Unit 3 | zhu1

Due to the impact of the coronavirus, my work in unit 2 was suspended. I felt like I was fleeing around like a refugee, which was a very terrible feeling. Back home, I began to worry about whether the epidemic will spread, whether I can go back to London, what should I do? Am I safe now?... ...These problems keep coming up in my mind, so I did not create my work immediately when I got to Beijing. I stopped more to observe my own life and to find what was happening around me.

In the meantime, I took some pictures with my mobile phone. These pictures are about the daily people and plants. At first, I did not see any different in these photos , just like the normal photos taken with them. Staying at home for a long time, it is easy for us to notice through the familiar traces of things, even if they are not familiar with the environment, and let us ignore the traces behind them. I realize that many small things in my life have traces of plants. For example, my wallpaper is a lot of small, simplified plant patterns arranged on a flat surface, and there are artificial flowers in the bathroom that do not look the same all the year round. I began to notice the question of why there are so many plant elements in people's living environment, even if they are not real plants. I realized that plants' function for us was decoration. So I used decorative dot patterns to emphasize it and tried to express that plants play a more decorative role in my daily life. Obviously, the constant repetition of dots seems a little simple.

Later, I put some stop patterns on the photos, which seemed more interesting and more in line with the current situation. Because of the epidemic, our life seems to have stopped suddenly, in a lockdown state. We don't know where the virus comes from. It is also possible that they come from nature. It is a kind of revenge and reminder of nature for the uncontrolled greed of human beings. Human beings seem to want to control everything, but sometimes we seem so small.

I am very interested in artist Tamara Kostianovsky's ( click her name to see my reference) clothing series. She used the clothes of her father to make stumps of different colors, which were used to miss the time that had passed away and to express the concept that people would return to nature after they passed away.

Tamara kostianovsky's work

At the same time, there is a suggestion in unit 2 feedback: "Making your plant forms from recognized parts of clothing such as shirt sleepers or ties, embedding the human into the plant world." So, I began to think of creating a piece of work only with clothes. First of all, I collected clothes that my friends and relatives did not want.

I want my work to interact with the audience. The idea was inspired by French artist Miguel Chevalier's ( click her name to see my reference) work, Virtual Garden and Danish Icelandic artist Olafur Eliasson's ( click her name to see my reference) work, Ice Watch. Virtual Garden series presents a supernatural artistic conception - a new generative and interactive garden. Virtual plants appear randomly, bloom, and then fade, and repeat endlessly as the garden constantly updates and changes its own dynamics. When the audience interacts with the works through infrared sensors, the plants will tilt to the left or right. The interaction between man and plant is a highlight of the work. The combination of my works, hugs with plants. I created plant sofa in this unit, which is a plant that can lie down. It also show that people depend on plants.

In terms of shape, I hope it is derived from plants, but it is not particularly like plants, which can give people more space for imagination. So I evolved from a vine vein of a plant into a simple straight line. I chose sleeves and stockings to sew these abstract vines.

The whole sofa material, I chose the abandoned lazy sofa, I will be able to see that the collar and sleeves of the clothes are sewn on the surface of the sofa. Because the engineering work of the whole sofa is large after all, I bought an electric sewing machine online. This is the first time I sew by machine. I have been sewing by hand. The advantage of mechanical sewing is that the distance between each stitch is uniform and neat.

Different from radical environmentalism, it only shows the side of conflict and contradiction. Although my works have exaggerated modeling to show conflicts and contradictions, I still want to emphasize the harmony between people and plants. So instead of choosing hard, cold materials, I revealed my understanding of the relationship between human beings and plants in a gentle way. Therefore, in the display and presentation of the final works, people lie on the plants. Although there are contradictions between them, they warm each other in a very peaceful way, like Olafur Eliasson's ( click her name to see my reference) work, Ice Watch.

“Wool material is vital and exists organically in the human environment. It itself is a special natural expression.”

---- Maryn Varbanov

Our flesh has been placed in the woven space for so long. As long as you meditate, you will realize that from the tangible clothes to the invisible network We are not only facing the world of fiber, but also a part of fiber art. Sheila Hicks ( click her name to see my reference), an American artist, is one of the most important figures in the field of modern fiber art.The choice of colors was influenced by her works.

I accidentally saw the works of artist Sheila Hicks. The simple modeling and exaggerated colors deeply attracted me. Looking at her colorful works, I think of a colorful garden. So I thought that color can also symbolize plants, not just appearance. I discussed this point with Yvonne Feng in 1-1 tutorial.

At the same time, Sheila Hicks is very good at using thread to create. All kinds of thread are woven together by her, like an abstract painting. I like this way to make work, so I bought the thread and used them bonding around old clothes. I showed some clothes on purpose to make them look like a flower.

In addition, some of her works are directly displayed outdoors. I can see the background behind the works and the dialogue between them. Her exhibition methods have inspired me a lot. The picture below is I installed my work outside . I try to build a conversation between my works and nature and let them seemed like growing from nature. I think I should learn more from Sheila in the future , both the color and about materials .