Avatar Bridge Project 1: Presentation

The word Avatar in my understanding is an object or figure that describe or shows identities of a persons. In my project I want to show one of the most distinguish identities of mine, the traditional art Peking Opera. I was born in China, I have a privilege of get to know a different culture. I fell in love with the beautiful headdress and costumes of Peking Opera the first time I watched a performance in Beijing. I started leaning Peking Opera as a class in my elementary school, not only saw the different costumes for varieties of characters, but also learning the special singing skills and tones to fully engage with it. The gorgeous design and
color or Peking Art inspired me in creating art, and make me proud of my origin and culture.

However, in my generation, teenagers and young adults get less influence and experiences of these traditional types of art, instead, the people in my country get more education in western arts. As time flows, will people gradually lost the sense of importance of culture and origin?

With this question in mind, I decided to make a Peking Opera headdress. Instead of using cloth and delicate jewelries and colorful flowers, I will use different kinds of fruits, such as starfruit, banana peels, kiwis, little tomatoes, blueberries, raspberries and use black wires to create the shape to support all the stuff on it. At the meantime while I finished the whole look, I will set the headdress for a while, and record the change of look on the fruits from fresh to rot.

In addition the idea of using such materials to make headdress is to reflect the change of people viewing the importance of culture and tradition. Nowadays, people get less interest and passion to keep their origin and root. Many people in my age or younger should always remember their culture. Not like this headdress, it keeps rotting, and in the end it lost its beautiful look, the vibrant colors faded in the end.