Shuwen Xu_PORTFOLIO by Shuwen Xu

Shuwen Xu PORTFOLIO 2010-2016 Architecture + Landscape + Art Works/ Writing

Shuwen Xu

www.shuwenxu.com >>> sxu01@risd.edu >>> OR: xsw-1231@hotmail.com +1 401 340 8722 >>> 99 Shelden St, Apt 2

>>> Providence, RI 02906

VISUAL ARTIST/ DESIGNER - Looking for myself through art; - Professional training of spatial design; - Theoretical study with critical thinking. Fine art, design, theory study, and my own sensitivity always inspires each other, generating endless driving forces and passion for works!

EDUCATION Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, RI - Candidate for Master of Landscape Architecture > expected 2017 - Candidate for History of Art and Visual Culture Concentration > expected 2017 Southeast University, Nanjing, China - Bachelor of Architecture > 2015 INTERNSHIP - Internship & thesis > Shanghai Xian Dai Architectural Design (Group) Co., Shanghai, China > 2015 - Internship > Shanghai Xian Dai Architectural Design (Group) Co., Shanghai, China > 2014 - Assistantship > Southeast University > cartographic survey of traditional architecture in Taizhou, China > 2013 ACADEMIC WRITINGS - “Conditional Art in Landscape/ Installation/ Performance — from The Works of Robert Irwin” > 2017 - “Research for Traditional Japanese Tenugui” > 2016 - “Face Obliteration and Face Value — Self-portraits of Eighteenth Century French Art” > 2015 - “Between Chinese Traditional Gardens and Landscape Paintings” > 2012

FEATURED PROJECTS - “Nowhere”, photograph series > compiled in “RISD Photo in Berlin — A Collection of Student Work from Berlin: Through Your Lens” > RISD Photo > 2016 - “Given to Sensation, Given to Nature — Design Principle Studio of RISD Landscape Department” > compiled in “Beyond Studio — Architectural Design Method of Prestigious Universities Abroad”, edited by Jiandao Design, published by China Machine Press > 2016 - “Nanning Terminal Design” > compiled in “Exploration Of Terminal Design — Challenges And Innovation of Large-span Architectures” > 2015 - Section of “Plan Arrangement” > compiled in “Traditional Dwelling Planning of Nanjing Historical District”, for Nanjing Planning Bureau > 2013 - “Cartographic Survey of Heishi House and Subei Headquarters Site” > compiled in “Preservation and Protection of Taizhou Historical Architecture”, for Taizhou Preservation Bureau > 2013 AWARDS - Landscape Architecture Department Fellowship > 2015 - 2016 - GOA Travel Award > 2014 - Voluntary Service Award > 2013 - English Excellence Award > 2012 - Course Awards > 2010 - 2012

DESIGN PROJECTS

ART WORKS

WRITINGS

- 01/ HOUSE WITH GARDENS

SP RT 1 PL A A CE C & ES

- 02/ RENOVATION AND EXTENSION OF SHATANGYUAN CANTEEN

- MY UNIVERSITY, pen; gouache

- 03/ METASEQUOIA EXHIBITION CENTER

- CHINESE TRADITIONAL GARDENS, pen

- “BETWEEN CHINESE TRADITIONAL

FOR CHILDREN

sketch

GARDENS AND LANDSCAPE PAINTINGS”

- 04/ NANNING TERMINAL DESIGN

- NOWHERE 1-3, photograph

> 2012

- 05/ TIMBER STUDY

- UNTITLED, relief after Klee’s painting

- 06/ PLAN ARRANGEMENT OF TRADITIONAL DWELLINGS OF NANJING OLD CITY

PA R B T 3 TH EIN IN G G S S &

R TI T 2 PH M E EN & O M EN A

- 07/ NATURAL PHENOMENA REVELATION - 08/ SUB-CANOPY

- PASSING TIME, printmaking, installation

- “DYNAMIC CONDITIONALITY IN LAND-

- 09/ EXTENDING LINES

- SPACE / TIME, photo collage

SCAPE AND EXTENDING FIELD” > 2017

- 10/ DEEP INTO THE GROUND - FACE I; II, oil-painting - SELF-PORTRAIT, oil-painting - UNTITLED, oil-painting - HIDING HIDING HIDING, oil-painting - UNTITLED 1-5, film photograph - FAKED ZOO, film photograph

- “FACE OBLITERATION AND FACE VAL-

- ROUTE, printmaking

UE -- SELF-PORTRAITS OF EIGHTEENTH

- DROWNING, digital photograph

CENTURY FRENCH ART” > 2015

- JOURNEY TO THE END OF THE NIGHT, printmaking - CONCUSSION, oil-painting - STILL-LIFE, oil-painting

PART 1 PLACES & SPACES The memory of places... results in some certain affections... influencing my attitudes towards spatial designs and corresponding strategies. China is overloaded by development and crowded with solid buildings. Thus, volumes, material, atmosphere blended with outdoor spaces and nature are preferred here.

MY UNIVERSITY Pen; gouache 2012, Nanjing, China

CHINESE TRADITIONAL GARDENS Pen sketch 2012, Suzhou, China

Related Writing:

- “BETWEEN CHINESE TRADITIONAL GARDENS AND LANDSCAPE PAINTINGS” > 2012

01/ HOUSE WI LIVING BWTWEEN

NANJING, C INSTRUCTOR:

In crowded residential zone with limite spaces, bringing the quality of shelter i The whole space was broken down to ed to define interior and exterior. Then and corridors; openings facing the inn interation between inside and outside

ITH GARDENS INSIDE & OUTSIDE

CHINA 2011 XIANGFENG LI

ed areas, I tried to create flexible living inside and the nature outside together. three volumes which were manipulatn the circulation was designed by stairs ner garden and backyard provided the e, while kept private spaces protected. GROUND FLOOR PLAN

FIRST FLOOR PLAN

CONSTRUCTION AXON

02/

03/

04/

05/

06/

NOWHERE Film photograph 2016, Berlin, Germany

Right: UNTITLED Relief after Kleeâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s painting 2015, Providence, USA

Left: NOWHERE Film photograph 2016, Berlin, Germany

PART 2 PHENOMENA & TIME I enjoy observing the change of surroundings over time; the spend of time itself becomes fascinating as well, so I keep exploring the imagery of “time-elapsing” through art. While in nature, every subtle nuance of phenomena are influencing people’s perception -- those poetic and sublime beauties become my primary research and design drive.

PASSING TIME Printmaking, installation 2016-05, Providence, USA - Deeply, I felt the sense of time-passing in the process of both reading and carving. - The ink-less printmaking conveys “time” conceptually; while the volume of carved woodblock displays the substantiality of time. - The text is from “The Waves” by Virginia Woolf, which involves the imagery of “time passing” as well.

Related Writing:

- “DYNAMIC CONDITIONALITY IN LANDSCAPE AND EXTENDING FIELD” > 2017 1/ Contemporary Landscape Design: Time & Phenomena As to me, with the background of architectural design, contemporary landscape concerns more about “phenomena” and “changes” particularly, compared to the essential status of “space” for architecture and the “pictorial” quality of traditional landscape designs — with time elapsing, the waves are fluctuating, the tides are rising and falling, the plants are growing and changing the defined spaces, the wind, the temperature, the light, the shadow, and every subtle nuance of the nature are impacting people’s perception. Considering contemporary landscape from the perspective of architecture design, I felt strongly that, despite both of them concern space, the spatial relationship which is artificial and relatively permanent in architecture field is affected by other factors that are more predominant in the cases of landscape, and thus, to a large extent, the pure spatial qualities are impaired. For example, in the project of “Brooklyn Bridge Park”, the plants were designed as a dynamic process — over decades, the saplings have been growing, and therefore, the defined spaces, the scale that people felt, and the programs have been changed correspondingly. Some branches were trimmed and certain trees were removed as well. In this process, with the additional dimension of time, space was design as a scenario, contrary to the normal architectural design strategy of “permanent spaces”. On the other hand, the essential role of “time” stands out with the comparison of traditional landscapes. In Western context, the first introduction of “landscape” into English explained it as a picture of the view of land, interpreted by artists. (Jackson, 3) Its meaning could be clarified further through two words — “land” and “scape”. “Land” commonly indicated “a well-defined portion of the earth’s surface”, and “scape” meant “shape” or “a composition of similar objects” (Jackson, 6-7). The common point of those three explanation above is its static state. Neither an image, nor a surface, a shape, a composition, have never concerned the factor of time or experience. At that time, landscape was another method of image representation apart from painting. Like the traditional English natural gardens, what controls the design is a series of pictures, aiming to present idealized views of nature. Except spaces would be influenced by time, there are more subtle phenomena and changes that are tightly associated with time in nature, while some interdisciplinary art works may reflect this idea more purely. Following are chosen works from different artists, and the comparison between their thoughts and theories behind. 2/ Robert Irwin: Changes & Perception 3/ Conditionality Here, “condition” could be defined as a general context with something being in it, which extends from spatial or physical context to temporal, mental, and perceptual circumstances. Thus, “conditional art” could be understand as creations based on the conditional changes, including responses to them, establishment of (physical or abstract) relationships with them, pure revelation of those changes, fabrication of further potential changes, and so on. 4/ Richard Serra (sculpture/ installation/ public art/ video/ process art) 5/ “Literal” & “Phenomenal” Dynamic Conditionality 6/ Chris Burden (performance/ sculpture/ installation) 7/ Conclusion & My Attitude At last, I want to emphasize the significance of this landscape strategy. Compared to some bold designs trying to transform the existing circumstance, the thought of “revealing the phenomena” and “dynamic conditionality” has a more modest attitude towards nature, aiming to let people re-discover the subtle and usually neglected beauty around us.

07/ NATURAL PHENOMENA STUDY, 2015 The site was located at RISD Farm, ranging from road, open field with gentle slopes, woods, salt marsh with phragmites, beach, dunes to the ocean. Thus, there existed numerous natural phenomena and transitions. Through deep on-site investigation and experience, I did designs based on specific conditions to response to or reveal different phenomena.

Phenomena Abstraction: wind & sound

temperature & shadow

Phenomena Abstraction: wind & sound

temperature & wind

light & shadow

Longitude-Section: showing transitional conditions of topography, plants, soil layers and moisture

Hydrological Transition

Topographic Transition

Vegetation Transition

Sight-view Transition

Existing Condition of Wind & Sound

Intended Condition of Wind & Sound

08/ SUB-CANOPY Installation

Providence, USA 2015 Collaborator: Xinshuang Wang, Gavin, Austin, Ye Tian, Lucy, Wushuang Xing, Lu Zhang, Zhe Zhao My Contribution: Concept and Main Designer & Construction Participator Mesh had the unique property of translucence and flexibility, and various density and transparency created by overlapped meshes reminded me of layers of trucks and leaves of the woods at site. My intention was to create a sub-canopy below the real canopy, which was too high for people to perceive directly. Because of the porosity and flexibility of mesh, it could response to the natural phenomena sensitively. Visually, the construction was like a veil covering above the nature. It could be shaked by wind slightly, causing the subtle changes of light reflections and shadows, and capture falling leaves. Besides, while raining, there were more events going on -- the rain beating metal created a different sound from soil and leaves; water merged into larger drops on the mesh and dripped down to people’s head; more leaves were blowed off onto the construction, and heavy rains made them drop down through the holes; the slightly sunken ground in front of the installation collected water as a little pond — since both the site and the material contained much potential of dynamics, the results revealed nature’s changing subtlety and sensitivity.

Concept Diagram & Development

Module Test & Construction Process

Concept of “Sub-canopy”

Finished Installation

09/ EXTENDING LINES This project was inspired by an encounter with the spring tide, which submerged all the marshes and the route towards the beach -- I could not forget that poetic scene -- the ground gently tilted into water, disappeared with a shining and translucent line, reflecting light and shadow, extending towards far away. I made an intuitive model quickly and developed my idea through iterated drawings, models, and experiments.

Shining line

The reflec from the Walking do ence all ki at last, co to let both into the

ctive ocean surface could be watched e parking lot on the top of the slope. own to the ocean, people will experiinds of environment and spaces, and ome to the endless sea. I would like h constructions and people go further e water until gradually disappear.

The ocean, as the most dynamic element in site, was creating changes all the time like waves, tides, and sediments. Here, the construction served as a static ruler to measure every nuance created by the ocean. The conceptual typology consisted of several lines established at different elevation, extending into the ocean -- at different tidal level, some lines would emerge above water surface, while some were submerged; besides visual perception, accessible spaces were changed by tides as well. Through wave-washing at certain angles, sands would be accumulated at one side of the construction to change the topology gradually; also those sands or organics washed up onto the beach would leave traces on gabions.

Gabion as the construction material to let water go through while leave sediments in it

Concept of sedimentary belt at inter-tidal zone

Walking down to the ocean

Extending lines revealing elevation as rulers

How the sediments effected by tides

I made two experiments to demonstrate that the sedimentary sands could be formed by waves along the construction, and clarify the way that the arrangement of lines would influence them.

And then, the spaces were considered and designed through large-scale models for various programs: different width and height of the lines could provide functions as leading directions, being sit against and walked on, gathering, blocking view, enclosing, etc.

10/ DEEP INTO THE GROUND

SOIL STUDY & TOPOGRAPHIC DESIGN Providence, USA 2015-2016 Instructors: Adam E. Anderson; Katy Foley

This topographic design was inspired by the natural concave -- during rainfall, water was flowing toward it and accumulated; while after the rain stopped, water started to permeate into soil gradually. In order to deeply understand and reveal the subtle process, I studied the quality and structure of soil on the site, made abstract models, simulated the process, and at last, developed the design. I tried to use only topographic strategy to organize people circulation and water movement, associating them together to emphasize the beauty in such an eye-habituated phenomenon. topography measurement & water movement

loosely-structured top-organic-layer

porosity of soil

On-site soil quality study soil porosity & structure model (paper)

compact silt

loosely-structured top-organic-layer

sedimentary compact silt & mottling

soil profile drawing

soil profile model (plaster net): overlapped layers

below water table: saturated soil

container of nature

“concave-convex”

concept of “container” container of programs

container at different scale

Pollutant & Moisture Content of Runoff after Hardscapes

Pollutant & Moisture Content of Runoff after Softscapes

Programmatic Intention: alternated people circulation & waterflow

Topographic Strategy: ridges for walking & valleys for water-flowing

PART 3 BEINGS & THINGS I cannot tell the border between human and objects. My attention bounces between “beings” and “things”; “spirituality” and “materiality”; “personality” and “identity-less”. It seems objects may have personalites, while human are materialized sometimes.

FACE I Oil-painting 2015, Providence, USA

FACE II Oil-painting 2015, Providence, USA

Related Writing: - “FACE OBLITERATION AND FACE VALUE -- SELF-PORTRAITS OF EIGHTEENTH CENTURY FRENCH ART” > 2015

SELF-PORTRAIT Oil-painting 2015, Providence, USA

UNTITLED Oil-painting 2016, Wuhan, China

HIDING HIDING HIDING Oil-painting 2016, Providence, USA

UNTITLED Film photograph 2016, Berlin, Germany

FAKED-ZOO Film photograph 2016, Berlin, Germany

UNTITLED Film photograph 2016, Berlin, Germany

DROWNING Digital photograph 2012, Nanjing, China

ROUTE Printmaking 2015, Providence, USA

JOURNEY TO THE END OF THE NIGHT Printmaking 2015, Providence, USA

VAN GOGHâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;S CHAIR Crayon 2015, Providence, USA

CONCUSSION Oil-painting; Photoshop 2017, Providence, USA

STILL-LIFE Oil-painting 2016, Wuhan, China

CONTACT >>> www.shuwenxu.com >>> sxu01@risd.edu OR: xsw-1231@hotmail.com >>> +1 401 340 8722 >>> 99 Shelden St, Apt 2 Providence, RI 02906