Skip to content

Mayu Maruyama

semester two ANIMAL

week 1

reflection of exhibited project

Last Semester, I was exploring the connection between ecological nature and the human body/mind through the project. It started with the question; how the food I eat everyday affect my mental state. I recorded 30 days of everyday meals with a food diary, and record my mood by drawing.

The media was pre-recorded video from animation video and installation. I ‘chose’ the media for the online show. I did not think about these representation forms when I started the experimentation. I was just eating as normal, recorded and drew. I realised that interdisciplinary practice is different from intermedia art. The media, the video was chosen not because it was best to represent my ‘idea’ or ‘thought’ but it was best to show my ‘practice’.

Looking at the content of the project, I explored food and eating. In my first year, I did experimentation with food with the research about Laila Gohar. Eating and food is something cultural but very natural.

▶︎ references: food and eating

Dali’s cookbook
in ictu oculi (2009) – GRETA ALFARO

a Music video: Kisetsuhatsugitsugishindeiku (2016) – amazarashi
eat art performance: Eat design (2012) – Honey and bunny

Animals eat. How human eat differently from other animals. What gastronomic habitat means to us. Human beings do not eat just for maintaining their lives but for pleasure.

About Me

2nd Year Fine Arts Student

Subscribe to My Blog

Get new content delivered directly to your inbox.

mimicking an animal

When I was studying in Hong Kong, I used to perform chinese lion dance. A pair of dancers mimic a lion’s movements in the costume. The lion is based on a mythical monster. It performed to bring good luck and fortune. The dance involves elements of martial arts and gymnastic formation. This dance inspired me to focus on movement of feet.

I never focused on or think about feet as much I do for hands. While hands often represent cultural activities of human, feet represent athletic activities; walking, running, dancing, and gymnastics. Hands symbolise creation, soul, sensitivity, and consciousness. Feet show the strength and ability of the life.

gods, beasts, and women


tutorial

reflections on last semester: I realised that just trying ideas will lead me somewhere, so I have a wide repertoire of possibilities.

reflections on my last project: The animation was too much work for me especially post production part. On the other hand, I enjoyed installation, how it gives a whole different experience in the project room. I experienced using settings/recording equipment.

expectations on myself this semester: I love trying out many ideas, but i’d like to be in more coherent and connected. repetition -> pattern -> project and practice.

investigation this semester so far: It was surprising that the film looks intimate. ‘It is humorous but uncanny, and very intimate and so sensitive.’ It is relate to animal: the beasts don’t have hands that only have feet. They have powerful physical ability.

Activities that requires strong feet: exercising, running, or dancing, they are a little bit more ‘animalistic’. It brought me to think about the relationship between the soul and the body.

A dancer can go beyond the soul. When a dancer dances they don’t think, they just follow what their body remembers. Sometimes the soul can’t follow the movement of the body. The body is free from the soul.

I think human beings are attracted to animalistic movements. However, Miranda suggested that sometimes it’s really uncomfortable for people to see humans behaving as animals because they know it’s far from our usual behaviour. Humans consider animals to be beneath humans, not equal or above.

next step?: living through the consciousness of my feet to understand things more deeply from the perspective of my feet. Take consciousness to my feet. As an example of disconnected perspective: An octopus has 8 brains one in each limb. They have a perception and consciousness of, in and from their different limbs.

week 2

lecture

drawing with feet

Putting a paper on the floor and using paint and a thick charcoal stick, I drew with my feet. Through this experimentation, I was exploring the figure prints of my feet, the consciousness of them, the limit of their movement. 

When I was trying to make different kinds of marks with my feet, I felt like I’m dancing. It reminds me of figure skating. The skating blade draw lines on the surface of the ice rink in each steps, turns, spins, moves…  

Dance ≒ action/movement of the body -(power/gravity)-> feet -> surface => drawing

  • mark
  • figure
  • dance
  • concentration
  • consciousness
  • extension
feet drawing (charcoal)

Our consciousness goes beyond our body. It is extensive.

I can ‘feel’ the surface where the paper and the charcoal stick are touching. What is our ‘consciousness’? Is it related to our soul or spirit? How long it can be extended (How far it can go beyond our body)? 

colour version

visual distinction between human and animal

abstraction

colour

monotone

photography

figure

skin

surface

texture

narrative

setting

artist research

Anthropometries (1960), Yves Klein

“status moments of the flesh”,“Architectural decoration or integration process and products resulting from the said process”

“That was very interesting for me, that the body and the soul is one in a print.” […] “the most concentrated expression of vital energy imaginable,” (Rotraut) © Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, 2019

‘Anthropometry, the real—and not symbolic—presence of the model in the flesh. This is her body. Can we doubt it? One need only approach one of her prints and, “nature and spirit,” it awakens. Its origin takes shape once again, for the life lying there is permanent. We are touched by this flesh. (…)’ (Excerpt from the book “Incandescence” by Frédéric Prot, 5 continents editions, Milan, Italy, 2012)

relate to my project: human body, paint, painting after the performance, female, marks, imprints, results, energy, soul, spirit, catch, shape

week 3

workshop 1

barefoot

I went to the beach just 5 minutes away from where I live in Aber. I was sitting on the sand watching the sea, people walking, and dogs running and playing. I observed and sketched the movement of them.

I tried playing with the sand first. I made marks, dug a hole, felt each piece of sand and small stones. My feet started to hurt at this point by wet sand and stones. I was a bit jealous of dogs for their strength. They were truly enjoying playing on the beach. I was suffering from cold air and pain on my feet. Even if it’s during the summer, I will be suffered from the hotness of the sand…

I put my foot into the wave. I felt the movement of the sea. The energy of them. I was scared of them or getting wet.

In the end, I decided to go back to my place with my barefoot. Even just walking was tough action at this point. Each step is a pain. My foot was catching every sharp edge of every sand. Walking on the asphalt road was easier than on the beach. I loved walking on the wet soft grass. It covered the gaps in my fingers.

week 4

workshop 2

imagined animal

Prionailurus bengalensis yaeyamensis

My imagined animal is based on real endangered subspieces by Prionailurus bengalensis iriomotensis (Iriomote Cat). I imagined how Iriomote cat can evolute to survive with the climate change (water shortage) and threats of invasive species.

bibliography:

https://www.iucnredlist.org/ja/species/18151/97215980

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iriomote_cat#Classification_and_genealogy

https://www.jstage.jst.go.jp/article/jgeography1889/105/3/105_3_354/_pdf/-char/ja

https://www.brh.co.jp/publication/journal/047/research_21.html#3

notes

In the beginning of the workshop we listened the soundtrack ‘Glastonbury Ocean Soundscape’ by Chris Watson. I was listening it putting my hand in the water. The felt the vibration of the water traveled by the sound.

animal and classic music

my playlist “animal”:

These are beautiful playlists on IDAGIO:

“Wild Things” https://app.idagio.com/playlists/wild-things?utm_source=pcl

“Bird Songs” https://app.idagio.com/playlists/bird-songs?utm_source=pcl

territorial

I had been kicking yarn while walking and moving around in the house. The action remains me of cats playing with yarn. Kicking them as walking. it became like yarn is guiding my way; the action of my feet came before the move of my whole body.

The wool strings show the memory of my move. When my housemate saw the condition of the house, she said, “It’s strange that I can feel you, your presence without seeing you there.” It is a kind of marking to identify its own territory as some animals do.

artist research

Thinker (2016), Maya Dunietz, Centre Pompidou

‘On the first floor, the viewer immerses in a cloud made of thousands of headphones. A look from above unveils the cloud origin, on an upper-level balcony. The thicket floods the space with humming white particles. The sounds coming out of the headphones, as well as the sounds emerging from the balcony of the gallery are an invitation to investigate the space, exposing a unique acoustic phenomena that comes to life as the audience moves around the room. while this Thicket is singing its song other sounds are heard in the space, sounds that we can hear but not yet see, low mumbles and groans and birds echoing from the second floor.’

‘Nature is a temple in which living columns sometimes emit confused words. Man approaches it through forests of symbols, which observe him with familiar glances,’ (Baudelaire, ‘Correspondences’, 1857)

relate to my project: tingled, string, white, installation, space,

relate to group proposed project: sound, multiple, installing, digital devices, multiple, listing, ingestion, medium, harmony, space, 

tutorial

What next:

  • Practice on the outside (maybe start on the beach or the park?)
  • Long string drawing on the beach
  • Night time string feet drawing
  • (Night time charcoal feet street drawing)
  • Lay down on the street and feet drawing/moving only feet
  • 20 x 30 second film on just feet (something like week1)
  • Moving the camera around feet took by an assistant
  • Looking closer to the skin
  • looking closer to the skin

artist

John Copland

Self-Portrait (Hands Spread on Knees) 1985
Self-Portrait (Back with Arms Above)  1984

Douglas Gordon

Play Dead (2003) https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/gordon-play-dead-real-time-this-way-that-way-the-other-way-al00339

Francis Alys https://francisalys.com/

Reel – Unreel (2011)

The Green Line (2004)

The Leak (2002)

Sometimes Making nothing leads to Something (1997)

Fairly Tales (1992)

Miranda Whall

0.0018926244284047371% (2016)  http://www.mirandawhall.space/?page_id=2367

proposal for group project

week 5

workshop 3

  • Map
  • Line
  • Drawing
  • Identity
  • Emotion
  • Walking
  • Performance
  • Cell division
  • Changing
  • Assembling
  • Cell biology
  • Cellular structure
  • Nucleus
  • Specimen/Sample

the surface

I tried to explore the abstraction of human figure and the skin. I looked closer to my feet, took photographs of them. Some of them still look like feet, but some looks like other part of the body, or something completely different.

Week 6

territorial (02)

I did string drawing on the beach at night instead of in the house. As soon as I took off my shoes, I felt the coldness of the sand. The wet sand caught my feet. All the weight and heaviness. pulled me into the sand. The strings tied me down there. But I ran and resist them. The strings made strange patterns on the sand, and the drawings looks like the web. I can see some geometric patterns in them.

where they always touch

I laid down on the sand, and dance or move ONLY my legs my upper body touching on the land still. In the first and third videos, my face is facing down. In the second one, my face is facing down.

from anima to terra

  • I came too far away from you
  • I rejected touching you when you always do
  • I kicked you to jump higher
  • I built a tower to escape from you 
  • I dreamed of flying, cutting our connections completely
  • but my body wishes fallen into you
  • blended with, melted into, soaking in you,
  • wishes dreaming the same dream,
  • waiting for flowers fallen, 
  • creating beautiful trees, 
  • yet my soul, it may leave my body
  • it will not stay still
  • traveling and passing through with air
  • but someday it will touch the surface of you
  • will be waiting for it

week 7

workshop 4

perspective

I put myself in the cupboard and moved a camera around my feet to see how they look different from usual perspective. In these short videos, my feet look like more of a object rather than the live not only because they are not moving. It can be the ‘gaze’, the movement of camera. We know that we are not able to see something from this angle with this speed by our own eyes.

Some more exploration of feet like I did in week 1. I tried in shorter durations, in 10 seconds to 30 seconds.

    • I
    • DON’t
    • MERELY
    • IMITATE
    • THE
    • ANIMAL
    • WHAT
    • I
    • WANT
      ARE
      THE
      MOVEMENTS
    • AN
    • ANIMAL
    • SHOWS
    • TO
    • A
    • CHILD,
    • NOT
    • THE
    • ONES
    • IT
    • SHOWS
    • TO
    • AN
    • ADULT,
    • TAKE
      A
      DOG,
    • FOR
    • INSTANCE,
    • HOW
    • IT
    • MOVES
    • WHEN
    • PLAYING
    • WITH
    • A
    • CHILD
    • IS
    • TOTALLY
      UNLIKE
    • HOW
    • IT
    • MOVES
    • WHEN
    • PLAYING
    • WITH
    • GROWN-UP
    • LIKE
    • US.
    • TO GET TO THAT POINT YOU’VE GOT TO BECOME A SINGLE PIECE OF BONE
      • Hijikata Tatsumi, In Conversation with Shibusawa Tatsuhiko, 1968
  • bone
  • flesh
  • spirit,
  • stone
  • water
  • air,
  • cold
  • wet
  • soft,

tutorial

  • immobility of bone – is like a stone <-> flesh and blood – is constantly moving
  • Sometimes I have an urge to move, to do something physical – This might come from inner movement of my body, or from our soul, anima
  • The perspective film – in the cupboard with a selfie stick – a new abstract perspective – gain something but loose usual points of view
  • when I lay down on the ground facing down, it’s harder to move my legs. -> explore the different range of movements
  • What are you trying to do in the first 3 laying down images? 
  • Body contact with the sand – a different and new experience of the body contacting the earth
  • Transporting my consciousness from your feet to other parts of the body
  • Exploring how my body wants to move on the beach at night
  • Following the sound of the waves and wind when moving legs
  • When you got home and looked at the footage what was the gap between the experience and the representation?
  • I didn’t expect anything and so the film footage was new – it was like installing a new image to my mind
  • You are not a dancer and so you will make shapes with your body that you do not recognize
  • Child and adult – pure new experience
  • Somatic – the bodies experience instead of the mind’s experience
  • What will you take forward now?
  • The legs on the beach are the strongest – why?
  • Because its new for you – the experience is the strongest, the body memory is leading, so you are less in control, so you feel the body is making the work, this is exciting you the most because you feel restricted in life, this feels the most cathartic Questioning what has happened to your body and your mind?

week 8

workshop 5

The workshop led by Anna was beautiful. We started by thinking back on our designed animals and had a meditating session with the soundtrack which really helped us to relax. 

We went for walk after the meditation. My animal didn’t like the brightness of the outside first but decided to go hunting anyway. She went to the harbour to catch some fishes, but she decided not to swim because the water in Aberystwyth was too cold for her who grew up on the tropical island. She walked down to the beach and found some birds there. After playing with waves and birds, she got her breakfast and decided to go back to her nest.

After sharing drawing from the walk, we moved to the creative response to the collaborative drawing and characteristics. I decided to do drawing and dancing. I first wrote a score for dancing before stared to move. However, I did not want to record my dance. I really liked the idea of drawing out our walk, our animals, as just line drawing. The dance is only shown by the drawing made by the movement of my feet. I feel like it’s connected to the emptiness of the vile. The score also reminds me of the list we wrote to describe our designed animals.

“Festival of Ideas: Laura Jean McKay and Esther Woolfson”.

notes from the event

The story told by Laura Jean McKay made me to think about encouraging wild animals or the communication between a human being and an animal. It also reminds me of my experience communicating with someone who doesn’t share the same languages as mine.

Thoughts coming after the event

artist research

Sophie Calle (b.1953), Suite Vénitienne (1980)

55 Photographs, gelatos silver print on paper, 23 text panels on paper and 3 colour maps on paper

How it relates to my project: chance/ a stranger/ meet/ encounter/ nothingness/ play/ real lives/ psychological projection/ emotion/ consciousness/ cyberspace/ uncertainty/ imprecision/ performance without ‘spectator’

‘Venetian Suite records Calle’s attempts to track her subject over the course of his thirteen-day stay in Venice. She investigates and stalks him, enlisting the help of friends and acquaintances she makes in the city. Eventually Henri B. recognises Calle, and they share a silent walk. Even after this encounter Calle continues her project, shadowing Henri B. from a distance until his arrival back in Paris.’ (Taylor)

Hijikata Tatsumi (1928-1986), Hosotan (1972)

How it relates to my project: dance/ cultural background/ land or floor/ darkness/ skin/ memory/ barefoot/ solo/ transmutation 

‘For this  performance that dates from 1972, Hijikata gives us to see a primitive body that draws its energies in the hollow of its belly and, slowly, emerges from nothingness to access self-awareness.’ (Numeridanse)

object, animal,child, and human

an solitary animal

week 9

proposal

I made a video from some footages of my performance. Only the first part is uncut, and the directions of my body changes in transition.

After having feedbacks, I decided to make a series series of three videos, and each of them only contain one shot each.

Another aspect I need to think about is the sound. There is bugging noise of winds, and it might disturb the atmosphere. I wanted to keep the raw energy of environment where I performed, but the aesthetic of work needs to be considered as well. I will watch, listen, and reflect footages again and choose ‘better quality’ ones or perhaps edit the volume.

part 1

ver.A: audio replaced with other video’s audio
ver.B: edited audio from original

part 2

audio edited from original

part 3

ver.A: audio replaced with other video’s audio
verB: edited audio from original
ver.C: reversed audio of ver.A
ver.D: reversed audio of ver.B

week 10

In the workshop, I was suggested to try playing the video without audio. I liked them and many of my classmates also agreed that it enhances the video.

Feedbacks;

  • The sound of wave suggests the image of sea animals.
  • More imagination and interpretation in silence.
  • With sound, I am sticking the earth and ground.
  • Without the audio, I’m in the dark space.
  • infinity
  • earth, air
  • Sudden end fits to the concept.
  • Showing the silenced video to who haven’t seen the video before.

Connected to the concept;

  • Where my soul is?
  • – I feel like it’s around me, in the air rather than inside of my body when I was dancing.
  • Relationship between air, land, and the me?
  • – The practice came from the idea that my feet is usually touching on the ground.
  • – My feet and legs were moving freely during the performance.
  • – My body was grounded and still.
  • – Divided: body (flesh and bone) and soul
  • – Divided: air, land, and sea
  • – Whole
  • – I do not existed only as body nor soul.
  • – I am not existed only on the land. I am in the air. I listened the sea.
  • – The darkness and the silence can contain everything and any possible environment, time, etc.

week 11

online exhibition: spring show 30.04-01.05.2021

Transitions of each projects are a lot smoother than winter show especially with the showreel of pre-recorded video.

Dan’s performance was one of my favorite. Where he was performing was the same beach I performed. It was strange encounter with an animal. I was watching this with my housemates, and she got shocked what’s going on and it is happening on the nearest beach.

In the very first showreel, it started with my short video. It was interesting transition from my silent video focusing on footage to Tim’s video focusing on the sound. I like how Paulina and Farrah’s work has relations to their 1st semester projects.

Watching Nidhi’s drawing was fun and entertaining. I was amazed how quick she draw the lion. I’m sure the audience also kept engaged with this live stream.

From May-Ling’s project, me and my friend had a discussion about how clothes can be a metaphor of ‘animal in the cage’ but also human being can switch our minds by just unclothing like in sexual context.

Ellie was quite decisive when she put paints on her face. As an painter, the good consistency of paint interests me as well. They works well with her feelings and instinct.

Richard’s was so fun to watch. Imitating animals is shown several times in the exhibition, but each of them has different atmosphere and effects. The classical music makes the film cinematic, dramatic, and putting different animals together.

Amy’s drawings were pretty. I was so glad to see the drawings from my work as well! She said that there is something disturbing about my work. Seems like it managed to convey the concept…

semester one NATURE

Week1

My Body, Small Nature

When people talk about ‘nature’, we usually address them as ecological elements and phenomena like weather, air, land, sea, and sky. I got overwhelmed by thinking about working with tho they’re too broad, too large, too powerful… What if I look smaller nature like the human body and mind?

I decided to start working on my hair. It’s part of my body and one of the parts where I feel easy to deal with. I touch my hair every day; brushing, styling, and washing them. Sometimes, I go to the salon to cut or dye my hair. Nevertheless, my hair continues growing and falling off from my scalp. This is the ‘nature’ I want to start looking at.

The hair on my pillow, hairbrush, or on the bathroom floor is usually annoying and it took so much effort to clean them up. Instead of cleaning them I collect them and use as materials for my experiment. My hair naturally curly but for a long time, I straightened it. So I did the same care for hair (which my body decided it not necessary any more) which I collected. I washed, dried, straighten with hair iron, put hair oil, used hair wax and braid.

Roses

In the next step, I wanted to be more closer to nature but not from my body. When I was drinking espresso in the cafe, I found flower bouquet on the table. As a painter, I started to sketch them. As I drawing I discovered the complex structure and thumbnailed nature in it. Leaves and flowers fall when the season changes as does human hair.

When I decided to work with flowers and leaves I went to the supermarket to get some bouquet. I choose white roses because of its colour and its cultural context. Both hair and flower have quite a lot of cultural, historical references especially in the field of fashion and beauty.

Using a string made by my falling hair, I combine a rose and the string. comparing them, I found that flowers die faster but hair last longer, so I decided to observe how the work I made will change as time goes by.

References for roses

In modern society, the roses are often used as a symbol of romantic relationships. Here, I looked at the symbolism of roses in culture and literature contexts.

Beauty and the Beast, fairytale

Beauty had desired a rose. In some versions, there is an enchanted rose.

 ‘Roses Are Red’, classic English rhyming poem

Roses are red,

Violet are blue,

Sugar is sweet,

And so are you.

classic English rhyming poem

Rose is a rose is a rose is a rose

Gertrude Stein, Sacred Emily

it’s often used to imply that things are what they are.

A rose by any other name would smell as sweet

Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet

it’s used to imply that the names do not affect what they truly are.

Portrait of Marie-Antoinette

Portrait de Marie-Antoinette 1783
Elisabeth Vigée Le Brun
Oil Painting
Versailles

Painting of iconic fashion leader in history with a rose.

Female Nude with Roses

J.A. 1969
Peter Blake
screenprint on paper
Tate

References of (woman) Hair

Hair (Long Hair) often symbolises the youth, health, and beauty. Hairdressers or barbers have a long history as an occupation. Nowadays, there are so many hair-care products on the beauty market. Also, it related beauty struggles that especially women have.

Talking about my own experience, I had used to get a straight perm to my hair since when I was ten. Growing up in Japan, people whom most of them have straight hair didn’t stop commenting about my curly hair because it wasn’t ‘normal’ for them.

Rapunzel!

Rapunzel!

Let down your hair

That I may climb thy golden stair!’

Rapunzel, fairytale

Coat spring/summer 2009, Maison Margiela

Coat spring/summer 2009
Maison Margiela
polyester, acrylic, silk
The Metropolitan Museum
https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/715213

The Artisanal concept is central to the philosophy of the house: one-of-a kind, handmade objects made from repurposed or cheap textiles and found objects, show that luxury resides not so much in the preciosity or opulence of the materials, but that the artisanship, time and effort which went into the garment are what makes it haute couture. 

The MET

Berlin Exercises: Dreaming under Water 1974-5, Rebecca Horn

Berlin Exercises: Dreaming under Water 1974-5
Rebecca Horn
Film, 16mm, shown as video, colour and sound
Tate
http://www.tate.org.uk/art/work/T07625

‘Cutting one’s hair with two pairs of scissors simultaneously’ begins with a man describing the ‘combat dances’ and mating rituals of certain snakes (in German, with English subtitles). The artist appears during the narration in a close up, holding a pair of scissors in each hand and crudely cutting her hair shorter and shorter. In the final sequence, one of the windows appears to open by itself. The film ends with a brief textual epilogue superimposed on the image of the empty room with one open widow. It translates as: ‘When a woman and her lover lie on one side looking at each other, / and she twines her legs around the man’s legs / with the window wide open, it is the oasis’.

Tate,

Two pairs of scissors she uses might represent snakes that the man described. At the same time, they can be a metaphor for men. The way she cuts her hair is so violent that she keeps continuing cutting even it’s quite close to her eyes, and she slipped them on her face. However, her facial expression shows sadness, anger, and horror, so it looks like she was forced to do the act. If pairs of scissors represent men, the hair represents women. The fact she is cutting her hair by herself displays that in a patriarchal society, men control women or made the one who doesn’t obey them as “crazy woman”.

Week2

Lecture

manufactured enhances nature

creation comes from destruction

terror is beauty

resist/accept

bring into nature/bring nature into

Fruits

Started with a flower, I moved to look at other plants, fruits. Some flowers become fruits. Using my own body, I explore the symbolism of fruits and how does it relate with the human figure.

Artist Research: Collecting fruits

Natural Selection 1981, Anthony Gormley

Natural Selection 1981
Antony Gormley
Metal, wood, glass, plastic and food
Tate
https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/gormley-natural-selection-t03681#3

‘Natural Selection’ consists of twenty-four objects. Half are man-made and half are natural in origin. They are arranged in a canon of ascending size in which manufactured objects alternate with natural ones.

Tate

Soul City (Pyramid of Oranges) 1967, Roelof Louw

Soul City (Pyramid of Oranges) 1967
Roelof Louw
Oranges, wood, plastic
Tate
https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/louw-soul-city-pyramid-of-oranges-t13881

Viewers are invited to take one orange each, gradually consuming the work. Even if no one takes them, the work will still eventually rot and disintegrate.

Tate

Week 3

Workshop 1

Ocean breathes

The area of the World Ocean covers about 70% of Earth’s surface.

Roughly 45-75% of the human body is water.

The flow of the ocean waves is approximately 18 times per minutes.

A person breathes at least 12 to 20 times per minutes.

Exhale as the waves come.

Inhale when the waves are gone.

Feel water in and out of the body.

Feel the waves; waves of the ocean, air, and solar.

Week 4

Connecting Memories

The Process

  • Write, draw, and paste on papers
  • Roll them and roll over again and again until it gets the size of tree stump. (eg. the circumference of an oak tree: around 10 inches)

Experimentations

Thoughts

Human invented paper and printing system for the purpose of documentation. We write notes, diary, stories, poetries, letters…. Those ‘papers’ sometimes bring our ‘lost memories’ back when we read them.

The shape reminds me the handscroll, the form of documentation before people designed books.

The final outcome

  • Could be exhibited.

Even when you think you forget the things, there is a time you suddenly remember them when you do, see, touch, smell, and hear something. It’s like, you lost a part of your memories but something, someone, or your own body remember it, and you found it or not find it. We can’t read what we write on papers we used, but surely it exists there.

  • When it fall apart, we can look for own papers

It refers to my experience in workshop 1. The gesture of looking for acorns reminds me of my childhood. ‘Nature’ was keeping our memories and we found them.

Artist Research

Nobutaka Aozaki, Postings, 2015-, 2017

‘Collection of street advertisement tabs and photographs

‘A skyline of the city made from the collection of found street advertisements’

He has been collecting the tear-off tabs of street advertisement, making note of the date and location encountered, and photographing them.

It reflect the local economy and community/ society.

analog communication

How it connect to the project: paper/ collective in one way/ landscape/ information

A Rose and Hair String…

Artist Research

Pierre Huyghe’s, (Untitled) Human Mask, 2014

‘This film was inspired by a real situation. It opens with a pan of a deserted streetscape near Fukushima, Japan, which was devastated by natural and man-made disasters in 2011. Amid the ruin, the camera enters an abandoned restaurant and finds what appears to be the only survivor: a monkey adorned with a mask and costume of a young girl. This attire is similar to that in which her owners dress her to work in their sake house. […] evokes many such themes: the monotony of work and the repetition of ritualistic behaviors, the possibility of a catastrophic future, and the power that living creatures hold over us as ciphers of ourselves.’ (The MET)

– There was actual restaurant where monkeys working in clothes, kayabuki, Tochigi.

-manipulation

reference of masks: ancient Greek Theatre represent role and expression/ Japanese Noh mask represent roles/ Moretta Mask in 17c Venezia/ Surgical Face Mask

role/ system/ man/ wig/

Week 5

Workshop 3

Things Which Are Controllable and Uncontrollable

To explore the nature of hair, I was planning to bleach hair collected my hairbrush, but I got interested in bleaching the part of my hair since I haven’t tried it before.

It took me almost 60min to get the pigment out from my hair, yet the colour is not even yellow because pigment (melanin) in my natural hair colour is quite dark (strong).

When I was putting bleaching cream on my scalp, it started hurting a bit. After I washed it off and dried my hair, it gets more dry and frizzy than before.

It was not an easy process to change my hair colour. Is it because bleaching is not natural? There are some more ‘natural’ ways to bleaching hair, such as spend a long time in the sea water or ageing…

I also found changing my body parts quite fun. It is a great feeling when you get control over something strong or difficult. I can move; control my own body easily and unconsciously, but the shape of my body. A few years ago, I was obsessed with getting ear piercing. I wanted to ‘customise’ my body quickly and easily as I’m using my fingers to type this.

Week 6

Food, Body, Mind, Pebble, Charcoal

When I eat proper meals, I feel like I have a better mood. When I only eat snacks on a day, I feel like I’m in a bad mood. I want to explore the relationship between the food I eat and my body and mind in my way.

I started to record what I eat on each day like people on diets have a food diary to check nutrition and calories.

To make a contrast between my unstable mood, I needed something stable, hard, and still. I found a pebble from the beach and decided to draw them after I ate last food on the day.

I choose charcoal as a tool for drawing. It was my favourite tool in my drawing class because I feel more connected to the paper and the object to depict.  

01 Nov Sunday

aubergine sauté, miso soup with okura

a twix

03 Nov Tuesday

French toast, caffè, milk tea

instant noodle, orange juice

02 Nov Monday

heinz beans, tea

Singaporean noodle, ginger ale

easy peeler oranges

04 Nov Wednesday

miso soup, yogurt

vegetable soup

Neapolitan vegan spaghetti, red wine

05 Nov Thursday

vegetable soup, an easy peeler orange

yogurt, ginger ale, sandwich

two bars of mars

07 Nov Saturday

omelette

chicken sandwich

a mars

fried rice, ginger ale, caffè

06 Nov Friday

easy peeler oranges, caffè

kebab sandwiches, orange juice

ginger ale

soup, an apple

08 Nov Sunday

hot chocolate, yogurt, an apple

okra

ginger ale, tomato spaghetti

Group Project; Artist Research

Week 7

Workshop 4

Food, Body, Mind, Pebble, Charcoal (w2)

09 Nov Monday

an apple

cider, orange juice, musaka

11 Nov Wednesday

yogurt

ginger ale, orange juice, sandwiches, kaki

operator, baguette, blue and cheddar, berries

10 Nov Tuesday

espresso, stefani roll

operator, Banica with Bulgarian cheese

12 Nov Thursday

yogurt

spaghetti, yogurt

spaghetti, ice cream

13 Nov Friday

yogurt

instant wok style soba, ginger ale, ice cream

15 Nov Sunday

waffles, lemon tea

pumpkin kinpira, miso soup

waffles

14 Nov Saturday

waffles

cheese spaghetti, jalapeño, ginger ale

Installation Idea

Artist Research

Jean Dubuffet, « Le jardin d’hiver », 1968-1970

Jean Dubuffet 1901-1985, French

Le jardin d’hiver, 1968-1970, centre pompidou

polyurethane over epoxy

480 x 960 x 550 cm

The Winter Garden started out as a vinyl-painted polystyrene mock-up, which led to another in epoxy painted with polyurethane (both dated 16 August1968). It was then enlarged from June 1969 to August 1970. In this cavernish “garden”, where nothing is natural, the decor is reduced to mere black lines on a white backdrop. However, the project is complex: the ground and walls are uneven and dented, with the black marks apparently enhancing or contradicting the bumps. Looking beyond optical edification, this contemplative architecture challenges the onlooker’s entire perception.

The viewers are allowed to entre, walk, and touch. I visited the work at the centre pompidou in Paris. As I got into deeper, it got darker. The floor is not flat, so I played walking up and down.

‘Dubuffet advocated for « instinct, passion, mood, violence, madness » rather than analysis and reason, as well as closer proximity to nature and natural forms and discarding of traditional notion of beauty. – Sarah Suzuki MOMA’

How it relate with my project: Monotone/ Installation/ Drawing/ Space/ Touch/ Resembling natural landscape

Week 8

Food, Body, Mind, Pebble, Charcoal (w3)

16 Nov Monday

chocolate biscuits

tuna spinach spaghetti, ginger ale

18 Nov Wednesday

chocolate biscuits, brioche roll, dairy milk chocolate, milk tea

crisps

fried rice

chocolate

17 Nov Tuesday

chocolate biscuits

instant noodle, yogurt

chicken kara-age, lettuce, rice, ginger ale

19 Nov Thursday

brioche roll

katsu curry, ginger ale

a biscuit

20 Nov Friday

San Francisco Style Sourdough, brioche roll, milk tea

salmon sandwich, crisps

patta, vegan sausage, watercress, mushed potato, orange juice

22 Nov Sunday

yogurt, caffè, orange juice, pistachios

an orange, instant noodle

candies

21 Nov Saturday

toasts with marmalade

chocolate, crisps, percy pig candies

pistachios, orange juice

Workshop 5

paper memorial, memory forest

Artist Research

Rachel Whiteread, Judenplatz Holocaust Memorial, Nameless Library,Vienna

‘Silent Witness examines the British sculptor Rachel Whiteread’s Nameless Library, (1996-2000), a holocaust memorial in Judenplatz Square, Vienna. For her project, the sculptor designed an inverted library in concrete, the proportions being derived from those found in a room surrounding the square.While the majority of critics refer to this memorial as an ‘inside out’ library, this paper argues that Whiteread’s design is not so easily understood. It will identify the ways in which her design complicates relationships between sculpture and architecture, container and contained, private and public, interior and façade, as well as domestic and civic scales.’ (Carley, https://unitec.researchbank.ac.nz/bitstream/handle/10652/2232/IDEA.pdf?sequence=1)

– closed book, closed building

– symbolism of books

– The location is surrounded by baroque buildings. The audience doesn’t realise books until they look closer.

How it relate the project: paper/ memory/ material/ unreadable/ nameless/ minimal/ human story/ forgetting

Compressed Time

Things were not really moving, but the time has passed.

We didn’t feel time, but the time has passed.

You were hurt, when the time has passed.

I was lonely, and the time has passed.

When I was talking with my friend about the experience we had during the lockdown, they mentioned that it’s like everything is compressed. Things were too much to put into usual sense of time, but we also feel like not many things happened in our personal life.

When we put something into smaller scale, we feel them more powerful or stronger. Or, we manipulate ourselves to feel like things are packed so we can take control over the circumstances or environment.

Artist Research: for my project


Katie Paterson, Hollow, 2016

‘This immersive piece of architecture, created with Zeller & Moye brings together over 10,000 unique tree species, including petrified wood from the earliest forests that emerged over 390 million years ago; a sample from the oldest tree in the world, and some from the youngest and near-extinct species.’ (http://katiepaterson.org/portfolio/hollow/)

We can experience the installation online from: http://www.hollow.org.uk

How it connect to the project: installation/ architectural/ mimic/ digital installation space/ zoom into/ virtual experience/ information

A short clip from Mona Hatoum’s Corps étranger, (1994)


Mona Hatoum, Corps étrange, 1994

Mona Hatoum (b.1952 Lebanon) London based artist

‘[…] a video installation that I made using an endoscopic camera to film both the surface and the inside of my body, pushed this idea of surveillance to an absurd extreme — I was implying that surveillance can even penetrate inside you. There’s no place that remains unturned or unobserved.’ (Hatoum, https://the-talks.com/interview/mona-hatoum/)

-incarceration/ displacement

‘ On the one hand it is fascinating to feel like you are inside the body; at the same time it is disgusting. It is seductive and disgusting at the same time.’ (Hatoum, https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2016/may/03/mona-hatoum-show-at-tate-modern-will-feature-graphic-video-work?CMP=share_btn_link)

‘The video is projected in a circle on the floor of a cylindrical structure which the viewer enters through one of the two narrow doors situated on either side of it, while a soundtrack, broadcasting heartbeats as they can be heard from different parts of the body being examined by the camera, accompanies the video image.‘ (Baumgatner http://www.newmedia-art.org/cgi-bin/show-oeu.asp?ID=150000000007761&lg=GBR)

How it connect to the project: projection on the floor/ film or video/ the body/ bring audience into something

Pipilotti Rist, Selbstlos im Lavabad (Selfless in the Bath of Lava), 1994

Pipilotti Rist (b.1962, Swiss)

Audio video installation. LCD monitor installed under the floor, sound system, MOMA PS1

https://fb.watch/1WrZYoZLDo/

-video on tiny hole in the floor

-Rist is naked and in magma, reaching up towards the viewer.

-the audience need to crouch down to look into.

-inspired by her early experience with religion

“I am a worm and you are a flower,” she wails, in German, English, and several other languages. “You would have done everything better! Help me. Excuse me.” (Tomkins)

‘Until I began asking, “What happens with the people who lived before Jesus?,” and nobody could give me an answer. Also, God never showed up. I would leave pieces of meat outside to honor God. […] It’s a really mean story, that you will be burning forever, […] When I got rid of the need to believe in God, I felt so liberated.’ (Rist) https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2020/09/14/pipilotti-rists-hedonistic-expansion-of-video-art

How it connect to the project: Video/ Perspective/ Voice/ the body

Week 9

Food, Body, Mind, Pebble, Charcoal (w4)

23 Nov Monday

a pack of candies

25 Nov Wednesday

oranges

yogurt, chicken, rice

soba noodle, VLT lemon tea

24 Nov Tuesday

ginger snaps, hot chocolate, yogurt, pistachios,

roasted chicken, rice, cucumber, ice cream

26 Nov Thursday

hot chocolate, ginger snaps

focaccia, salad, prosciutto, sunny-side up eggs, grapefruits juice

27 Nov Friday

an orange

chicken chorizo cheddar sandwich, onion rings, mango & bergamot green tea

halloumi sandwich, salad

29 Nov Sunday

yogurt

ginger snaps, apples

instant noodle

28 Nov Saturday

a banana, apples

sunny-side up egg, chicken flavor rice

instant noodle, grapefruit juice

30 Nov Monday

yogurt

chai tea with cloves

baguette

paella

Proposal Presentations

version 1: image moving
version 2: image shift
video for testing: square shape
notes from classmates’ presentations

project: pebble beach(in progress)

Experimentation for projecting the video on the floor

Week 10

workshop

lost

confused

lost in woods

looking for

expectation

anxiety

lost

excitement

expectation

lost

challenge

routine

change

nervous

being lost
I was always interested in many things and trying out every one of them. I didn’t know what to focus, didn’t know where to push. I always got lost. I still don’t know where to go in the future, but I know how to take the next step and where I am; now.

time
The acorn looks so different from when I found. It was small, smooth, and green. Now it’s brown and rough. The time has passed, and the acorn has changed. So as I. We don’t know if it’s going to make a tree or not, but it will always change as the future will happen regardless.

project wip: pebble beach

To draw my mood everyday I needed something still and simple, most importantly related ecological nature. Living just next to the beach, a pebble was perfect for the project. I had been attracted to the stillness of pebbles. It’s not changing every second, unlike us human being. Yet, it has a history. It could be parted from the ancient land or animal’s corpse. Sharpened by the water of the ocean, river, and rain. It has changed in different scale of the time.

%d bloggers like this: