Ai
My body of work explores the theme of photography and memories and how they connect with each other. I made these pieces to express the influences of photography in our daily lives and the importance of remembering past experiences. When we look back at pictures, we often think of the good memories and experiences gained from that time. By exhibiting this body of work, I hope to share an understanding of the critical role photography takes for us to keep memories alive. My personal experience with photography also influenced me to create my body of work. My father's tradition of recording my sister and me from a young age and our enjoyment of looking back at these photos during anniversaries and events has been a big influence in creating my art pieces this year.
The beginning of this theme; memory and photography started after making the piece “The Past”. I used photography itself as a material in different forms, such as paper print, film print, and transparent sheet print. After using photography as a material, I used them on many of my other pieces afterwords. The artist Joseph Cornell has been a huge inspiration to create art pieces influenced by memories. He often creates his works using wooden boxes and materials that trigger a certain memory inside him. Christian Boltanski is also an artist that I have taken influenced in many of my own pieces. He uses photography as well as the theme of memory in his works. He focuses on the past in his works which correlates with the theme of my own works.
I developed my work through testing my materials. I tested couple of gluing techniques to combine the film strips and wire’s together. I ended up finishing with hot glue and using tape to support from the back. This technique was used in my of my works such as “The Past” and “The Beginning”. Both of these works use a sphere structure made out of wire and film strips (made with plastic prints). Most of my works exhibited are 3 dimensional works with one 2 dimensional chark drawing. Through making many 3 dimensional pieces, I learnt about different perspectives the piece could be looked at as well as the formats.
My exhibition I will be concentrating on a U-shape. I displayed my works in this format for the audience to be able to stand in the middle and look around. Furthermore, I placed all of my monotone pieces in one section to create a sense of unity. In addition, some of my works are meant to be looked at from different angles and perspectives, so these pieces will be placed around the middle as well in order for the audience to look around the piece. By grouping the pieces in different ways, I’ve shown the connection between them and shows how all works can describe memories in different ways. Most of my pieces concentrate around the same theme using similar materials. I want the audience to concentrate on the whole body of work in my exhibition as I want to communicate my message through all of my pieces combined.
My exhibition is intended for the audience to learn about the importance of photography when remembering a memory. I want the audience to feel connected to my artwork and think about the meanings behind each piece. In addition, by looking at each piece, I am looking forward to the viewers relating their own memories with my own experiences. The intention is for the audience to realize the importance of photography and how it allows the memories in that moment to stay.
Family (December 2021)
Ceramic
25 x 25 x 20 cm
This sculpture was made to represent family. This sculpture is separated into three different pieces of different sizes to express the three members of a family. It was influenced by the picture of a car park that I took which had an interestingly shaped metal support bracket. It was inspired by the sculpture artist Barbara Hepworth. She uses holes in her art with a reasoning that it balances out the artwork which is one of the reasons why the work involved holes.
Through the Lens (February 2022)
Charcoal, Chalk, Paper
45 x 60 cm
This work is created to express the use of cameras to capture moments. We can look back to our past by photographing moments and remind ourselves where we grew from. It was inspired by my dad, who often showed videos of me when I was younger. I chose to draw myself using the camera my dad owned in the early 2000s to show my cultural influence from Japanese technological advancement. This work creates a theme of looking at the past, which can be seen from the eyes looking straight into the lens.
