Project 2: Memory Map

Integrative Studio 2

Project 2: Memory Map

I first drew a map of China on sulphuric acid paper

Then I pick out the places I’ve been and paint the rest with acrylic (in my world, each province has a different color. These colors are subjective to me, when I hear the name of each province, one color always pops into my mind, so I draw them.)

On another piece of sulphuric acid paper, holes were cut out of the areas I had visited, creating a sense of “tearing”

Place two sheets of sulphuric acid paper on top of each other

Use Photoshop to make collages of photos I’d taken of places I’d visited

After viewing the various masterpieces about maps in MoMA, I found that Grayson Perry’s “Map of an Englishman” moved me the most. As we can tell from the title, the map he created had something to do with his identity. The map is filled with different small buildings and is not marked with city names, but with words related to his feelings, such as “romance”, “cliche”, “myth” and “dreams”. I think he has the same idea as me — a map can be used to show one’s identity and convey one’s views and feelings about a place to others based on personal experiences and memories. I think my map creation will also add a lot of personal feelings, hoping that others can feel the different charm of different places through my perspective.
I think about the article“Of Sponge, Stone and the Intertwinement with the Here and Now: A methodology of Artistic Research” as well, and I realize that art is to express to others the way you see the world and let others feel your emotional attitude and understanding of the world through your works. Thus, I decided to use my perspective to depict China in my eyes. I color in places I haven’t been to with my subjective ideas. I use the photos I took of the places I have been to make a collage to form a map of China in my eyes.

I made the sulphuric acid paper into the feeling of “tearing” because I think the world is a mystery. There will always be places we have never been, and there will always be beautiful things we see casually. There are places we know but have never visited, places we have only a subjective impression of — places covered with sulphuric acid paper that I have not torn open; Some of the places we went to have good or bad memories — the ones I ripped apart and made collages. The world is like a gift, and each of us is a gift opening child.

While working on this piece, I discovered that I love collage very much. I think collage is an element that can well connect imagination with reality. In this work, I used collage to show the memories brought by the places I have been. This element is objective, but collage makes my expression subjective. Which photo to collage? How to collage? The different answers to these questions will make the whole painting different in style. I think I’ll use collage a lot in the future.