For her Bridge 4 project in her Int seminar I class, HJ did a research on Salvador Dali who was presumably one of the greatest surrealist artists. His passion and devotion for art and his prominent and unique artworks marked a whole revolution in the history of art. Although she already knew him and his profound work Persistence of Memory, she merely knew him for his distinctive moustache and his uncanny and eerie melting clocks, neglecting to know in depth about both his personal and artist life and about his artworks. This is probably the reality for most people. Despite the fact that he is well known, not a lot of people know about him and his works in depth. Because of the obscurity ad oddness of his work, people don’t seem to relate themselves to Dali and his world. This is why she decided to create a memorial of Salvador Dali in her studio class to provide people the opportunity to connect with Salvador Dali.
In her studio class, she created an open art room where people are welcomed to fully experience Dali’s world. Just hanging his work on a wall in a museum doesn’t do the justice as most people would pass by it shortly after merely scanning the work for few seconds. First, she created the room and the stairs with a white board which she then painted the walls with paint and constructed the landscape with clay to mimic Dali’s style. Lastly, she provided a chair in the center of the room for people to sit and feel comfortably as if they are inside his painting — his world. She was mainly inspired by his art style — the landscape he frequently uses in his works and the melting clocks hanging on tree branches — and his obsession with the idea of dream. One of the challenges she was dealing with was the color of the chair. She was originally thinking of putting a bean bag to provide maximum comfort for the peers as they experience the space. However, after the critique on Bridge 4, She decided to put a wood chair so that the color of the chair can be similar with the chair of the branches to provide cohesiveness. she wanted the memorial to be put in a public space like a park to allow it to feel welcoming for anyone who passes by it. She chose Central Park because it is it is the most visited park in New York City and it is located near St. Regis hotel where Dali and his wife, Gala, lived during the fall and winter in the 1960s and 70s.
In her Integrative 1, HJ restrained herself from the limits she had set herself as an artist and as an writer because of the fear of failing. She was unable to break the things that she was used to doing in her high school. Integrative 1 felt as a transition from the person she had set herself mainly influenced by her surroundings to a more independent person. She want to take Integrative 2 as an opportunity to explore in creating art in a more various ways and experimenting different mediums and styles both in the art and the writing field. She wants to avoid from being afraid of stepping out of her comfort zone and learning from mistakes.
