As Nature Formed? Linocut Prints. 2009
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Artist Statement
Eva Xie is originally from China. Lives and works in Rochester, NY, Xie has been experimenting with elements of visual art and theatre. Xie sees herself as an "Idea-based" artist who always starts her work with inspiration of a concept, which is usually from personal experience, stories she heard, and the environment surround her, then chooses the media and material based on this concept. The process of developing the concept and making art (both physically making the piece and mentally processing the idea) is incredible important to her. Xie's work consists of a variety of media including of printmaking, photography, video art and recently focusing on installation and narrative environment design. She also likes to work with found objects. Through constructed structures, she lets the symbolic and the imaginary perform a decisive role conveying new meanings to familiar objects and notion. Most of Eva Xie's art address issues of culture, identity and gender. She believes that art task is to encourage the mind, to create sensuousness, to conjure up positive energies, to research possibilities and to destroy clichés and prejudices.
As Nature Formed? Linocut Prints. 2009
As Nature Formed? Linocut Prints. 2009
Friday, September 25, 2009
Pipilotti Rist
Pipilotti Rist is one of the most recognizable names in contemporary video art. For me, she is a very important inspiration for my experiment with video art and multimedia installation.
Installation view, Hauser & Wirth Zürich, 2009
Homo sapiens sapiens, 2005Audio-video installationInstallation view, San Stae Church, Venice
A Liberty Statue for Löndön (monolith version), 2005/2008Audio-video installationInstallation view, Art Unlimited, Basel, 2008
Installation view, Hauser & Wirth Zürich, 2009
Pipilotti Rist is renowned for bridging the gulf between popular culture and art and for merging various mediums. From her earliest tapes through her recent multi-media installations, Pipilotti has crafted a body of work in which she appropriates this spirit for her own ends, exploring the intersection of sexuality, technology, and pop culture.
Homo sapiens sapiens, 2005Audio-video installationInstallation view, San Stae Church, Venice
Tyngdkraft, var min vän (Gravity be my friend), 2007Installation view, FACT, Liverpool, 2008
A Liberty Statue for Löndön (monolith version), 2005/2008Audio-video installationInstallation view, Art Unlimited, Basel, 2008
Fantasy is at the heart of Pipilotti's work: her dream-like scenes often seem so loaded with suggestive images and scenarios that they threaten to collapse under their own meaning, saved, in the end, by her light touch and ironic humor. I'm always frustrating yet amazed by the saturated colors, sensual images, and an unconventional use of space and scale in her piece. Pipilotti Rist's video installations are at once tangible and boundless — witnessed in the here-and-now, but full of interpretive possibility.
One of my favourite piece from her:
Ever Is Over All, 1997Audio-video installation Installation view, National Museum for Foreign Art, Sofia
Pipilotti Rist Official Website: http://www.pipilottirist.net/
Pipilotti Rist Official Website: http://www.pipilottirist.net/
Pipilotti Rist "Pour Your Body Out" at MOMA
Monday, September 21, 2009
Experimental with Art
People always ask me what I do for my art - what is my specialty and what's media or material I'm using. Most of time I'll answer: "I'm still at the time experimental with different media and working with everything possible."
"Idea-based" artist.
There are two major ways of working with found objects: Getting the object first then coming up with concept based on the object and working out the way to present it; or having the concept in mind then collecting objects and working out way to present the concept. I start my professional art training in college with working with found objects – the time when I found myself really comfortable and inspired under "Concept first, material support" structure. This experience basically structure my way of doing art and technique I choose later on. I see myself more as an "Idea-based" artist rather than "Material-based" artist. I always get inspired by personal experience, by stories people telling me, by environment around me – those are all important elements of my art which help me come up with an idea or concept; based on this idea or concept, I'll start to think what's media and material I should choose to present this idea or concept. I had experience on photo, sculpture, video and printmaking, it is really hard to say I concentrate more on one or two of them, or working with one of them more often. Usually I will choose the technique which will be really interesting to work with under the certain concept or idea I have in mind; or the technique / material has some kinds of connection with the idea which will help well present the concept and help develop the idea further. This way of doing art encourages me to continually search possibilities for my art as well as constantly learning and doing art.
Complexity - Simplification
For a very long time, my experience on collage art in middle school and high school played a very important role in my art making. You can see layered colors in my print pieces, Multi screens in my video art, complex structure in my sculpture. I always wanted my art to include enough information for the audience, expressing all my thoughts and feelings. I'll say I wont realize the necessary of leaving "empty" space on the art piece and the idea of "less is more" if I didn't go through this stage of making "complex art". There is definitely transition happening in my art making recently. I'm more focusing on the idea itself rather than paying too much attention on showcasing the complex technique and everything I can do within one piece. At the same time I want to leave even create more "space" for audience to read and interact with the art piece.
"Idea-based" artist.
There are two major ways of working with found objects: Getting the object first then coming up with concept based on the object and working out the way to present it; or having the concept in mind then collecting objects and working out way to present the concept. I start my professional art training in college with working with found objects – the time when I found myself really comfortable and inspired under "Concept first, material support" structure. This experience basically structure my way of doing art and technique I choose later on. I see myself more as an "Idea-based" artist rather than "Material-based" artist. I always get inspired by personal experience, by stories people telling me, by environment around me – those are all important elements of my art which help me come up with an idea or concept; based on this idea or concept, I'll start to think what's media and material I should choose to present this idea or concept. I had experience on photo, sculpture, video and printmaking, it is really hard to say I concentrate more on one or two of them, or working with one of them more often. Usually I will choose the technique which will be really interesting to work with under the certain concept or idea I have in mind; or the technique / material has some kinds of connection with the idea which will help well present the concept and help develop the idea further. This way of doing art encourages me to continually search possibilities for my art as well as constantly learning and doing art.
Complexity - Simplification
For a very long time, my experience on collage art in middle school and high school played a very important role in my art making. You can see layered colors in my print pieces, Multi screens in my video art, complex structure in my sculpture. I always wanted my art to include enough information for the audience, expressing all my thoughts and feelings. I'll say I wont realize the necessary of leaving "empty" space on the art piece and the idea of "less is more" if I didn't go through this stage of making "complex art". There is definitely transition happening in my art making recently. I'm more focusing on the idea itself rather than paying too much attention on showcasing the complex technique and everything I can do within one piece. At the same time I want to leave even create more "space" for audience to read and interact with the art piece.
Saturday, September 19, 2009
Nils Norman
It seems hard to define Nils Norman as an artist, a designer, or an urban planner – Norman's art develops interesting methods of distributing propaganda and information within the hideous boredom of commercial space. His work blurs boundaries between art and design - I'm really interested in the concept of his art which leads me to rethink the way certain spaces and models are locked into business-as-usual capitalism.
Nils Norman explores ways that urban regeneration efforts often homogenize public space and search for alternative approaches. He draws on past and present utopian experiments in the United States and Europe, as well as activist tactics for urban intervention.
Left: Hey Rudy!: A Phantom on the Streets of Schizz, 2004. Right: Proposed Redevelopment of The Oval, Hackney E2, London. Renamed: Let the Blood of the Private Property Developers Run Freely in the Streets of Hackney, 2003.
The Exploding School, led by Nils Norman.
Tuesday, September 8, 2009
You born with artistic eyes and hardworking hands.
"You born with artistic eyes and hardworking hands." This is what my uncle always says to me when he sees my art. He is the only person doing art in my family before my generation. I think this sentence well described my way of doing art and how art production functions for me personally.
I never see myself as a talented artist since I was a little girl: I don’t have the magic hands which can draw fine shapes or paint the most beautiful pictures. Art was just the little fun thing I can do everyday once I was done with the work my “scientists” parents asked me to do. My eyes were the first camera I had, and the most amazing one. My parents always brought me to the business trip at that time. I saw things, my eyes capturing them, and I would draw them afterward. I was still really bad at remembering and drawing the shape of objects, I’m more sensitive with colors – I felt emotionally attracted to the color of objects as well as I would choose to paint things in certain color to describe my feelings and emotion. I really loved making art in this way. I no longer saw art just the fun thing I can do for joy or "celebration of the freedom", art became a way to express my feelings, my thoughts, how I see and read this world after experience it. However I’m doing this quietly; I treated art very personal and private. I wasn’t comfortable and confident to show or share these works; most of time I’m doing art just for myself.
This self-taught art learning and making system has played important roles throughout my later on art production. My art works have always been visually appealing and pleasing. Most of them are very personal. I was really into photography during high school, taking professional courses and taking photos at every second. Camera like my second eyes, except for it is more objective. I became more confident and open about my art works . The joy of collecting gorgeous images, catching and sharing beautiful things I can see in this world with other people was the major motivation for me to do art.
I have always thought it was how far I could go in the art world. Until my first studio art class with Allen who had opened many doors for me in the art world. We were learning about using and designing space through various art forms and media. Since then, "art" for me no longer translated as a noun, but a verb: the processing of producing art (both physically making it and mentally forming it) became incredible important to me. It was also the time when I began to recognize and use art as a way to address social and culture subjects and issues.
This whole new art journey started with my experimental with different kinds of media and art forms, including video art, sculpture, installation, and recently print making. Most my art address issues of identity and gender, and recently works on sustainable art and environmental design. Besides the beautiful images, there should be something else people can get from my art pieces, maybe something meaningful? beneficial? influential? Art, eventually became a way for me to communicate with the outside world as well as the form I could create for people to interact with each other.
I never see myself as a talented artist since I was a little girl: I don’t have the magic hands which can draw fine shapes or paint the most beautiful pictures. Art was just the little fun thing I can do everyday once I was done with the work my “scientists” parents asked me to do. My eyes were the first camera I had, and the most amazing one. My parents always brought me to the business trip at that time. I saw things, my eyes capturing them, and I would draw them afterward. I was still really bad at remembering and drawing the shape of objects, I’m more sensitive with colors – I felt emotionally attracted to the color of objects as well as I would choose to paint things in certain color to describe my feelings and emotion. I really loved making art in this way. I no longer saw art just the fun thing I can do for joy or "celebration of the freedom", art became a way to express my feelings, my thoughts, how I see and read this world after experience it. However I’m doing this quietly; I treated art very personal and private. I wasn’t comfortable and confident to show or share these works; most of time I’m doing art just for myself.
This self-taught art learning and making system has played important roles throughout my later on art production. My art works have always been visually appealing and pleasing. Most of them are very personal. I was really into photography during high school, taking professional courses and taking photos at every second. Camera like my second eyes, except for it is more objective. I became more confident and open about my art works . The joy of collecting gorgeous images, catching and sharing beautiful things I can see in this world with other people was the major motivation for me to do art.
I have always thought it was how far I could go in the art world. Until my first studio art class with Allen who had opened many doors for me in the art world. We were learning about using and designing space through various art forms and media. Since then, "art" for me no longer translated as a noun, but a verb: the processing of producing art (both physically making it and mentally forming it) became incredible important to me. It was also the time when I began to recognize and use art as a way to address social and culture subjects and issues.
This whole new art journey started with my experimental with different kinds of media and art forms, including video art, sculpture, installation, and recently print making. Most my art address issues of identity and gender, and recently works on sustainable art and environmental design. Besides the beautiful images, there should be something else people can get from my art pieces, maybe something meaningful? beneficial? influential? Art, eventually became a way for me to communicate with the outside world as well as the form I could create for people to interact with each other.
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