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Story and Memory |
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| Biography |
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| Born in 1972 in Malaysia, Chee Seng CHA was educated at the University of Southern Queensland and the Queensland University of Technology. After completing his first Masters degree in Information Technology in 1997, he migrated to Singapore and worked as a technical consultant in the field of Information Technology.� In July 2002, Chee Seng started his second postgraduate study, Masters of Fine Arts at QUT. His journey in practicing art in the past sixteen months has involved his metamorphosing from a cutting-edge IT Specialist to a budding Visual Artist.� Through a series of valuable encounters and his exposure to Australian Contemporary art issues and events, he has discovered a whole new world in art creation. Through the process of art making, he is able to unleash his imagination, fantasy and creativity with endless possibilities, resulting in the creation of a series of art works throughout the period of his Postgraduate study. |
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| Artist Statements |
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| Born as the first child and only sonto a middle class traditional Malaysian Chinese family, I have becomethe center of attention to both my family and my relatives.� Sometimes the attention thrust upon to me has become too much.Often I have found it overwhelming, and have often felt extremely uncomfortable.� My family has bestowed upon me the expectations that I should become successful, ensuring not only that I continue the good name of the family within the community, but also carry on the families traditions and values.� All these expectations weigh heavily upon me as the eldest child and only son. |
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| As a child, I was overwhelmed at a sense of belonging,and the desire to examinemy family and social history and its impact on my repeated childhood experiences of loss, longing, submission and silence. This process of self-examination and self-revelation was made even more difficult by the continuing pervasive cultural attitudes that encourage silence and secretiveness around the family and cultural taboos. It was understood that loyalty to one?s family required silence. as my metamorphosis into adulthood progressed, my subconscious voice was no longer willing to be silenced, speaking to me through dreams, memories and visions.� |
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| As an artist, I consciously engage in revealing the unconscious influences of familial, social and cultural ideology on our sense of self and our worldview, on our interpretation or ?reading? of the world around us. In doing so, I acknowledge that I cannot exclude myself entirely from this critique as I slip back and forth between a cultural position of privilege to cultural position of exclusion. |
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| My new media works reflect the postmodern experience of endless source of information that influencesthe formation, or malformation, of identity.� Inthis series I explore the notion of loss of identity and it essentially shows how: |
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"People find my cross cultural background, being an Asian brought up in a rich oriental cultural environment and influenced by the western culture, interesting.
Being an Asian with multi cultural backgrounds, I often feel loss of identity.
The mixture of "Think like a Westerner and feel like an Asian" or "Think like
an Asian and feel like a Westerner" causes confusion and disorientation when I deal with personal problems which in turn inevitably informs my art works." |
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| The successful confrontation of my own history was due greatly to my new media works, and the difficult self-examination that fueled it. After my 1 � years of art education and artistic self-absorption in Australia, I could finally see beyond myself, and the relief was profound.� I am now better equipped to speak to in a more universal voice. |
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| Introduction |
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| It was a long waiting of 13 years before I made a decision in year 2002 to pursue my dream, to practice visual art academically and professionally. |
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| Is this what I want in my life? What have I achieved in life so far? |
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| The year was 2001, August; I took a hard look at myself as I asked these questions. To find some clarity in thoughts, I took two weeks off work and traveled. My journey to seek answers to my questions began. |
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| From the initial two weeks, it turned to eight long months before I decided upon what my next step would be. The decision was to provide an answer to the void I feel in my life. Despite the high opportunity costs of leaving a high-profile, well-paid position in the field of Information Technology and leaving my family and friends behind, I took on the challenge to pursue something that is foreign to me; I took a uncertain leap into the world of art ? a world that is so distant yet so beautiful. |
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| This paper is chronologies my experiences in art practices and education in Australia; my journey in practicing art in the past sixteen months, metamorphosing from a cutting-edge IT Specialist to a budding Visual Artist.� Through a series of valuable encounters and my exposure to Australian Contemporary art issues and events, I have discovered a whole new world in art creation. Through the process of art making, I am able to unleash my imagination, fantasy and creativity with endless possibilities which resulted to the creation of a series of art works throughout the period of my Postgraduate study ? and will definitely continue to develop my unique style and approach to creating.� |
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| This paper, hence, sets out to trace the processes of my art education and development in Australia through this Postgraduate study in QUT Creative Industries. It will focus on my understanding of contemporary art and the evolution in my art creations.� This paper will also analyse how I position my identities (cultural, social, personal and professional), and who and what theories have had a profound impact upon me in the development of my art making strategies. Finally, my research paper will explain the importance of establishing such strategies to confront my new social and cultural environment. |
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| In Chapter One, will present a critical examination of the psychological effect of family and social stereotypes and their significance on my art works. Chapter Two will highlight my art education and its influences. Chapter Three will provide an insight into my processes and developments in the creation of my personal style which serves as a prologue to Chapter Four which will investigate the relationship between the medium I choose for my art work and their intended concepts. The final chapter, Chapter 5 will discuss the impact of technologies in determining the trends of my art creation processes, which will conclude, with a personal perspective of my present standing.���� |
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| Chapter 1 : a critical examination of the psychological effect of family and social stereotypes and their significance on my art works |
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| The issue of identity in visual arts emerged in a new light with the shift from a modernist to a postmodernist paradigm in the mid 20th century. Modernist art strove for a pure aesthetic, and was stripped of any references outside of itself, isolated from autobiographical, historical, social, cultural, and political influences. It is divorced from the experiences of everyday life and from personal identity ultimately alienated many viewers [Rockman, 2003]. |
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| The contemporary experience, according to postmodernism, cannot be separated from social, cultural, political or historical influences and awareness.� It is with the postmodern philosophies in mind that I will discuss the development of my work, its relationship to personal identity, and identity?s influence on perceptions of contemporary culture. In relating the diverse work to specific periods in my life, it occurred to me that I was looking at visual records of multiple selves, of conflicting and compartmentalised aspects of identity. Further reflection revealed the profound impact of familial, social, and cultural influences on the formation of personal identity, and manifestation of these influences in my work. |
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| Born as the first child and only sonto a middle class traditional Malaysian Chinese family, I have becomethe center of attention to both my family and my relatives.� Sometimes, the attention thrust upon to me became too much.Often I have found it overwhelming, and have often felt extremely uncomfortable.� My family has bestowed upon me the expectations that I should become successful, ensuring not only that I continue the family?s good name within the community, but also carry on its traditions and values.� All these expectations weigh heavily upon me as the eldest child and only son. |
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| As a child, I was overwhelmed at a sense of belonging,and the desire to examinemy family and social history and its impact on my repeated childhood experiences of loss, longing, submission and silence. This process of self-examination and self-revelation was made even more difficult by the continuing pervasive cultural attitudes that encourage silence and secretiveness around the family and cultural taboos. It was understood that loyalty to one?s family required silence. As my metamorphosis into adulthood progressed, my subconscious voice was no longer willing to be silenced, speaking to me through memories, dreams and visions.� |
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| The voices from oblivion series, an ongoing exploration of photomontage, continues my critiques of contemporary cross cultural of the east and west, focusing particularly on South Asian (Malaysia and Singapore) cultures. These works reflect the postmodern experience of endless information that influences the formation, or malformation, of identity.� In these series I explore the notion of loss of identity and it essentially shows how: |
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People find my cross cultural background, being an Asian brought up in a rich
oriental cultural environment and influenced by the western culture, interesting.
Being an Asian with multi cultural backgrounds, I often feel loss of identity.
The mixture of ?Think like a Westerner and feel like an Asian? or ?Think like
an Asian and feel like a Westerner? causes confusion and disorientation when
I deal with personal problems which in turn inevitably informs my art works |
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| As an artist, I consciously engage in revealing the unconscious influences of familial, social and cultural ideology on our sense of self and our worldview; our interpretation or ?reading? of the world around us. In doing so, I acknowledge that I cannot exclude myself entirely from this critique as I slip back and forth between a cultural position of privilege to cultural position of exclusion. |
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| Similarly, the impact of parenting on childhood development (whether destructive or constructive) has the most profound and influential experience of self-definition. Family tradition and influences passed on from one generation to the next in a seemingly endless cycle. In both ?Family portrait : Chinese New Year in Changing Time? printmaking series� and ? Walk my life? video series provide an examination of the origins of individual identity as a reflection of the origins of the collective of familial, social and cultural identities. In these series, I explore the influences of my parents, grandparents and other family members on my childhood development. I further explore the unique relationship and experiences I have with my family, during childhood and adulthood. Individual interpretations of works of art are fueled by the course of individual lives, by accumulation of memories, experiences, influences, and associations that are unique to the individual. Rockman [2003] quotes : |
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| ?Like stones exposed to the elements, we are individually shaped and altered by our environment, an environment that can be unmercifully harsh. We may be scarred, polished, crushed, smoothed, worn down, discarded, and broken, and like stones, we carry with us cumulative evidence of our environmental influences.? |
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| In comparison to the two works mentioned, Blood photography series spoke of a different personal surrealism, of sexual and personal identity at odds with every traditional gender based paradigm I have been exposed to. It challenges the traditional and cultural taboo of Chinese family. As a child, I was forbidden to talk about issues such as suicide, self-destruction, or menstruation. These issues are considered sinful, filthy, and immoral. |
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| In this series, I use the very nature of the unconscious mind as an uncensored source of information for which the conscious mind suppresses; suggests the frequent dark nature of silence and secretiveness. I strive to convey a moment of thought, fear, need, vulnerability, and of truth that transcends the personal and acknowledges depth of human experience at both conscious and unconscious level. It is interesting to note the broad range of responses that this particular body of work elicited. Contingent upon the viewer?s own personal, social and cultural history, these images have at various times been described as erotic, nightmarish, wicked, scary, provocative, pornographic and terrifying. |
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| The successful confrontation of my own history was in great due to the above mentioned works and the difficult self-examination that fueled it. After 1 � years of art education and artistic self-absorption in Australia, I could finally see beyond myself, and the relief was profound.� I am now better equipped to speak in a more universal voice. |
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| Chapter 2. my art education and its influences |
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| I started my studio practice with paintings. Due to lack of knowledge and skills in contemporary art practice, my paintings did not get a good review from my supervisor and resulted in my growing frustration. I was despondent. |
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| As a result, I raised a request to volunteer in a gallery or given access to learn and discover the essence of Australian contemporary art.� In July 2002, I started volunteering at the Queensland Art Gallery in preparation of Asia Pacific Triennial (APT) 2002, one of the largest art events in Australia. The experience to work with various artists at the Queensland Art Gallery was invaluable. I worked closely with Michael Lin and Song Dong. In particular, my working experience with the latter was the most unusual in the sense that I received ?first hand? information with regards to Song Dong?s concepts and philosophies to life and art. This is due to the fact that both of us speak the same language yet others are considered as ?outsiders? as they are not able to grasp the authentic messages of Song Dong?s due to what has been transpired through verbal interpretation. It was the turning point in my art making strategy. |
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| Song Dong is the youngest artist in APT 2002. Conceptual interests are at the centre of his practice, which embraces photography, installation and video. Song Dong?s practice explores notions of perception, transience and the ephemeral nature of existence. Many of his performances are meditations, such as his ongoing ?Writing Diary with Water? project, in which the artist ritualises the daily actions of writing using water on a stone and uses serial photography as a means of recording this process [1]. |
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| At the New Media workshop organised by the gallery, conducted by Song Dong, I learnt the essence of contemporary art and understand that contemporary art works can be autobiographical, historical, social, cultural, and with political influences. It is a marriage from the experiences of everyday life and personal identity. I started to use art as a tool to reflect everyday issues such as personal, familial, social and global issues. At the same time, I started to look into the usage of different medium or media as a platform to convey my ideas, my thoughts and feelings. |
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| Toilet Roll Chinese Scroll is the first unique series of paintings where I explored a different medium in art making.� I mimic the various Chinese paintings from reference books onto the toilet roll with my own unique mixture of oriental and western ink painting style.� I chose toilet roll as a painting medium as it is such a common yet important item in our daily life; worthless after use. My intention in Toilet Roll Chinese Scroll is to embed something priceless such as art onto something worthless.� My painting can be priceless but when it is painted on toilet roll and exposed to water or dirt, it becomes worthless. It is almost like a friendship or relationship, it is something that one cannot buy, but can be destroyed easily. This series play an important role in the development of my art strategy, and it is the starting point of my exploration into personal, familial, and social identity issues and adding sensitivity into how I reflect and respond to each issues. This exploration of strategy is also reflected in Yongjian quote : |
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| ?Contemporary artists can be viewed in the conceptual frames: all are |
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| post-modern as they have used new and fresh ways of interpreting past texts or current texts; some focus on the cultural frame by questioning society?s attitudes to certain issues; whilst others use abstract or minimalist methods of dealing with their thoughts, by producing a network of signs and symbols that is part of the structural frame. Contemporary art also connects the artist, artwork, audience and world together - the artist expresses his views of the world in his/her artworks, and the audience either physically completes the work or interprets it. Put simply, contemporary art has completely demolished all barriers that once existed with traditional art, and artists now have the freedom to express whatever they want in whatever form they require. ? (yongjian)[2] |
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| American conceptual artist, Jeff Koons cited in [2] claims that contemporary art is art which can be anything people want it to be. Artists are the ones who create artworks that astound the art world by being unique, clever, different. The audience, whether it be the general public or the art world, are the ones who say whether or not an artwork is really ?art?. That is one of the great debates which contemporary art has revealed - who chooses what art is, and under what circumstances? |
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| Looking back at the journey I started nearly a year and a half ago, I have produced series of art works with various themes on multiple medium and media. In this regard I discovered a trend in my art creation. I started my art practise with painting and moved on to photography, from photography to digital art and film, from film to video, and eventually to printmaking. It is a cycle I observed, that had started with the basic, moved on to the technically complex, and back to the basics. |
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| Here are some of the major artworks I produced throughout my study : |
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| Toilet roll Chinese scroll, a painting series on toilet roll. |
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| Voices from oblivion, digital photographic works which reflect the postmodern experience of endless information that influences the formation, or malformation, of identity; and explore the notion of loss of identity |
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| blood, photographic works which use the very nature of the unconscious mind as an uncensored source of information for which the conscious mind suppresses; suggests the frequent dark nature of silence and secretiveness. |
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| Act of Grace, a short documentary that explores controversial refugee issues in Australia. |
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| Walk My Life, video series that reflect my personal, familial and social identity. |
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| Family portrait : Chinese New Year in Changing Time, prints that reflect the complex relationship between me and my family. |
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| Resilience : Identity and Memory a visual and dance collaboration, cross medium performance. This series emphasises the emotionally dark nature of the subject matter. While the video is beautiful and mysterious in its structure and the play of light against shadow, there is the ?unseen? lurking beneath the surface; a suggestion of profound shame or malevolence, of psychic and emotional disease.� Tension lies in the conflict between the aesthetic beauty of the video and the implied messages such as, child sexual abuse, relationship failure, and social pressure, in the story. |
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| The working process for most of these works is significant; reflecting my efforts to shed light on what is concealed or veiled in the unconscious.� My works emphasise the emotional nature of the subject matter. |
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| Chapter 3 : an insight into my processes and developments in the creation of my personal style |
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| ?Art is a form of information exchange. Art tells stories. Art makes people think and ponder about themselves and their world. Art is both entertaining and infuriating.? (Judd, The Art World) [2] |
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| Tracey Moffat, arguably Australia?s most successful international artist to date has a major influence in my art learning direction. Tracey Moffat works in photography and film; tells stories of racial differences, displacement and disorientation. The source for much of Moffat?s richly constructed imagery comes from her early experiences of the fantasies and energies of popular culture in television, films and magazines. [TM 1, TM 2] |
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| Her first major series, the lushly coloured ?Something More? (1989), has the style of a set of stills for a film about the trials of a poor but restless coloured girl in rural Australia who wants ?something more? out of life than her lot in the back-blocks. Each of the images crystallises particular aspects relating to the theme. Images of racial and social prejudice, intolerance and physical and sexual cruelty. The pathetic ending to the tale, she dies on the road which promised escape from her origins.[2] |
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| Moffat?s ?Something More? series triggered many questions at the early stage of my art education. I started to investigate the importance of issues pertinent to myself as an artist, the impact of these issues affecting me as an artist and my interpretation of these issues in a broader scope that viewers can ponder on. I also started to look at art as a process of telling stories of my own and others. |
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| In voices from oblivion, my first series of digital photographic work, which tells the story of my disorientation due to the feeling of loss of identity. This series examine the effects of conflict and reconciliation of oriental and western culture, and the influences of media has on me in the development of my personal identity.� In Walk My Life and Family Portrait : Chinese New year in Changing Time, I further explored familial and social issues, and re-telling my personal experiences through video instead of still images. In both series, I appear as the central character in the video to convey my feelings toward my family members and as a victim of oppression due to my disagreement to certain aspects of Chinese tradition and social perceptions.� |
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| An important part of Moffat?s path as an artist has been to challenge and refuse gheottisation as a ?black? artist within the art world. Her concerns have continued to work and be interpreted as issue-based in regard to the stranglehold words and images have in defining identity by race, sex and normality. From a socio-historical perspective specific to the disadvantaged or oppressed indigenous people in Australia or indeed worldwide, Moffat?s photo-narratives suggest there is no progress. Somewhat like lost souls, her characters act out plays for which the script is incomplete. The narratives are made by a modern artist and a woman of the world, in all that means, at the close of the millennium when, through media, we are global citizens as much as nationalities. Her history is not just her own, but shared histories of many. |
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| In this regard Resilience: Identity and Memory, I focused on creating issue-based work and based on the life story of my project team mate, Jeffrey Tan, a budding choreographer. This series focus on incidents at different stages of his life that eventually shaped his identity. This series look into issues of child abuse, relationship failures, and social pressures that cause anxiety and uncertainty.� It reveals the truth of pain, suffering, loss and alienation. I believe Jeffrey?s history is not just his own, but shared histories of many and individuals in one way or another. |
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| Chapter 4. investigate the relationship between the medium I choose for my art works and their intended concepts. |
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| This chapter aims to investigate the relationship which I have chosen for my art works to facilitate their intended concepts. For this purpose, I have selected two of my recent works, Walk My Life and Resilience: Identity and Memory, which had used video as their medium. In this respect, I will make comparison to Bill Viola?s ?The Reflecting Pool?; his exploration of shadow & reflection and the tale of a central figure. |
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| Bill Viola is one of the few contemporary Video artists who explores the use of video, both conceptually and sensually; instead of using it as a narrative document or film substitute. Through dramatic use of space, his installations function less as concrete works and more like enveloping, temporal environments aimed at creating visceral experiences for the viewer. Viola explores all major themes; changing concepts of time and space, life and death, nature and culture, the material and the spiritual.[4] |
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| By carefully crafting sequences of images and sounds, Viola produces videos that hint at the enormity of our world and the human condition beyond what we see in front of us. He zooms in and out of vast landscapes, focuses on details, slows or speeds up ?real time,? and juxtaposes different scenes. The artist urges viewers to trust their intuition and to discover multiple levels of awareness in the world.[3] |
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| Like Viola, I see my art works as the outcome of a story telling and re-telling process. Through this process, I discover more of myself and closer to affirming the identity that I have been searching for years and finally, I could see beyond myself. Technologies such as photography camera, video camera, computer and etc, are tools that I use to construct stories based on my personal memories and of others?.� The deliberate structuring of a narrative for the electronic media is as much of a response to this set of unknowns (to this potential anarchy of the visual and the mental) as it is a pointer towards the endlessly inventive fictions which accompany the activity of storytelling. For no sooner has the story been told than it is retold again.[1] |
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| In Viola?s� ?The Reflecting Pool?, he employs the use of reflection as a device to perceive the world. In it, a man emerges from a forest and stops by a body of water. He jumps and time stops while he is left suspended in the air. All movements depicted are seen as reflections on the water?s surface. After a moment, the man emerges from the water without ever having fallen in. He then walks back into the forest.� |
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| In this regard, there is a similarity between ?The Reflecting Pool? and Walk My Life. The video segment, mother in Walk My Life has exploited the use of reflections (using still images of a young girl) projected on the water?s surface; to express my childhood?s music learning commotion experience.� I picked images of a young Caucasian girl as the central figure for this segment as Asian perceives music learning as a feminine activity and as part of western cultures. I felt embarrassed, showed resistance but had no control of the situation as learning to play a musical instrument is part of my family tradition.�� In this video segment, the central figure shows sadness and unwillingness. The occasional droplets of water onto the water?s surface create ripple effects that signify tears. The still images come alive with the water ripple effect and create smooth transitions from one stage of life experience to another. As it appears, both Viola?s and my work have used reflection as a device to perceive the world. The difference though, I have in my case, the Asian perception of music learning as a feminine activity. |
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| In� ?The Reflecting Pool?, there is a clear disjuncture between the story and the storytelling which is compounded when the male character suddenly climbs out of the pool, naked, and walks off into the forest. This breakdown of narrative causality, the inherent quality of disjuncture, the arbitrary juxtaposition of elements, is located in the doubling of image and character. The man cannot discover his identity just as the pool cannot reflect what surrounds it. |
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| Influenced by Viola?s video, I appear as the male figure in father in Walk My Life, lying naked lifelessly on the ground. As time ticks away, I suddenly sit up, contemplating, spinning a piece of red cloth around my head; unexpectedly, I appear standing up and looked at myself in the mirror.� The sequence of abrupt arbitrary juxtaposition of movements in the video implies the process of me searching of an answer for a fundamental question; ?what have I achieved in life?? and shows the struggle in the searching process. This segment of video coincidentally represents the life of many Asian males; in particular, my father?s and myself.� We struggle to discover our social and familial identities and often, many fail in the process of discovery and drifted along in the sea of perception like a lost soul. There is a strong influence of Viola in my video segment: father in walk my life. However, I have added the element of Asian culture, Chinese culture in particular, to pin point a very specific predicament that experienced by many.� The elements specifically investigate how identities function in relation to tradition and taboos. |
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| In my recent collaboration with a fellow masters dance student, Jeffrey Tan, I have produced 4 segments of video in Resilience: Identity and Memory that depict his life story. The dark nature of these video segments reveals pain, suffering and confusion. I exploit the use of shadow and the trail effect on the video camera to echo the past unrest experiences that he did not expect. |
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| Similar to Viola?s ?The Reflecting Pool?, the reflection is neither what Viola expects nor can it be manipulated. The shadow hangs on and what it needs is light. However, in order for the pool to be reflective it must be dark. Neither the story nor the anti-story can exist in a separate universe and this interdependence is both what marks and then constrains the electronic image. He is a witness to his own inability to control his image and yet he knows there would be no image were he not part of the scene. The body of water becomes a metaphor of his struggle to control what he himself has created.� In the final analysis, his identity cannot be judged from the outside. |
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| Thus, In many of my art works, I chose shadow and reflection as basic elements to convey varied stories which is similar to Viola?s strategy in his videos. In conclusion, I find the electronic media such as video, the best vehicle to express my emotions and a direct way to trigger the audiences? visual and aural senses. Through video, I am able to exploit reflection and shadow to create powerful and aesthetic visual effects.� |
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| Sometimes I see shadow as a form of reflection; sometimes I see them as two distinct elements.� Both exist where light is.� Some says, shadow is just a kind of reflection, ancient people reasoned that a shadow or reflection was part of their soul. Some people?s believe a man?s soul to be in his shadow, so other or the same peoples believe it to be in his reflection in water or a mirror.� I see reflection as the opposite of shadow. Reflection represents the consciousness and shadow represents the unconsciousness. |
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| Conclusion |
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| In retrospect, my exploration to identify my own art creation strategy, had stemmed from personal investigations of my own memories; from childhood to adulthood. I feel that this is a logical process whereby I used my previous experiences and transformed them into creative processes to produce contemporary art works that reflect my perceptions and thoughts. I have also observed that in my art creation process, I have started with my own perceptions and thoughts, hence a personal outlook in whatever was in my immediate surroundings which is then transpired into my works. As I proceeded further into this exploration process, I observed that this personal approach had expanded into examining my perceptions and thoughts on a more societal and global standing; I see myself creating works which has a wider effect and thus, affect many. |
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| In the infancy stage of identifying one?s own art creation strategy, I am definite that many budding artists had to start of by working on their creations based on his/her influences of other established artists in which they feel to have some admiration and understanding to. As mentioned in Chapter 2 and Chapter 3, my art creation strategy has somewhat been influenced by 3 outstanding artists; Song Dong, Tracey Moffatt and Bill Viola. These artists have unique approaches to their work and are recognisable by their distinctiveness. Amongst the three artists, Song Dong?s work and the manner in which he practises his art has a tremendous contributing influence in my strategy in my art creations. Song Dong?s philosophies and conceptual approaches to art and his concepts of exploring of ?existence? and ?non-existence? are highly admirable and desirable. I feel that I want to emulate his ability to present his thoughts and perceptions in the most innovative and interesting ways, yet meet the intended objective of conveying his concepts and thoughts.� In this respect too, Song Dong does not confine his audience to his own thoughts and perceptions alone, but allows them to make their own discerning observation of what he is trying to convey. |
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| Moffatt?s and Viola?s works, on the other hand, have a role in the areas of aesthetics and presentation of my creations. Moffatt has produced outstanding pieces that strongly address the issues of race and discrimination that she captured my attention almost instantaneously. Her works depict serious issues yet are presented in subtlety. Subsequently, Viola?s theatrical approach similarly showed powerful and significant images, yet are presented in abstraction and without the ?in-your-face? presentation. Through their works, I realised that ?serious? art or creations that are issue-based need not be presented in a manner where it should shock, aggravate nor upset the audience ? the use of subtlety and abstraction is still effective in conveying the artists? intended messages. |
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| Thus, these influences, it appears, have had affected my art creation processes and moulded me to an artist who sought to create issue-based works. Nevertheless, though the three artists have contributed much to my strategy in creating works, I sense that when compared to my works, there are much differences between them.� I have set out to create works that distinctively and specifically address my concerns in the restrictions and limitations in my own culture; the Chinese traditions and taboos. |
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| My creation processes, it seems has extensively used technology to produce the final works; creations that are technologically-enhanced though the use of softwares and videography. My exploration of using technology has stemmed from my intention to visually show and illustrate features of time and space, and the relationships and transitions between these two in artworks. These relationships and transitions, I feel, could not be effectively conveyed in conventional art pieces like paintings and sculptures, thus, ?short-changing? the audience to experience a probable roller-coaster of emotions when looking at an artwork. Through my experimentation with video and superimposing of digital images, I sought to provide unlimited opportunities for the audience to experience different emotions that come with the works. Similarly, my works allow for audiences? developments in sensations and perspectives while they view my works.� |
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| In conclusion, this postgraduate course and my objective to find my own creative strategy in the creation of my works has been an overwhelming personal and professional journey; I also feel that I have found some of the answers to the questions prior undergoing the QUT Creative Industries Masters. My experiences working and learning with creative individuals and appreciating each individual?s uniqueness and achievements has made me realised that there are still more that I need and can do in my quest to create pieces that are genuine, sincere and subtle yet not frivolous not trivial.�� |
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| Sometimes I think, I remember. |
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