- Documentation of process sketches/ prototypes/ notes/ material explorations
- Documentation images of finalized piece
- Written statement outlining my partner’s original ideas and your strategies for translating it
In Olivia’s original bridge project, she had a range of ideas and implications that she encompassed within her work and a lot of the symbols that she had within her piece were left to interpretation, there was no one right way that It could be understood. I remember being so enamored by the way in which she had presented her work- stuck to a wall facing outward, almost as if the hand was coming out of the wall, freaky! I also really like the use of gold glitter as it really did tie in the whole sense of allure that was her intent in her work. Fragility was also a key element within her piece, the hand was made out of paper mache which does not have a very solid concrete like result. This fragile structure acted as a symbol that helps when relating to her ideas of broken trust and promise as it can be easily broken just like how this very large, solid looking hand does not have any aspect of strength in it which also the relate to the very loose strings that are tied onto the pinky finger.
My initial idea for this translation project was to create a propaganda poster where I would be speaking about the education system in Singapore and I was intending on characterizing and over exaggerating Singapore’s government as the Nazi party in the foreground and the young students in the background as the indoctrination of youth that Hitler had taken control of during his rise to power. However, after some deliberation with both my partner and our professor I found that out of all the symbols that I had picked up on my partner’s first bridge project (breaking of trust, contact, higher power/ authority, allure, interaction as well as a promise) that I wanted to pass on in mine were not as clear nor was it evoking strong enough meanings. The idea diverged to cookie cutters as the way in which cookies are cut with a cutter can be interpreted very similarly to the ideas that I wanted to convey where the government/ higher authority is creating a mold for its society to conform under.
Coming up with an idea for how we were going to translate one another’s work was not an easy task. Going back to the objective of this bridge project the instructions were to use language, material and form to translate ones work into another medium. I interpreted my partner’s work as higher authority/ power due to the scale of the hand as well the use of gold glitter/dust giving false hope to whoever made a promise with them. My idea for this project was to portray the Singapore government as the higher authority and to speak about the way in which it conditions its societies’ views on various matters. After much reflection and research on several ways and instances where the government profiles a certain way of thinking and a set rationale to it, I found one particular precedent where I too was involved in from a very young age in Singapore’s education system. The Primary School Leaving Examination otherwise just known as, ‘PSLE’ is a national examination in Singapore that is administered by the Ministry of Education and is taken by all students near the end of their sixth and final year in primary school before they move on to a secondary school. It is known as one of the most important exams a student takes in a public/ local school in Singapore. It holds so much importance as how you fair in this exam determines which secondary school you would go to which then has an impact on the subsequent schools after. In Singapore, it is believed that academic specialization works by restricting the mind’s propensity for eclecticism through methodological rigor and studios effort. Critics of the Singapore education system state that the system is way too specialized, rigid and elitist where there is close to no emphasis placed on creative thinking and growth of an individual. It can be argued that placing too much of structure on an individual’s evolution and growth could potentially cause them to break. Though differentiated curricula have been introduced in recent years, which has allowed students with different abilities and learning styles to develop there is still a very heavy emphasis on conditioning which is still very much existent. The Ability Driven Education has since been a key feature behind Singapore’s success in education. Though streaming does exist there is greater flexibility for students to cross and alleviate stigma.
- A written reflection on the Bridge
The most challenging aspect of this bridge project in terms of collaborating with my partner was trying to make her understand the ideas that I was trying to convey within my work. Where technicalities were concerned was baking the cookies out of the 3D print cookie cutters that I had made, for some reason they expanded a lot more than I had predicted them to when I put them to bake. Creating the various fondant parts to illustrate the various professions (doctor, judge, businessman and scientist) was also a little difficult as I had never worked with fondant before. During the conceptualizing process of my work, I was very worried as Olivia, my partner for this project, was not able to understand how the use of cookies and/or how cookie cutters was a translation from her first bridge project. I remember this bugging me a lot throughout the process of that led me to my final result. I felt that not only had I taken on a project that was going to be tough for me, I was also going to be very worked up over how the outcome of my piece would sit with not only with Olivia but the rest of the class. I realized that there are times where some ideas tend to only stick to the person who’s creating the work, I needed to create more of a conversation within my work to give it some direction as apposed to just presenting cookies of professions. This is what led me to make a cookie for each individual in my studio lesson as well as providing each of them a name tag. I also wanted to have two boxes in front of the table of these ‘perfect cookies’. One with broken cookies that would represent the ‘discarded, wasted and unemployed’ cookies/individuals and the other pile that would consist of the 3D print base to represent the perfect, employed and accepted by society cookies. I also created a manuscript that I had everyone go through which consisted of changes in scenarios of that persons’ cookie (for eg. At 22 parents were not able to financially aid cookie X through medical school) and then would make them break off a section of the cookie and at the end of this to decide which pile of cookies this cookie falls under and then place them there. I was pleased to hear the feedback to my work as I was worried that it still would seem to abstract an idea when compared to the underlaying themes that encompassed Olivia’s first bridge project. I feel as though I succeeded in being able to convey my ideas forward and that my work created some conversation on these stereotype professions and our views towards them. What was unsuccessful about this piece was the cookies itself I feel as though the consistency of the cookie batter was too sticky and not thick enough which resulted in the cookies to be very soft, making it hard to transport and led to many of them breaking very easily. If I could go back to change anything about this piece I would want to work on creating a better representation of the two piles of cookies, maybe by looking into packaging of these cookies where the labels would add more of an element when describing the work.
- Any other additional thoughts/ feelings/ take-aways
This piece allowed me to really delve into myself to try and find solutions to the problems that I faced along the way of creating my final piece of work. When creating a new work of art I often try and take on a project in which I know what the final result will somewhat be due to either being confident with the medium I had decided to use or being clear with the way in which to strategically approach it. I am very happy that this class is inspiring us to think critically and to strive to create works that we are not always within our comfort zone.
