Short Bio
My name is Grace Ling. My major is Fashion Design. I am from Singapore.
Summary
My first year at Parsons was indeed a fruitful one. I thoroughly enjoyed how I subconsciously integrated all the classes I took. For my first semester, I came into Parsons with an open mind, thinking that I am going to change the world (I still am going to), however, having studied Visual Arts in high school, I expected the class to be really advanced. Much to my surprise, the classes actually went back to the basics. We did things like light and form observation, life drawing, and color wheel painting for my Drawing and Imaging class. At first, I thought it was really basic and did not enjoy it, but then, I started appreciating the importance of having a strong foundation in art. I revisited the things I had learned in high school, but this time, with more artistic maturity and contextual knowledge, much to my surprise, I learned so much and started appreciating the simple elements of art and design, small details like light and proportion can contribute such importance to a piece. I never saw myself as someone who could draw, but I ended up making this piece from an observational drawing:
The Human Lab
Grace Ling Hui
2016
Graphite on Paper
This class turned out to be my favorite class in the fall.
For Spring 2017, I took an extra elective on top of an existing one, which I soon realized had impacted my overall work for the semester. I applied the skills I learned in my Digital Fabrication (3D Softwares) and Soft Structures (knitting) classes, in my Integrative Studio work. I then used the skills (video making) I learned in my Time class to document the final work.
Looking back at the series of works I created in my first year, I find myself oscillating between the notion of the human body, and its relation to art. I constantly revisit the themes of identity and human relationships in my works. You can probably see a lot of “bodies” in them. Here are some examples of that, in chronological order:
Body Covering
Hands
hands
hands, feet, ears
arms on fishes…
Headpiece
Head
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- Limps
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- More limps
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- Heads drowning
The differences between the works are that they are explored in different contexts and presented in different ways, for example, the pictures from the last one are pages from a book I made in my Time class.
Highlight 1
The first highlight is a material exploration from my Soft Structures class. I experimented with changing the texture of muslin by boiling it with different healthy materials.
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- Turmeric, Flour, Water (Attempted at painting with Turmeric powder) – Muslin becomes stiff, undissolved turmeric hardens and sticks onto muslin, smells like Turmeric.
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- Blended Orange (Boiled down to become sticky) – Muslin collects orange fiber, Muslin becomes moderately stiff, rough texture, smells like orange.
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- Salt + Water (Boiled down to vapour) – Muslin becomes slightly stiff, crystalised salt remains are hard and sticks onto muslin.
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- Tonic Water (Boiled down to vapour) – Muslin becomes slightly stiff, foldable like paper, clean, odourless.
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- Flour : Water (1:3) – Muslin becomes very stiff, smells like flour.
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- Sugar + Water (Boiled down to become sticky) – Molds muslin almost immediately once it cools down from the heat, creates a coloured glass-like material, smells like sugar.
This was an interesting experience as I have always felt the need to make textiles “practical”. Learning to use these materials in my work really pushed me out of my comfort zone and allow my materials to really grow without the limitations of practicality.
Highlight 2
Highlight two was my last work of the semester, titled Neoplasm. This was a very tedious yet rewarding journey. I had to learn and figure out how to use the 3D software – Rhinoceros.
I then had to learn how to use the 3D-printing machine.
All these took a lot of trial and error, one piece of 3D structure takes about 7 hours to print and not to mention, it kept failing due to my complex file size and “special” printing material.
I also learned to knit and crochet.
Overall, if I had more time, I would like to make a full body piece instead of just a “top”.
Conclusion
The connection that occurred between my academic studies and studio making was a very interesting experience. I knew what concepts I wanted to explore in the studio, however, I realized that my academic studies helped me to verbalize my concepts and place them in an appropriate context. It also made me aware of the broader implications my work can exist in. Academic and studio started feeding off and informing each other. This has inspired me to take an academic course as a minor in Parsons. I will be taking Psychology as a minor and letting it inform my works in Fashion Design. I would also like to buff up my skills on Illustrator and InDesign.
