Longing……For……For……For……

Task 1 – Chairman Mao layer 3 to be completed

Yes… there has been at least a two week delay in printing my third layer for my Chairman Mao print as the uni’s photo emulsion does no longer work… So… Instead of piss assing around waiting and waiting I have decided to order my own photo emulsion with the sensitizer so that I can be able to use the materials that I know best and with any luck no more delays with printing! I should expect my delivery to arrive this Tuesday and then I can print my second layer by Wednesday and the results should plan out good in the end.

Task 2 – Gather more materials for my Chinese & English sculpture called ‘The Possibility Workings Of Inside A Working Man’. 

As you can clearly see on my last post I have made a good start in collecting the essential materials for my latest sculpture and managed to obtain the main counterpart of the sculpture which is the Chinese squatting toilet. Now all I have to do is search around for some used bricks to use as the plinth foundations for the toilet to sit on and then the big wooden board will sit around the toilet on the bricks. I will also try my best to get hold of the thick tubes and funnels to use as my intestines, anus and urinal canal. so hopefully I can obtain all of this by end of next week.

Task 3 – Organise my space ready for Group Crit

Yeah… as my group crit is eventually creeping up on me day by day, I should think about in terms of what pieces of works I will show. Unfortunately I do not have any completed works to show at this minute due to lack of materials but I will explain my ambitions in what I am trying to create and will show my working progress on all of the projects I am currently working on. Hopefully will go ok and may get some supportive feedback in helping me further in my work.

Task 4 – A meeting with the Film students about making a collaboration – experiential game of Mahjong

Yeah… at first I was quite nervous in the Chinese tutor of the film introducing me to his students and they seemed a bit stunned to what Exactly I wanted to do. So by Friday I hope that I can have a little chat with them about making a film of english or Chinese people playing mahjong in the room 101 cafe. I think that because my main artistic theme is based on Chinese and English cultures, I want to be able to recreate the Chinese and English experience by having English people playing a game of Chinese Mahjong. Hopefully the meeting with the film students will hopefully be successful.

Why look into Carsten Holler’s sculptural works?

Carsten Holler likes to make sculptures primarily in sets of two or three which involves ready-made objects to help create his big sculptures. I wanted to look into him because I feel that he relates strongly with my theme of China and England where I try to amalgamate the two cultures together to create my artwork. His sculptures act a bit like my theme where you have the two different clones in most of his works.

What works inspire me the most?

• Double Carousels

Holler’s use of carousels to make his sculptures are quite rememberable and stand out compared to most of his sculptures. The carousels seem to act like doubles or as twins in some kind but they do not look exactly like each other; even though the materials used to make them are the same, they have different colour lights on them. One carousel has red lights and the other has yellow lights as to say they are the same bodily structures but perhaps different species or nationality?

• Double Club

Now his Double Club installation was the most effective for me because he had built two major compartments that make two different clubs with bars, drinks, table and chairs. His work is also experiential which means that this type of installation can house different continental people who will socialise with each other enjoying a nice drink and dancing together.

Although most of the materials are the same to build this installation, the two set themes are still different which also tells me that this is a sign of two different cultures because of the way these two different clubs are set. And the experiential method of this art piece kind of places the cherry on top of the cake because most of his works is all about experience and how the people find their way out of situations.

How does his theme and works relate to my artwork?

In my own working theme of China and English I use objects that are based from the two different countries that look similar in each other. For example my Chinese and English medicines, they may look similar to each other because they are made from the same materials of plastic and cardboard but are in fact different continental languages. So because most of my artworks are to do with cross nationalities of English and China, I strongly think that his works strongly relate to my main theme of the two cross nationalities.

Why look into Damien Hirst?

I wanted to look into his use of ready-made objects that help create his sculptural works such as the inside workings of his human representations and the animals. Also I wanted to look into the use of medicines in how he presents them into a sculptural form. I think this relates to my Chinese and English illness where I have my ready-made objects for my latest sculptural idea and medicine packages from both cultures to help me get better from my illness.

What works were I interested in the most?

• The Tranquility of Solitude

This was in fact very inspiring for me as he had included a toilet seat in this sculpture with a goat looking like he is doing a crap in the toilet. This very much reminded me of my latest illness idea of how this goat represents death because of the way it is stuffed and no longer moving. Something in the air just seems like death to me on top of the toilet seat and this idea very much relates to mine.

It relates a lot because of the way the toilet is confined and looking uncomfortable atmosphere in a way that my toilet experience in Chinese was indeed uncomfortable to me as I had to always squat to do a crap and there was not very much room to move around in. So Hirst’s work relates to my illness ideas and has given me some inspiration to walk away with.

• Boredom/Nowhere – Medicines

His use of medicine boxes in cabinets give a different aspect to what art really is about for me. But in the way that they are presented gives good visual awareness of hos much medicine we go through within a year or more because of bad germs and bugs that are going around. His art work looks quite patternry and well organised on the shelves which also gave me ideas for my Chinese and English medicine boxes.

Seeing his installations of medicine boxes has given me ideas for my Chinese and English medicine boxes which I may present on shelves, in display cabinets or in deep frames and may place each cultures together so that people can compare the both together.

How does Damien Hirst relate to my Chinese and English illness ready-made sculpture?

I deeply feel that Hirst’s sculptural works of inside the workings of animals and humans strongly relate to my latest sculptural idea but not in an obvious context. The context of my inner workings of my Chinese & English illness in my sculpture are not obvious and are shown in ready-made objects rather than skin and organ replications.

I want to be able to show my Chinese & English Illness in a representation of myself shown in objects rather than replications of skin and organs. With any luck these objects will show enough circumstantial evidence for the viewer of my illness that I suffered in England and China.

Why look into Jeff Koons?

I wanted to look into Jeff Koons because of in my latest illness sculpture called ‘The possibility workings of inside a working man’ is a sculpture made from ready-made objects. This is why I wanted to look into Jeff Koons because of his use of ready-made sculptures based from his desires of balloons and childish fantasies.

What kind of work does he like doing? 

• Balloon Animals

In 1998, he done a series of animals in 5 different colours which were magenta, red, orange, yellow or blue and they were mirror-polished stainless steel with transparent color coating of these 5 colours. These animals he done were either a dog, rabbit, monkey, snake or the women and were all at least 8 foot tall or above. Orange Dog – his most valuable piece sold at auction for about 58 million dollars.

• Heart

Koons presented Hanging Heart, a 9 feet tall highly polished, steel heart, one of a series of five differently colored examples, which is part of his Celebration series. Large sculptures from that series were exhibited at the Metropolitan museum in New York in 2008.

• Vacuum Cleaners

In 1981 he done a series of readymades of vacuum cleaners in which Two immaculate, unused wet, dry vacuum cleaners are stacked one on top the other and are sealed in Plexiglas display boxes lit from below with fluorescent lights. Separated from their domestic role as cleaning machines, the objects are elevated to sculpture.

• Jeff Koons Quotes:

“I chose the vacuum cleaner because of its anthropomorphic qualities,” Koons has said. “It is a breathing machine. It also displays both male and female sexuality. It has orifices and phallic attachments.”

So how does his work relate to my work?

So really when he states that his objects such as the vacuum represents a person such as a male or female this was exactly what I was thinking with my sculpture. I strongly think that his work relates very well with the sculpture that I am planning on creating which will be constructed with the use of ready-made objects.

some of these objects will represent myself that will re-enact my illness that I suffered in China and England and like Koons vacuum works representing humans, my objects will represent myself. These objects will be a Chinese squatting toilet with plastic tubes and funnels which will re-enact myself.

Who else will I start looking into?

I may start looking into Damien Hirst with his use of ready-made gruesome objects that he uses in his sculptures and the ones with medicine. I will also look into carsten holler’s ready-mades too with his twin looking sculptures.

What new ideas do I want to make?

Based from my last post in my blog about my Chinese and English illness, I have been thinking of different ways not just on paper but also in my mind on how I can make an effective sculpture that is based from my illness. I now want to try construct it as I see it in my mind and paper is yet the closest thing so far in making it become real although I have started in gathering some materials to make it.

Yet the main hardest object needed to make this happen would have to be the Chinese squatting toilet because in my mind I would of had to order it all the way from China but it seems that I do not have to!

Yes… thats right… Instead of calling some bathroom firms over the phone which were quoting me £170 for one I wanted to try get one as cheap as I can so I went on Ebay and don’t you know it? I managed to get one ordered within 4 days for only £70! This was indeed the best exciting news for weeks and at this point, it just took half the weight off my shoulders in trying to make this new sculpture idea and the worst part was over…

What did I do next?

Next I began to try hunt around for some decent wood which has to be roughly 1 and 1/2 meter long by 1 meter width piece of wooden board for the Chinese toilet to fit inside. With the help of my good friend and classmate Broden, he said that I can have one of his big good quality wooden boards that he found from the skip in town for free. This made me very happy that I had to offer him some cash for one as it was the exact size i was looking for but he said he did not want any money for it so it was quite a good opportunity for me.

I then placed the toilet on top of the wood and began drawing around it so that I can get the exact measurements of the toilet to cut around it using a jigsaw cutter.

Were there any problems during these processes?

Well if there was some problem it was the fact that the jigsaw cutting had a habit of angling off track which meant that once I cut the gap out I then had to use a file to file down the edges as they were at a slight degree angle. Once I had done all of that, it looks very nice now and just the right size for the Chinese toilet to fit inside.

What is next part of the process?

Now I just have to try gather the rest of the materials like the tubes, funnels, bota bag for the stomach and other things that I need in order to complete this sculpture. I was thinking of looking in the skip near the college to see what kind of bricks the workers are chucking out and may ask them if I can take some to use to make my plinth. I will keep updated once I manage to do these tasks.