetic intensity not only in terms of Kawaii but the way Japanese approach art, I am more interested to analyse the differences of Chinese, Japanese and Western culture in terms of art appreciation. The relationship between viewers and art has always fascinated me and cultural difference is one of the important components. In fact I have always been a bit in awe of Japanese culture, the creativity of Japanese people is incredible, this does not only apply to art but almost everything you can see from daily life, for instance the toilet in Japan is one of the most advanced yet creative toilet worldwide, it has numerous additional features—such as blow dryer, seat heating, massage options, water jet adjustments, automatic lid opening, automatic flushing, wireless control panel. Therefore I have a feeling that Japanese artists have some unique creativity or issue that I have not yet discovered and one of my most interests is to learn/investigate the way they work on art, and I am thrilled to learn Japanese craft art, which I have always been interested to look at.

This country is undoubtedly innovative but it also maintain the tradition culture and architecture beautifully and yet it seems to be a mixed of very modern and traditional. Although I am keen to explore the contemporary (Kawaii) side of the country and I am also fascinated to meet the traditional Japan, this is a bit like an echo to my art practice, drawing is primitive and the technique I used is also considered to be traditional but the versatility is incredible and by presenting it in a new way it can be mixed of old and new art.

How will you prepare for this project?

Currently I am working on several slightly different themes but they are all based on a sequence or motion picture, I have documented hundreds of reference pictures and experimented a lot such as arranging two or even three objects into odd position or combine them together to create distortion effect that can possibly be a metamorphosis. The documentary pictures include animals, fossils, portraits, everyday surrounding (home), familiar architecture (London attractions), flowers, and museum exhibits. Recently I have also started searching for the recent news, photos and videos after the quake in Japan, and I am tempted to draw a series of drawings depicting the natural disaster. I will spend a couple of days to observe the environments of Japan especially on issues that linked to the quake, take pictures of the local people and buildings and I will also spend some time with the artists in Wonder Site if possible. All of them will help me to explore my view of Japan in a new way. 

Recent Experimental Drawings

The cat portraiture drawing is the exercise of the Drawing Lab I did last week named "Translation and Adaption", it introduces the use of a drawing aid to translate a pre-existing image from one medium to another and from one impression to another, challenging notions of authorship and reproduction. For years, artists have used two ‘L’ shapes of cardboard, a computer or even their two hands, to create a lens or picture frame to isolate good compositions in landscapes, still life’s or figure drawing. In this exercise you will use an L-shaped viewfinder to arrive at a new individualised drawn composition of an existing photograph and then use a grid to first map and magnify the image and then manipulate a second image into a transformed arrangement or distortion. 

I would describe this exercise as my favourite workshop so far, it strongly stimulates me to develop distortion in drawing by using grips. it also suggested the way how Chuck Close works on his portraiture. Although I am not a fan of his work it does help to bring out a really precise observational drawing. 

What I also like about this exercise is that the freehand grips allows me to explore the uncertainty of the finish outcome, I was fascinated by the idea of rearranging the proportion of the cat face and yet I had not idea how it would look like when it is done, it is like doing something I have never done before and I am excited to apply this idea for my zoetrope drawing.


I have also done another practice drawing of my own hand, I named it "Drawing Drawing"

Visiting Natual History Museum

So today I spent the whole afternoon browsing around Natural History Museum to search for inspiration and recent exhibitions. I was thinking to go see Veolia Environnement Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2011 but I didn't really have enough time so I only went to see the collection book and picked my favourites. Before that I went to visit some odd creatures in fossil, I like taking pictures of strange things and this is one of them for sure. Bone is the support of the body but invisible from the eye, and therefore we hardly know what exactly it looks like. I took pictures of some animal's skeletons and was stunned by the appearance.

Also I like taking pictures of odd expression fishes. It is rare to see fish with its mouth wide open and almost like a human face to me, I am tempted to draw a metamorphosis of fish emotion and perhaps this can go to my zoetrope idea? 

Strange coral.

These pictures are the drawings drawn from viewers, you are asked to fill in your name and age and select your most inspired species. The one below is my favourite one, drawn by five-year-old Audrey, I like the innocence in the picture, it reminds me of the time I taught kids how to draw.

I attempted to do a sketch of this bear because a lot of people stopped and stared and took pictures, I suppose that is due to the scary looking expression, and again that supported the reason why I like unusual faces. Darwin centre was something I aimed to look at but I found it slightly disappointing, the space was quite empty and full of pickled animals in jug (which scared me a bit).