About | Angelina Fan

My name is Angelina Fan majoring in Strategic Design & Management at Parsons. My art is my emotion-my every little thought and every little palpitation. It still feels surreal to me that I am studying art, something so intuitive and insensible. In real life, I am a rigid person, and it’s only in the art world that I am liberated. Every stroke on the paper comes from me-the internal me, the subconscious me. I used to like to call myself an abstract artist. I still am. However, many things have changed. I want to call myself an artist with responsibility. Parsons taught me to make art not just for myself but for others as well. Art is so powerful that it connects human’s collective consciousness. It can touch the depth of our heart, and the spirit of art remains forever in the cosmos.

The mystery of the universe always interests me. The dark side of human nature, the compassionate kind and warm senses also touch me. I want to understand why are humans so complicated. Why have I felt so lonely, in pain and helpless? And how I was saved by the spirit of God. Art allows me to explore, refine, and drown in my own thoughts.

At the beginning of the first semester, I was freely exploring the world of art and consciousness inside of me. I was able to do many projects that help me to collect the pieces of myself. Later on, I started to work on projects that lead to understanding the minds of many others. I was able to do a video project with my partner Elena Volaki. We did not know each other at all in the beginning and was able to precisely capture each other’s state of mind in art. It was a magical experience. The video was like a secret language that only both of us know. I realized I have the power to feel others emotions. I was able to see what they see and feel their pain, anxiety, happiness, insecurities and hopes. Another project also proved to me that I could sense people’s feeling, including people I have never met. It was making a memorial for a surrealist artist called Leonora Carrington. Through researching her artworks and learning more about her. I can almost feel the tough life she had had. Her desperation, hope, happiness and the final peace at the end really touches me. I did a performance art for celebrating the rebirth of her spirit. I felt that she did not die because her spirit, knowledge, resistance and creativities can be passed on to the next generation.

I felt great empathy when I start to get to know a person. Humans are indeed, sinful. However, we are all so fragile and easily broken. I begin to realize that love and understanding is the base of the universe that will last for eternity.

The second semester taught me the responsibility of a designer. I wouldn’t call myself a designer yet because designers are selfless. They can dedicate all their time and energy to create something that is for the best of others. However, the necessary skills my instructors taught me are priceless. I was able to create a design intervention for a neighborhood. I learnt to be a crafter, who can be attentive to details, explore different areas of studies. It was so amazing for me also to include the subjects I love for my intervention. Through this process, I explored how to combine my interest, and others need to create something functional, aesthetically pleasing and intriguing.

I am also so grateful to be able to study art because it helps me to know myself so much better. Through TIME class, I explored the most profound topic -time. My love for science, mysteries, the unknown and adventure helped me to break the ice with myself. I learnt my fear and overcame most of it. I also stared at my insecurities and fixed a lot of it. Time taught me patience. And art taught me the vulnerability of humans, the power of love and compassion.

The pain, the ugly, the hopeless and sins will surely exist in this world. However, I found a new mission–to shed light on love, trust and belief.

The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.

Projects that help me to know myself: