‘Selfie-As-Construct’ Collage Challenge

We were asked to make 6 collages each week for 3 weeks with the three themes – “social media, products, environment”. Each set should serve as a selfie or a reflection of ourselves.

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#1 Social Media

Even though it connects us without physically being next to each other, social media could disconnect users’ relationship in reality. It’s taking away some of our social skills as we keep taking the easy way out by texting instead of talking face to face.  The awkward situation of talking to someone on Instagram but much less in real life has happened to me multiple times. Therefore, in this set of collage, I used photos of 6 people who I know and talk to on Instagram but are awkward when met in real life. Mosaic is added onto their profile and our chat history meaning my encounter with them almost only exist in an online platform.

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#2 Products

The second set of collage are patterns made with 6 of my regular drinks and the objects, people or activities related to each drink.

Milke’s Hard Lemonade: One of my favorite alcoholic beverages because of its sweet taste and how it gives me a buzz without a big amount of alcohol.

Spirit: I always keep a 1-liter bottle of spirit at home and drink it with a metal draw while working. The sugar in it and the tingling feeling on my tongue keeps me awake and energized during a homework night.

Ye shu coconut milk: This is one of the most famous soft drink in my home country China. Its iconic packging has stayed unchanged for more than 10 years. This coconut milk is often seen in a traditional Chinese restaurant with a mock european “cheap luxury” aesthetic which is shown thorugh the elements including a dinning chair and a lazy susan. The aesthetics of these resturant can be found all over China because the older generation of Chinese people consider it to be “fancy”. However, the drink and these resturants are a big part of my childhood memory.

Milk: I fell in love with milk even more after coming to Syracuse, NY for highschool. In my opinion, milk has the perfect mild taste for every kind of food. Due to my high consumption of milk, my host family in Syracuse keeps two gallons of milk at all times.

Bubble tea: To me, bubble tea symbolizes friendship since getting bubble tea is a must-do activity whenever my friends and I spend time together.

Dayquil: During the first month that I moved into the city, I had a sore throat that couldn’t be cured by any medication or folk remedy but Dayquil. Dayquil became my first choice of medicine for catching a cold or having “fire” in your body (A traditional Chinese believe: going to bed late, not drinking enough water, eating spicy food would give you fire and cause illness like sore throat, acne and so on). Due to my unhealthy sleeping schedule, I still get slight sore throats then and there. Therefore, I would take a sip of this magical medicine in that situation.

For presentation, I mounted each pattern on watercolor paper and hanged them with strings going through each pattern.

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#3 Environments

The last set of collage shows 6 environments that are personal to me : 2 in Syracuse, NY, 2 in Guangzhou, China,  2 in the area of China that I backpacked (Beijing and western cities). I went through my entire photography archive of 1000k+ photos to select only the ones that are relevant and collaged the elements manually with cut out paper. Each environment has people, landscape and objects to produce a scenery.

Guangzhou and my parents: I live with my dad in a suburb area of China’s third biggest city. My dad goes to a clinic nearby to get a shot everynight after a lung surgery that he refuses to tell me about. My mom is on up looking at an opposite direction, her facial expression is a combination of confusion, exhaustion and worry just like her personality especially after their relationship started going downhill even before I was born.

Traditional Guangzhou: The traditional part of Guangzhou is filled with Cantonese culture, it gives off a feeling of quietness and harmony. This collage consists of an older couple dancing on a square which is one of the most popular activites among the elders. There’s also architecture, a communist sign and a photo of my and my partner in Guangzhou hidden behind.

Host family in Syracuse: This is about the house of my host family, my host brother and sister as well as my bedroom.

Friends in Syracuse: There are elements of yellow bus, Syracuse snow scenes and my friends and me eating at our favorite Chinese resturant.

Beijing: I took a trip by myself last summer to travel accross China from the very east to the west. Beijing was my first stop and I was mesmorized by the low-paced lifestyle and the rich culture there.

Western Cities: As I kept going west after Beijing, I discovered beautiful sceneries and encountered different kinds of people on the way to my last stop Lhasa, Tibet. On my train rides, I met 3 children of a merchant who are moving to another city for a better job; I met a guy who I had a short romantic relationship with during the couples days we were together; I met a couple who works at a clothing factory that manufactures jeans luxury Italian brands. They ended up falling asleep in this interesting but intimate position that became one of my most favorite photos took during this month-long trip.

Final Product