I’m Jesse, a freshman Fine Arts major here at Parsons.
The heat of candlelight, white mist exhaled on a cold morning, the smell of pine after rain, represents the three most important components of me (For explanations, see here). I remember driving in cars and doing landscape paintings in my head, and I love the feeling when I cannot stop my brain from thinking and to feel overwhelmed by thinking. Milan Kundera says, “There is no perfection only life,” in The Unbearable Lightness of Being, one of my favorite quotes in one of my favorite books, which I engraved on the back of my iPad. If “certainty” implies the perfection of life, then I see my life as full of uncertainties. Living in New York City makes me have the habit of counting from 1 to 100 in a loop while walking on the sometimes overwhelming streets, and makes me getting more and more comfortable with the “uncertainties” of life. I am sometimes anxious about what the future might be like, and who I am going to be. I asked my professor earlier in the first half of the first semester, how do I find my style? Now, at the end of my freshman year, I am still not certain about what “style” I belong to, yet I am certain about how I value the process of thinking in art making. Putting my thinking in the art I make and make art that is reflective for the viewers are what make me passionate.
I changed from Illustration major to Fine Arts in the second semester, partly a decision made that is affected by the two 3D courses I took in the second semester. In Space&Materiality, we learned about working with wire, sheet metal, and wood. Although making 3D projects that emphasize a lot on the exactness of material connection and the fineness of surface is really time-consuming, I was excited in every class to learn something new and I appreciate hand-on making a lot. Christian (my space professor) said at the beginning of the semester that he considers the Space class mostly about the “making” and not the conceptual aspect of art, but he at the same time gives us opportunities to incorporate our conceptual thinking into out making, making me realize how much I enjoy and how natural I am drawn to the transformation between concepts and three dimensional space.
A mask I made in Space&Materiality that is inspired by the Egyptian archetype of the eye of Horus
There are many examples of how the skills I learned in one course that I utilize in another. In my Time class in the first semester, I learned about video and audio editing skills and Premiere Pro. The editing skills are utilized in making mock-up space in both my Integrative Studio 1 and 2. In my spring elective course, Making Meaningful Things, I was introduced to clay molding and clay casting. I use the skills of clay molding in the sculpture making of my Studio 2 final project and was encouraged to explore and learn plaster casting of hands by myself.
Premiere Pro process in three different projects
From Clay Form to Clay Mold — the Metaphorical Connection
Other than seeing my learned skill sets are affecting my work across different studio class, things I learned from academic courses also pushes my studio work forward in different ways. In Objects as History, I learned how to properly analyze art visually and how to write academically about art. Although the subjects of analysis in class are from prehistoric to the industrial revolution and are not contemporary subjects, the skills to analyze visual subjects make me able to see art around me from a more comprehensive perspective and provide me with guidelines to better composite my own work from a visual perspective. In the Integrative Seminar 2: Visual Culture, I learned how visual experience is not only about what you can make, but also about how the visual experience can be translated into texts. Reading articles across a great variety of different kinds of visual culture, my ability of critical thinking improves at the same time I realize how words can create “images” in readers’ minds even though the saying goes “a picture is worth a thousand words.” The second-year seminar focuses more on the research aspect of academic writing, and I learned many useful research skills that I employ in my other classes. First, I have a better understanding of first and second-hand sources and how they both are important to the academic writing; therefore, in my history term paper I refer to paintings I observed in the museum and wrote visual analysis of the paintings myself rather than citing others’ analysis on the subject as I used to do. Besides, having the habit of formatting the information gathered from research in the format of research tables helps me keep sources in order and makes it easier for me to locate the sources when I am actually writing the paper.
The two highlights I choose are both the final project from Integrative Studio. The prompts of the two final projects are different and yet the two projects are both my creation of a “space”. The prompt of the first highlight is to design a memorial based in a specific location within New York City, and I designed a One Hour Memorial in the Arthur Ross Pinetum in Central Park. For the second highlight, the goal is to design an exhibition piece that will be shown in MoMA and to envision the piece in the museum; my proposal is an installation piece about deathbed visions.
Highlight 1:
-Concept:
The clock changed to winter time this year on November 4th, and this is my first experience witnessing my clock suddenly turned backward one hour, making me contemplate on the concept of time. In a general sense, time is linear, but this “one hour” doesn’t really obey this rule, making time seems fluid and malleable. I think this special “one hour” is a good trigger point for people to meditate about time in this fast-speed modern world. This is a memorial of this special one hour, about the gain and loss of this one hour, and about individual resurvey of the greater concept of time.
-Description:
Daylight saving time (DST) is the practice of advancing clocks during summer months so that evening daylight lasts longer while sacrificing normal sunrise times. The New Zealand entomologist George Hudson first proposed modern DST. In 1895 he presented a paper to the Wellington Philosophical Society proposing a two-hour daylight-saving shift, and after considerable interest was expressed in Christchurch, he followed up with an 1898 paper. Port Arthur, Ontario, Canada, was the first city in the world to enact DST on July 1, 1908.
The memorial is 20 feet tall and with the square base of 10 feet by 10 feet. It is in the shape of an hourglass that is symmetrical in its top and bottom parts and looks the same from each side. The hourglass shape symbolized the measure of time but since it’s symmetrical and there is no real sand indicating up and down it can be either counting time forward or backward.
Ancient Chinese came up with the Five Elements Theory of what our world is made up of: metal, wood, water, fire, and earth. The theory concludes that the five elements coexisted before anything on the earth are formed and continue to be the basic elements of our world. Martin Heidegger proposed two kinds of time in his Sein und Zeit: the “domesticated” time which is measured like tangible length and is divided by the perfect 1 hour = 60 minutes = 3600 seconds scale, and the “non-domesticated” time which is an integral part of our world, inseparable to either us human or the world. For me, the concept of time seems similar to the five elements described in the Theory: maybe time is the sixth element. Envisioning the memorial with the “time is the sixth element” idea embedded, the interior of the structure is simple with three big screens playing simultaneously without other decoration. On the big screens on the three sides of the wall, three different one-hour videos are played either forward or backward depending on the time of the year. The videos include four of the five elements — fire, wood, water, earth — and the presented elements either stand alone or are shown together with other elements, implying the idea that individual elements can stand by themselves and can coexist with others. Metal, the fifth element in the traditional Five Elements Theory will be presented in the form of audio: a recording of temple bells in a Chinese Buddhist temple. The joint part of the two half of the structure is left empty so that when people look up inside the building, they can see a giant “clock” on the ceiling. In order to show the more pristine form of time, traditional time indicators on the clock are taken away, leaving only the proportion of one hour and one second spiraling on the wave background — symbolizing the fluidity of time. Same as the videos, the “clock” either moves forward or backward depending on the time of the year. There will also be cushions on the floor where people can come and sit on, watching the videos playing, hearing the sound of temple bells and the waves, look up and see the “clock”.
The memorial will be on the lawn in Arthur Ross Pinetum in Central Park. When I first learned about Central Park, it amazed me with its special relation to the fast-paced New York City: a place of calm nature of such great area in the center of a city made up of skyscrapers and horns. As a memorial for calm reflection and meditation and getaway from busy lives, it is similar in essence to the central park. Also, the geographical center of Manhattan, though fuzzy, is in the South to the Central Park, and the Arthur Ross Pinetum lies in 2 o’clock direction to that center, which aligns with the 2 o’clock timing that intersects the special “one hour”. Building the sand-clock-like white structure on the wide lawn gives the architecture itself a sense of serenity, and since most people come to the Central Park to relax, the memorial is a good spot for them to explore and experience “time”. People walking into the memorial can sit on the cushions and figure out their way to interact with the several screens playing at the same time and the giant “clock” on the ceiling either going forward or backward depending on the time of the year it is. No tedious explanation in text is added to the memorial, for it is a place where people lay their minds down and to have journeys in the memorial on their own.
-Outcome
Highlight 2:
-Concept:
My grandpa passed away when I was thirteen. At his funeral, I got to know what it feels like losing a loved one. The intangible concept of “death” that often seems far away from me at that moment appeared so close. But it is not until recently I told my mother about my research on deathbed visions that she told me grandpa had been “seeing” deceased people as well. I asked her why she kept me from knowing about grandpa’s visions, and the answer is coherent with what existing research all suggest: hallucinations are irrational and crazy that make the dying undignified and embarrassed.
Deathbed visions are alleged observations of other persons or scenes by the dying person that are not observable by others in the same room some hours, days, or weeks before death. Often misunderstood as simply drug-induced hallucinations and signs of “unconsciousness” or “craziness” of the dying one, even medical professionals often regard such phenomena as meaningless or harmful symptoms. However, deathbed visions are natural and common phenomena occurring at the end of our lives. The visions are private, mysterious, unpredictable, and have significant connotation on human’s essential need of love and connection. Deathbed visions affect emotions of the dying and permeate the dying person’s outlook toward death encompassing also their caregivers, and both the dying and their caregivers are defined and inwardly affected. The end-of-life phenomena should be better introduced and understood.
-Description:
The unpredictable, dream-like feelings of deathbed visions inspire the design of the installation including sculptures, drawings, and a video. Instead of giving the viewers a solid definition and explanation of the phenomena, the installation is meant to contextualize the private visions in a poetic way, allowing the viewers to experience rather than to define. In the center of the room stand five sculptures. Each sculpture represents a common theme of deathbed visions showed up in interviews based in India, Republic of Moldova, and United Kingdom — reunion, comfort, support, prognosis, and companionship. Hung to the ceiling in the center of the five larger-than-man size sculptures is another sculpture: plaster hands sinking among the cotton under the wave-like, shining plastic sheet. The hands represent the “human connection” as the reoccurring element in the visions; cotton, soft, warm, welcoming the touch with a dream-like feeling; the plastic sheet, tenderly separates the two worlds — reality and hallucinations. A single sight of the cotton makes you wanna touch and feel, yet the plastic sheet prevents you from actually feeling it. Extend your hand, touch, disillusioned. This is what the experience of death vision can be like for people, the vision can be comforting and welcoming in preparing you for a peaceful death, or the disillusionment can sometimes make the person feel ashamed, embarrassed, or undignified. Five drawings of the sculpture are hung to the wall, and the center wall is where a video will be projected. In the video, ten examples of deathbed visions from recent interviews are read while the center cotton and plastic sheet sculpture is filmed. A clip of heartbeat is added to both the beginning and the end of the video, implying the essence of deathbed visions — human.
-Outcome
In the five free-standing sculptures, I choose to use “hand” as the reoccurring element — hands in different positions and in the form of a handprint — because hands most commonly used when human physically connect with one another among all body parts, whether between family, friends, or lovers.
Companionship: one hand emerged from the circle base while another hand, coming from the air, stays on top of it. The sense of companionship in deathbed visions is often elicited by the appearance of deceased ones; therefore the hand on the top is made “floating” and as if coming from the air. If look closely, the lower hand is carved in so that the fingers of the top hand are actually sunk into the bottom hand, emphasizing the deep sense of companionship.
Comfort: An incomplete torso is molded with clay, and a handprint can be seen from its back. The torso is incomplete and seems gradually melting on the right side, suggesting the dying one’s life coming to an end (disappearance of one’s physical existence). The handprint on the back suggests comfort because we often gently pat others on the back when trying to comfort them.
Reunion: Two hands coming from two opposite directions meet and melted into one another’s fingertips when meeting at the intersection of this infinity and double boomerang shape, showing the reunion of the two people from two worlds (down from the earth and up from the heaven).
Prognosis: The prognosis from deathbed visions is when the dying one knows that he or she is going to die. I translate the prognosis into a hand that becomes part of an hourglass; as the top part is diminishing, the hand feeling the rest of the sand coming down knows that time is running out.
Support: I transform the emotional support in a physical form: a hand using its strength to lift up a heart (emotions).
I film the central sculpture (vinyl sheet covering hands and cotton) to create an abstract, soft and serene atmosphere. The audio of the video consists of ten clips of my friends reading the ten examples of deathbed visions from the research including at least one example from each of the five themes identified. The heartbeat sound is added to both the start and the end of the video, emphasizing the essence of the end-of-life experience — human.
I pick the two final projects as the highlights of the year because I think they are developed more fully compared to some other shorter projects both conceptually and visually for the time given for the project and the relatively open-ended prompts that encourage me to discuss something I feel passionate about. Coincidentally, both projects involve research, model (sculpture) making, digital and video editing. I felt challenged while making the two projects and at the same time learned a lot from the experience of trial and error. I wrote how I value the process of thinking in my bio, and the two highlights are results and reflections of my thinking — the One Hour Memorial being an “answer” to my exploration of time and the Deathbed Elegie being an interpretation of how I see the subject of deathbed visions. The two projects, other than a response to my own inquiry, also intend to invite the audience to meditate. The involvement of “thinking” is what I find most interesting in the two highlights I pick for the year.
The second year will be more major-oriented. I would like to continue exploring my interests in both 2D and 3D making and I will be taking both studio classes under the Fine Arts department. Some topics I’ve taken the first few steps to explore in the first year will hopefully be taken further in the second-year study, eg. the exploration of “time”. I am also excited to learn about printmaking in the Printmaking elective I will take next semester; I hope by learning about the techniques I’ll also be more familiar with color theory and other technical visual tools. One goal I set for myself the next year is to utilize the school labs more and to get the orientations done before they end in the middle of each semester. Keep passionate about exploring and do not forget what I’ve learned, and most importantly, keep the thinking going.
