Finally finished…..
The cage
After spending 4 years in Nanyang, I really wanted to do an artwork which can reflect the Nanyang life. In order to make my work more meaningful and symbolic, I decided to put some words on the bars of my cage. The words must be meaningful and closely related to the school life.
First, I interviewed many Nanyang girls (my friends and juniors) on how they feel about their school life and asked them to write down their true feelings on the paper. Then, I did my best to simplify the long sentences into keys words and short phrases. However, I didn’t know how to put these words onto the bars as it was impossible for me to write the words free hand, I want some consistency in terms of font.
Initially I planned to do some wooden stamps, however I realized it would be very time consuming if I want to craft out the letters one by one. Later I thought of making some stamps using rubber instead. Eventually, I managed to find some stencils.
I decided to paint the side of the bar facing outwards in white while the side facing inwards in red. The distinct contrast between black and white make the words very attention attracting, while the words in red helps to add some varieties to the colour. Moreover, the meaning of the words I chose to paint in red is usually things that we don’t say out.
The paper sculpture
I decided to use old worksheets, old textbooks, newspapers and unwanted stationeries to build my sculpture as they are things that we can relate with our school life. Moreover, they are recycled materials. I took a lot of time to build the sculpture as it was very hard to control the shadow formed, I needed to be very precise and patient when doing it.
After transferring the sculpture into the cage, I placed newspaper and worksheets around the sculpture to make it look less obvious.
The final work
The shadow formed much better than my expectation. The shadow of the cage bars fell on the floor has made the artwork much more fascinating as a whole.
The shadow formed is much better than my expectation. The shadow of the cage bars fell on the floor has made the artwork much more fascinating as a whole.
Also, there will be enough space inside the cage for the viewer to go inside. In this way, the viewer is able to participate directly in my artwork.
More precisely, the viewer is going to be a part of my artwork. Both their physical body and shadow.
Hi Jinglin!
I think that your coursework idea is really very very cool! 🙂 I like how you made it possible for every Nanyang girl to be able to relate well to your artwork since all of us face stress but also got the feeling of accomplishment from school work and CCAs and Musical and all those things you wrote on your cage. You even asked us to give you our comments on the school and what you wrote were all our truthful feelings. I could really really relate to your artwork well. The worksheets and stationery also appear to be scattered randomly, but when we turn on the light, we could see a shadow or you…which is also a representation of all of us. This is a very interactive and creative coursework! However, I was just thinking maybe you could have added more colours to your coursework, like painting of the cage with more colours or using worksheets that are more colourful. This will make it brighter and will attract even more attention. Nevertheless, GREAT JOB 😀
Xinge