Digital rendering in a NY site
My final design is called Roots, a 60” (152cm) x 16″ (41cm) multimedia sculpture aimed at visualising my creative process. I would perceive the work as an explanatory model of my obsession – Illustration. I constructed a house out of wire to symbolise the creative space inside my brain. Then, I used pliers to twist three to four 16 gauge wires together, separate them at the top to form branches, and cover them with colourful threads that were pre-soaked in the white glue. These branches represent my senses that absorb inspirations from the outside world to keep my creativity actively sparkling. I covered the object with a piece of canvas, which expresses a saying by Christoph Niemann, my favorite illustrator, and my research object in the seminar. He stated that “When I am staring at a piece of blank paper, I just believe that some magic will happen”. It inspired me so much, and I hope my work could be a visual presentation of the magic of inspiration and communicate how powerful illustration is as a visual language. Whereas the colour contrast between the canvas and the branches adds a sense of magic to the piece because I think illustration gives endless possibilities for creativity to take place.
The work creates a point of connection between studio and seminar; the seminar is research-inspired and grounded in my work, whereas my work answers the questions I post in the seminar. My research question is “what role does abstraction play in illustration?” and I mainly analysed Christoph Niemann, an excellent example of using abstract illustrations to present the surroundings that inspired him. As a result, my studio sculpture wanted to capture the importance of outside stimulations and how the artists transfer them into artworks. The process reminds me of a tree that takes nutrients from outside and grows to form a new environment. Hence, the studio sculpture uses the tree as a central object to tell the story. The finished piece gives a visual answer to my question; abstract is a subjective process of turning reality-based inspirations into “nutrients” and expressed artistically. The three used nutrients to grow and form a new environment, just like how illustrators use inspiration to create their own world. All in all, both my seminar research and studio work communicate the importance of inspiration in art, and the magic of turning reality into something abstract but efficient to communicate the message.
