Critical Reflection
To begin, I'd want to provide some comments about the graduating display. I believe my exhibition is far superior to the one at Barge House. For starters, the overall works are more complete, and more ingenuity has been added to the exhibition, such as a large-scale leopard painting that is supported by medium- and small-scale works on the left and right sides, respectively. The pieces are all related in terms of subject, with the sheep in the huge picture matching to the children playing sheep in the lower right corner and the choir in the upper left. The enormous painting's two kissing leopards echo the two sexually provocative bodies on the left. Second, there is a distinct relationship between my work and Astrid's sense of raw wilderness. The exhibition as a whole was more mature and fascinating than prior works. However, after speaking with the audience and tutors, I realized that there were issues with my work, the most obvious of which was that the details of all the works appeared very dark, owing to the strong contrast between the white walls and the blues and purples in the paintings, which resulted in the whole of the paintings becoming a dark mess when viewed from a distance, especially the large paintings, and the details were lost, the effect of which was esthetic. Perhaps painting a colored wall before the exhibition, such as a green or yellow wall, might have a different impression, and this is something I will consider carefully in future displays.
Second, in the works, I just examined the general tone and ignored the white block areas in the painting, so the contrast between black, white, and grey in the vast painting is not great, resulting in a pretty ordinary impact of the painting. Another acquaintance suggested an intriguing idea for the enormous picture. He saw that the foregrounds in both tiny paintings encouraged the observer to better enter the area in the painting, but in the huge painting I removed the foregrounds and instead focused on the middle and distant vistas. Then he suggested that a hand holding a scepter in the front would be more fascinating. I believe that having a dialogue with the spectator is important because sometimes you receive ideas that you wouldn't have thought of otherwise, and secondly, although Some of the viewers said that they liked the rapidity of the depiction of the body in the two paintings on the left, and they said that they could almost feel the excitement of the moment I was painting. In fact, owing to time limits, I didn't show the two figures on the left in greater depth, and the general vibe of the left side appears rougher.
Looking back on my work in units 1 and 2, I discovered that my practice generally began with the existing image bank in my hand, and I simply tried to present the photographs by changing the forms or color tones, and this method of working resulted in the problem that there were no more pictures to paint. The earlier paintings were primarily about religion and sexuality, and while they were directly related to the issues I wanted to communicate, they progressively became a limitation for me, forcing me to look for things related to them when studying. I did not hunt for images that were strongly tied to my own on purpose in this unit of work, but rather felt for regular, meaningless images. As American artist Kuniyoshi Yasuo writes in his book The Creative Process, " A word I often use is “felt”, the meaning of which I try to get across in my painting." For me, it means being aware of the facts. Whatever object I paint, I try to realize its relation point by point; the relation of myself to the object, and in the same way, point by point, the relation of the object to the background so as to make this object exist in space. (Ghiselin, 1952, p55)." I attempted to build new connections by going through these banal objects with my own senses.
Furthermore, unlike in unit 2, when I represented a single area (e.g., shepherd and sheep, leopard and sheep, person and space in the theatre), I carried on unit 1's idea of splitting up the image by superimposing a micro-narrative on it. The concept of "micro-narratives" stems from Deleuze and Guattari's A Thousand Plateaus, in which they asserted that psychological and social phenomena are multifaceted and ever-changing, rather than simple linear patterns. "Small stories" emphasize the importance of small, fragmentary, individualized events as opposed to the sweeping storylines of larger stories. These micro-events can interweave and build intricate interactions. They do not rely on a central or overarching topic to organize the narrative. This allows us to have a better understanding of dispersion, diversity, and fractals（Deleuze，2019）." As in juxtaposing a pair of ducks with a Byzantine-style Jesus smoking a cigarette, or combining a leopardess pouncing on a bull with scenes from my hometown, including a touch of Oscar Wilde's description about love in 'The Nightingale and the Rose,' a tortoise in a cage, and a scene of a roommate with a cigarette. Along with a scene from a LGBTQ flick with my roommate. These clips resonated with my deeper psychological content and pushed me to articulate it.
Reflections on artist books
cover of the book
inspiration record
The artist book titled "The Lost Sheep" will be my representation to the research festival. The sheep symbol holds significant importance in my work, as it embodies both gentleness and friendliness, as well as conservatism, susceptibility to control, and a lack of autonomy. The notion of the "Lost Sheep" originates from a biblical allusion to the shepherd who abandoned the other ninety-nine sheep in order to locate one lost sheep, which serves to emphasize God's concern for each individual soul. However, the missing sheep also symbolizes my own sense of spiritual and personal disarray and loss. The images within this artist book are derived from my own creations and imaginative scenes. The content includes particulars that frequently come to mind in my own existence. such as the locations I pass by, I delusion that I will be punished by God if I make a mistake, or flashbacks to the recollection of a family elder's pastor friend who was incarcerated several years ago for opposing the government's demolition of the cross. With a broad structure in mind, I initially adopted the viewpoint of the sheep, subsequently transitioned to my own during the transitional segments, and ultimately returned to the sheep's perspective as the emotions progressively advanced.
Although I delineated the overarching structure, I intended for the entire narrative to retain an open stance. Consequently, the disparate particulars within the book were motivated by the automaticity of surrealism（Dr. Charles，2023）, with minimal emphasis on deliberate editing and logical reasoning to facilitate the unrestricted progression of ideas and evoke inner subconscious associations, such as the anguish suffered in hell or the traversal of a dark forest by sheep, or the correlation between disparate locations and even the interconnection of seemingly unrelated locations. locations, interconnections among various occurrences. (For instance, In The Lost Lamb Page 14 holds personal significance for me, as the structure on the left is the place of employment for my girl friend, and the church on the right serves as a family gathering spot.) In this book, I attempted to expose some of the most profoundly repressed or concealed emotions and thoughts in my mind, and then attempted to convey my inner turmoil and contradictions through the combination of these with my own artwork and some of my fantasies.
part1:
Firstly the largest percentage of the image material in this book is artificial intelligence generated. The first reason why I chose to work with AI is because ai generated images all present a false sense, which I also call AI sense. None of this AI-ness requires a Turing test, and is easily recognisable by anyone with a little drawing experience. I've used a mix of ai images as source material in my previous work for unit2, and the transfer to canvas was not ideal, using brushes and paint somewhat diluted this interesting falseness. But it was not a bad way to use it for my book, as the fictional content of the book itself was more compatible with the sense of unreality conveyed by the AI-generated images, and the mid journey output of the images was far more efficient than if I had conceived of the drawings myself.
Process of generating images
Secondly, working with the AI has fuelled my desire to create. The process of collaboration is in fact interesting, because the whole process is just you and the machine interacting, You can voice your needs without feeling afraid because the system, which is based on a sizable database, keeps producing feedback and output. As a result, you and the machine are able to develop a relationship based on mutual trust. As mathematician Marcus Dusotto mentioned in an interview about AI will fill in the gaps for you. You can still decide 'I don't like that style, AI. Can you give me another option?' It's like you're working with some assistant. I think when you're working with a human, they might not do exactly what you want to do, but you try to explain, and then they do something, you react, and finally, you make something. So the AI has certain abilities or knowledge that we may not have as a human being, but then again, it doesn't have the motivation to do anything, or it sits there so you have to make it move; you have to tell it what you want it to do. Then it will react and give you something that may not be exactly what you want, so it may be better or it may be worse. You have to adapt and give better instructions, or use it and recombine it（McGuinness，2020）.
When I started working with the AI I didn't really have a complete picture of what I wanted, I just knew roughly what I wanted. For example, I started out saying that I wanted a black and white etching style of a sheep walking on a lawn, and the mid journey system produced a very rough image. Based on that base image, I continue to input what I wanted to be a sideways view of a sheep walking on a grassy field, and I kept doing this until I was able to accomplish my goal. I kept going through this process until I was happy with the outcome. But the emotion that resulted was extremely different from what I usually do, and I was pleased about the unfamiliarity that came with it. Put otherwise, Sometimes when artists continue to produce similar works of art based on habit, it directly lowers the potential for arousal, which lessens your attractiveness to your own painting style to some degree. The artist is tremendously motivated to keep working with this because of the unfamiliarity and specificity of the pictures generated by the art production system, which raises the art's arousal potential.
part 2:
The book "Salam Rindw", an artist's book with photographs, graphics, text, dialogue, and images, is a major inspiration on the technique of using blended images to me.The book tells the story of the author's family, from their lovely and contented beginnings to the father's passing. The initial set of happy, peaceful family photos starts to change from a picture of a broken marriage to subsequent drawings and lonely still lifes, as well as letters from the mother and kids to their father. The author's utilization of a variety of media kinds and typesetting techniques is what most appeals to me about this work. For instance, the author created little envelopes by hand and inserted various papers to create images. By using contrasting techniques, like overlaying happy images with sad ones or Combining images of individuals in tears with cheerful backgrounds., the author manages to dissolve and balance the content's happiness and melancholy. The book's richness of feeling and its somewhat sloppy binding made for an easy reading experience.
Reflected in my work, you can see a variety of image materials from my books, such as photos I take in my daily life, classic images in art history, including my hand drawings. The hand-drawn images in the book are relatively simple compared to others. The purpose of this is to contrast with other complicated images and also to relax the viewer's vision. During the tutorial, Anna recommended that I label the source of every image. This is a great idea, in my opinion, because the viewer is unaware of my experience and the information in these images is vital to people's reading; even if they are unable to fully comprehend the content, they can still use this information to create personal feeling in their minds. I've included the REFERENCE for each image in the links below.
some pages in the lost sheep
Even if there isn't a lot of text content in the book, I believe it is still quite important. The first text in the book is this one. I have lived in this sheepfold since I was little, and our owner has always been good to us. we eat fresh grass and drink pure sweeetwater every day. our owner used to tell others that I knew every single one of my sheep. and they knew me. I would give anything for my sheep. I have other sheep that are not in this pen, and I have to lead them in, and they too must listen to my voice and become one flock. One day, our owner took us out to graze, and i suddenly saw a ghostly spotted leopard. it said it would show me something interesting, so while our was asleep, i followed it, and that's when a magical story unfolded...... The text that inspired this section is John 10:14. My grandmother used to read this text to me when I was five or six years old, explaining that we are all sheep in this sheepfold and that Jesus is our Shepherd and Deliverer, who will protect and guide us. That passage has always stuck in my memory. I have purposefully removed all religious element from the paragraph above and substituted images from my subconscious, such like a spotted leopard, a symbol of sexual desire, leading me out of the sheepfold. It can also even be connected to Eve giving the forbidden fruit to Adam.
I still have to consciously focus on the elements of love and sex in this book, and I really like Oscar Wilde's Nightingale and the Rose, especially the fact that the nightingale doesn't hesitate to smear the petals of the rose with her own blood, in order to help the man to get the red rose to woo his beloved. But in the end, the boy throws the red rose, which the nightingale exchanged his life for, on the street because his confession failed. The selfless sacrifice of the nightingale contrasts sharply with the selfishness of the boy and girl. and a quote from the book in lost sheep p11 pays homage to this dramatic story.
With 'I was awakened by the shepherd, as if I could still recollect the presence of the leopard' combined with the illustration on the latter page, the story comes to an end.
I thought about the last sentence for a long time, and the original version was "Wake up, we're going home. I was awakened by the voice by the shepherd. I slowly got up and started walking back home. looked back, it was as if i could once again feel the presence of the leopard." Later, I discussed this with my friends who studied literature, and we all thought that this expression was a bit cumbersome and not very appropriate, and that it would be better if it could be expressed in more concise language, and that it needed to be put on a separate page. And it needs to be placed on a separate page. What we came up with was the two sentences at the top, where the words shepherd and leopard form a rhyme.
Finally, there's the part about the paper choice and binding of the book. I didn't pick any special paper, I used Smooth white 120gsm and Recycled super white 160gsm, the latter is a slightly more textured paper, which combines well with the classical atmosphere of my book, and looks a bit more aged than the Smooth white paper. In terms of binding, I first used the most common stapled bound, which is the fastest and most convenient way, but after attending bookbinding's workshop, I have learnt more about different binding methods, such as the traditional Japanese wire binding and single wire binding, which I haven't tried yet due to time constraints, and I will focus on experimenting with different binding methods before the research festival.
Smooth white 120gsm test
Recycled super white 160gsm test
sample
REFERENCE:
Bible gateway passage: John 10:14 - new international version (no date) Bible Gateway. Available at: https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=john+10%3A14&version=NIV (Accessed: 01 November 2023).
Bailey, J. (2018) The AI art at Christie’s is not what you think, Artnome. Available at: https://www.artnome.com/news/2018/10/13/the-ai-art-at-christies-is-not-what-you-think (Accessed: 01 November 2023).
Barton, D.K. and Wilde, O. (2012) The Nightingale and the rose. Paddington, N.S.W.: Art & Australia.
Deleuze, G., Guattari, F. and Massumi, B. (2019) A thousand plateaus: Capitalism and schizophrenia. London: Bloomsbury.
Dr. Charles Cramer and Dr. Kim Grant, Cramer, Dr.C. and Grant, Dr.K. (no date) Surrealist techniques: Automatism, " Surrealist Techniques: Automatism. Available at: https://smarthistory.org/surrealist-techniques-automatism/ (Accessed: 31 October 2023).
Ghiselin, B. (1952) ‘Yasuo Kuniyoshi ’, in The creative process. New York: Signet Classics, p. 55.
McGuinness, M. (2020) Marcus du Sautoy on AI and the future of creativity, Mark McGuinness |Creative Coach. Available at: https://lateralaction.com/articles/marcus-du-sautoy/?cn-reloaded=1 (Accessed: 31 October 2023).