: Self-Dialogue : Lau Ting Yan
Introduction
After graduation from school of design, I start my two years art education in Visual Arts of HKBU. As a science student in secondary school, I did not know about arts so much, and here offers a chance for me to understand art more. At the first semester in Visual Arts, I tried to sculpt some little clay figures and I did also tried to sculpt my head in actual size. That was the first time I work with clay, and I am really enjoy it, I love the texture of clay and even the smell. After that I tried more technics of clay arts, including throwing, biscuit firing, glaze firing and etc. At the end, I discover that I feel more enjoyable in hand building. I am intrigued with the universe. The mystery and the beauty of the stars make me curious. I study the information of the universe a lots when I small, and I did also make works about the universe. I am also interested in human behavior. Human is the most complex organism, I am curious about their acting and their thoughts. I do always pay attention of my behavior, for example, my wrong words, the dreams, the little action and etc. I think they are the hints for me to know about the real me more. In May 17,2011, I wrote these in my diary: “ And it gather a thing of me: A rational me; A real me; An emotional me (which also called a random feeling me).” I noticed that there are different thoughts inside my body and I am interested in it, and it is a reason why I start my project “Self-Dialogue”. :: 01 ::
Content
01:: Preface 05:: Project Information Artist Statement : 08 Background : 09 Media : 10 Form : 11
13:: Research Self-dialogue : 14 Meaning of the words : 14 Sigmund Freud’s Philosophy : 15 Mind-map : 17 Artist : 18 Jan Švankmajer : 18 Xiang Jing : 24 Kiki Smith : 32 Antony Gormley : 36
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41:: Development First Stage : 42 Second Stage : 44 Third Stage : 52
71:: Deliverable 76:: Postscript 78:: Reference
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: Project Information :
Project Information :: Artist Statement
:: 01 ::
Self-Dialogue (Deliverable) Clay, Fabric 200x100x100cm
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Project Information :: Artist Statement
Artist Statement In dealing with the daily routine and choices, there are always two opposite and contradict thoughts in my mind. However, I can only make one decision in this body. Therefore, I need to dialogue to myself to make the final decision. My work shows my feeling on the struggle and iterant dialogue between these two thoughts. And this dialogue would continuous till a time I do not know.
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Background “Self-Dialogue” is inherent and natural, do not need to learn from the others and it just occurs. Although it is natural, it may be an abnormal thing in other organism, for example, would the dogs dialogue to itself? Also, I am curious that what is the first sentence or image or a thought that I dialogue to myself? Is my “Self-Dialogue” same to the others? How a deaf having their “Self-Dialogue”? Would the other organisms or matter dialogue to itself? Is the words are the only way of “Self-Dialogue”? In the first stage of the project, I mark down all the things around my “Self-Dialogue” in mind-map, including the method, the reason, the situation and my
feeling. And I tried to sculpt some mini clay figures to describe the method that I dialogue to myself and place them according to the mind-map. After that, I noticed that the idea of describing the mind-map is too board, and I decided to narrow it down. I tried to focus on the dialogue between two opposite thoughts, while one of the thoughts relies on my laws and the other one relies on my desire. With support of Sigmund Freud’s personal structure philosophy, I start to sculpt clay to descript the struggle dialogue between that two opposite and contradict thoughts as the final artwork.
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Project Information :: Media
Media “And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being.” Gen2: 7, the Bible. I am a Christian, I believe in God. God made the first man, Adam, by clay, and I believe that clay is suitable as a media of sculpting human body. In fact, the hardness of clay is similar to the hardness of muscle. I use stone white and terracotta to represent the opposite thoughts, the reason is that the illumination of color of white clay and terracotta is opposite, while the girl at the center represented by the mixture of the both clay as the girl contain both of the thoughts. The clay figures are unfired, as I need to make the consistence with the clay that paint on the fabric. Also, the fired clay would change color and texture a lot, which would damage the beauty of the work and that’s why I did not fire the clay figures. :: 10 ::
top, Terracotta middle, Stone White bottom, Mixture of both clay
Forms I sculpt the clay in leg and arm form to represent the opposite thoughts. The form of leg and arm is referenced from my own body. The crossing and intertwining legs and arms are describing the struggling of dialogue between the thoughts. I sculpt the legs and arms repeatedly rather than molding as I think the thoughts are not exactly the same. The body parts of the girl would place at the joining of the stone white and terracotta, I am trying to describe a girl floating on the water by only sculpting the body above the water level as when I having a bath, I feel it is the
best quiet time for me to dialogue to myself. The distributing of the legs and arms is referenced from the Milky Way, which is a complicated astronomy phenomenon as I see the common between the complicated human’s thoughts and the Milky Way. I placed the sculptures on a black fabric to create the sense of Milky Way. The end of the fabric is rolled up and hangs on at the mid air. I have paint the legs and arms on the hanging part of the fabric which hints that there are much more legs and arms inside the rolled part of the fabric and suggest that the “Selfdialogue� would have no ends. :: 11 ::
: Research :
Research :: Self-Dialogue
Self-Dialogue
Meaning of the words
With reference from the dictionary.com the meaning of “Self ” and “Dialogue” means:
Self (n.) 1. A person or thing referred to with respect to complete individuality: one’s own self. 2. A person’s nature, character, etc.: his better self. 3. Personal interest. 4. Philosophy: Id, Ego, Superego
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Dialogue (n.) 1. Conversation between two or more persons. 2. The conversation between characters in a novel, drama, etc. 3. An exchange of ideas or opinions on a particular issue, especially a political or religious issue, with a view to reach an amicable agreement or settlement.
Sigmund Freud’s philosophy According to Sigmund Freud’s philosophy, a personality structure is consisting of three parts, including Id, Ego and Superego, and they act under conscious and subconscious mechanism. Id - pleasure principle (Subconscious): It is a primitive inherit instinct. “Id” acts to satisfy basic biological requirement, there is no restriction and conceal and it just find the happiness of the body directly. If there is any delay of satisfactions, it would feels bothering and annoying. However, the delay would not reduced the motivation of finding satisfies, contrarily, it would increase the motivation of finding satisfies. Sigmund Freud point out that “Id” is a perpetuation personality and it is most important.
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Research :: Self-Dialogue
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Ego - reality principle (Conscious) “Ego” is the first layer of the personality structure and it is conscious. It acts to notice the outside excitations and information, digest the experiences and save them. If the outside excitations are too strong, “Ego” would avoid them and it would accept the suitable excitations. Also, “Ego” acts to order “Id” and decides that if “Id” could satisfy its desire. Superego - morality principle (Partly conscious) “Superego” is just like a conscience, it distinguish the right and wrong. When Freud doing the psychological research, he discovered that most of the patients would regret be:: 16 ::
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Ego co
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cause they breach their conscience. “Superego” contains a lot of “laws” and force “Id” to abide them. And these “laws” are from the innermost being and also the inter conflicts. To conclude, to satisfy the desire of “Id”, “Ego” needs to consider the outside situation and also get permission of “Superego”. “Superego” is and opposite personality of “Id” and there are always contradiction between “Superego” and “Id”, “Superego” relies on morality principle while “Id” relies on pleasure principle. Which meets my theory of “Selfdialogue”, the opposite thoughts need to dialogue to make the best final decision.
Mind-map of “Self-Dialogue”
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Research :: Artists
Artists
Jan Ĺ vankmajer Born Education
1934,Prague Department of Performing Arts of the Prague Academy of Performing Arts Art Media Clay animation, Film Background He is familiar with the stop-motion technique. Many of his stop-motion films include clay objects, which are also called clay animation. He usually use human sculpture in his clay animation, his technique gives a soul to the clay sculpture, and his work is imaginative and surreal.
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left, Jabberwocky 1971 Film below, Tchecoslovaquie 1982 Clay animation
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Research :: Artists
Darkness Light Darkness 1990 Clay animation 7:30 mins
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Artwork reviews Title as “Darkness Light Darkness”, it was at night and only a light turns on in that small room, some things happened. The different parts of clay body tried to combine into a clay body, sometime make mistakes but they finally combined successfully. However, at the end you can’t tell the clay body is happy for that, the body just trapped in the small room and can’t move. And this animation creates a sense of tension and discomposure. Apart from clay, Jan also use some real organ in this animation which makes me feel sick and it shows the disgust of the real, which might not often seen. He use grey clay to sculpt the body parts in actual size but the texture of clay is still remained, when the body parts tries to combine, you can see the clay characteristics.
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Research :: Artists
Artwork reviews This animation is full of tension and ordered chaos. It is describing the dimension between two men. Jan use a lot of materials to create the image of the character, from large and intact objects to tiny and damaged objects. He uses a number of scenes of war between the objects to create the sense of dialogue between the two men, which makes we feel that their dialogue is intense. At the end of the animation, the camera fades out from the repeated scene of destroying the man himself and reforming, which suggested that this dialogue would keep repeating.
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Dimension of Dialogue 1982 Clay animation 5:00 mins
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Research :: Artists
Xiang Jing Born Education
1968, Beijing Department of Sculpting of the Central Academy of Fine Arts Art Media Sculpted and painted with porcelain, Fiberglass Background Most of her sculptures are women, and a few of her works are animals. She sculpts her sculptures in a realistic way with imperfection. She shows the imperfect nature and realness of women. Some of her works are detail on the facial expression and body, while some are not. Also, you will notice that there is a story behind her every sculpture.
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left, Face 2007 Fiberglass painted 179x42x36cm bottom, Minnie Girl 2012 Painted on fiberglass 73 x 24 x 20 cm below, Unspoken Sorrow NO.3 2012 bronze, painted 52x20x20 cm
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Research :: Artists
Artwork reviews The sculptures of Jing are nude, and they even have no hair. Jing paint them in real skin color. The facial expression of the sculptures is sad, the nose is red, they didn’t face towards but face to right. This makes me curious what the secret they are hiding.
Us 2006 Fiberglass 56x43x22cm :: 26 ::
Artwork reviews The sculpture of Jing is a small nude girl, also without hair. She sit on the floor and watching to outside with a sad emotion. I appreciate the form of the sculpture, the texture is smooth and the post is nature.
Peacocks 2007 Fiberglass painted 123x200x150cm :: 27 ::
Research :: Artists
left, The End 2010 Fiberglass Painted 165x105x70cm right, Nobody Saw 2010 Media Fiberglass painted 3 pieces in a set, Variable Exhibition Measurement :: 28 ::
Artwork reviews The sculptures are the same, the same girls acting the same. They seems hiding something or looking something through the wall and mirrors. They use their hands to cover the face and which you can’t see their face. I am curious what they are hiding and I think there is a world inside them.
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Project Information :: Artist Statement
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Artwork reviews It is a huge nude female sculpture, Jing paint the skin in light color, which shows the weakness of female. The sculpture is sitting like a doll with unfocused eyes, which just like thinking. The viewers can see her nude body from any angle and she can’t reject.
Your body 2005 Color paint on reinforced fiberglass 267.5x158.5x148.6cm :: 31 ::
Research :: Artists right, Blue Stars on Blue Tree 2006 Ink and silver leaf on Nepal paper 92 Ă— 70 inch bottom, Woman Bronze below, Hanging Woman 1992 Mix media
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Kiki Smith Born 1954, Germany Art Media Sculpture, screen-prints, illustration, performance, jewelry design, fashion design Background Kiki Smith born in an art family. She does many forms of art and familiar with different materials. She is a feminist artist. She often uses females’ body in her art. She cares about gender, race, battered in women. Also, her art is always direct to the point.
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Research :: Artists
Artwork reviews Kiki see women as an organism, pee is the normal action of an organism. She usually confronts and shows things that are awkward in the society. She covers the awkward and replaces the pee by pretty glass beads, while the society used to cover the normal action and denied the real presence.
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Artwork reviews Kiki is always inspired by the mythical, spiritual, science and natural world. The stars behind the girl on the wall create the sense of greatest or the world, while the knee down girl represents the small of human. This shows the connection of the sculpture and the place.
far left, Pee Body 1992 Wax and 23 strands of glass beads left, Blue girl 1998 Silicon bronze 36x19x22 inch :: 35 ::
Research :: Artists
Antony Gormley Born 1950, London Art Media Sculpture
Background Antony is a British sculptor, who won a Turner Prize in 1994 and South Bank Prize for Visual Art in 1999. His sculptures are in variety volume. His early works always placed in different places, including town, beach, under the water, field, top of the buildings and etc. Most of his works are studying the relationship between human and space. Also, he always works with his body.
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top, Natural Selection 1981 Lead tools, fruits,weapons, vegetables 10m left, Testing a World View 1993 Cast iron each 1120 x 485 x 1070 mm :: 37 ::
Research :: Artists
Artwork reviews Each of the “Fields� contain a great number of clay figures, although I can only see this work through the photos, I can imagine that huge of the work. The clay figures are not detailed at all. In fact, not all of them are made by Antony, most of the clay figures are made by the citizen. Antony thinks that each clay figure came from a living moment, and the clay figure is a method to transform the living moment into material. They are all special and each of them can see as a living moment collective object. I am impressed for this numbers of clay figures and also the meaning behind them.
European Field 1993 Terracotta approx. 35,000 ,8-26 cm each Installed :: 38 ::
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: Development :
Development :: First Stage
First stage
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In the first stage of the project, I did some tests on clay with different materials. I begin a piece by the little girl figure, and I sculpt it by my hand. Then I put it in the water and record how it melts. I also tried to put some wax on another figure to present the impression of tears, however, some wax diffused into the clay figure and turns the color of clay. I did also tried to put clay on canvas, but it fell after some days.
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Development :: Second Stage
Second stage
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Development :: Second Stage
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As I feel comfort to make that little girl figure, I started to make more in the second stage. The forms of the figure are according to the method of how I dialogue to myself, which I did record in the mind map of “Self-Dialogue�. Afterwards, I decided to place them according to the mind map.
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Project Information :: Artist Statement
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Self-Dialogue (interm show) Clay each 6x4x4cm
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Development :: Third Stage
Third stage After the interm show, I discovered that the idea of the mind mapping clay figures is too board, and I decided to narrow it down. I tried to focus on the dialogue between the opposite thoughts of myself, while one of it relies on my law, and the other one relies on my desire. I wrote down five keywords that I want to present in the artwork: opposite, contradict, struggle, balance and compromise. After that, I tried to place the small figure like the balancing rocks. However, it is too easy to fall.
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Development :: Third Stage
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Then, I sketch different possibility of placing the clay figures. And the sketch on the bottom of this page shows the struggling of myself, and it inspired me that struggling is just like the crossing arms and legs.
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Development :: Third Stage
I decided to sculpt a thousand of arms and legs, let them crossing. And I would place the clay figure at the joining of different clay.
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Development :: Third Stage
I did some test on mixing clay, some of them are marbling, some of them mixed very well. I also sculpt different forms of arms and legs.
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Development :: Third Stage
I put the sculptures according to the my sketch. However, the little girl figure did not pop out visually.
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Project Information :: Artist Statement
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Then, I tried to put my clay face( which did in bodyscape class) in it, and I think they are match.
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Development :: Third Stage
I sketch the details of placing the sculptures to gather the final image of the work.
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Development :: Third Stage
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I decided to hang on the arms and legs on the fabric, however, it breaks. Then I choose to paint the clay on the fabric.
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Development :: Third Stage
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far lefts, arm tops, feet left, shoulder
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Development :: Third Stage
I mark the place that the body parts of the girl should be placed accroding to the same size of myself. And set up the fabric.
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: Deliverable :
Project Information :: Artist Statement
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Deliverable ::
Self-Dialogue (Deliverable) Clay, Fabric 200x100x100cm
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Postscript
In this stage, my honours project is almost done, which means that my five years university life is closed to the end. I have never thought that I would be a Visual Arts student, but I am so glad to be. Visual Arts brings me another way to see our world and I enjoy making artworks. Although my honours project is almost end, the project of “Self-Dialogue” would not end in this point, I hope I can study more and make more artworks in “Self-Dialogue” in the future.
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Reference ::
Reference
Self-Dialogue
Xiang Jing
1. http://dictionary.com 2. http://www.zeepedia.com/read. php?sigmund_freud_a_psychoana lytic_theory_of_personality_personal ity_psychology&b=94&c=4 3. 陳仲庚,張雨新,”人格心理學”,1994
1. http://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=QAgXzW-u_Yk&feature=player_ embedded 2. http://www.linlingallery.com/eng/artist_in troduce.php?id=25 3. http://big5.china.cn/gate/big5/art.china.cn/ focusart/2010-03/12/content_3415562. htm 4. http://www.x--q.com/x/exhibition/ solo_2008%20Naked%20Beyond%20 Skin-beijing/index_cn.html
Jan Švankmajer 1. http://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=WfUZtgnvdfQ 2. http://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=ksYGqFO3X_Q 3. http://www.jansvankmajer.com/ 4. http://blog.roodo.com/waking_life/ar chives/212535.html
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Kiki Smith 1. Siri Engberg, “Kiki Smith: a gathering, 1980-2005”, Minneapolis, 2005 2. http://news.artxun.com/diao su-960-4798450.shtml 3. http://www.kikismithsquattingthepalace. com/Stills.htm
4. http://www.moma.org/collection/artist. php?artist_id=5486
Antony Gormley 1. John Hutchinson, E.H Gombrich, Lela B. Njatin, “ Antony Gormley”, Phaidon, 1995 2. http://www.antonygormley.com 3. http://www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/collection/ works/314.1993/ 4. http://art.china.cn/haiwai/2009-06/25/con tent_2984571.htm 5. http://housewifeco.wordpress.com/ 2011/02/15/人形裝置藝術-antonygormley/
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