Monday, November 10, 2008

Lego in Robson








LEGO is such an integral part of our lives even till today. It’s the toy that many people perceives timeless and worth keeping. Lego is our ultimate childhood memory. Lego is our basic toy that satisfied our young and playful creative and innovative imagination. It is not easy to deny it, but we never really grew out of Lego.
In this collaborative project with Minji Kim, called “Lego in Robson”, we were inspired by Lego blocks and created two blocks of Lego in red and yellow. Since Lego has clean surfaces and lines, building Lego was one of the biggest challenges that we had faced while assembling the facsimile Lego. We used two large cardboard boxes as basic structure and added round cylinders on the top of each one; this was the lightest and most effective way to build the sculptures. To make the rough surface of the cardboard boxes smoother and neater, we glued thick bristle boards on each side of the blocks. And then, we evenly sprayed colourful and glossy enamel paints (red and yellow) to mimic the real quality of plastic.
After we completed making the two large blocks of Lego, we pulled the blocks with a yellow rope around them along on Robson St. and Granville St. By carrying Lego while wearing semi-formal suits in the heart of the city, Minji and I could visually articulate the fact that we as students still maintain childish and playful aspects in our unconscious. Also, the walking with Lego blocks along fancy streets is a visual representation that even adults still carry a childish and playful side within them.
At the beginning, we were very self-conscious about carrying big brightly painted Lego blocks down the streets and could not walk comfortably. However, the encouraging and cheerful comments from people really inspired us to be more comfortable and confident in front of crowds. Unfortunately, a few people expressed some negative comments about us which were a bit hurtful, since we did not expect to hear criticism from people. As time passed by, we gradually did not mind about getting stared at and people taking pictures of us. We documented this act of pulling Lego through downtown by getting help from our friend to take pictures. We specifically asked him to consider the Golden Rectangle while taking shots of us, giving a clearer emphasis on our Lego. Again, we want to transmit the main message that although people have grown and appear as adults, our minds are still young and fresh.
This is our first attempt to produce a piece of performance art in streets and it seemed a little terrifying to give it a try. Since collaboration is about respecting and acknowledging each other’s ideas, we had to consequently make some compromises and adjust ideas to make us satisfied with the result of the project. In the end, we learned a valuable lesson that every idea that seems to be overwhelming for one person to do can be seamlessly developed and effectively produced when working as collaboration.

Thursday, November 6, 2008

untiled - white plastic cups




Attracted by Donovan’s unusual artistic style of accumulation, I incorporated common everyday object to create an incredibly organic sculpture that is suggestive in a shape of a single cell organism.
I basically wrapped my body with small white plastic cups to create a visual representation of a single cell organism such as an amoeba. Also, it has a dynamic relationship with myself since it is wearable and provides me a small resting place from a fast-paced world. The white cups around my body suggest my purity and sense of innocence and seem to embrace me and protect my body. By one wearing this sculptural piece, it covers up one’s ethnicity and identity, breaking down the racial barrier that exists among people.
This whole project required an extensive amount of energy and was a very time consuming project. Not only did I have to pay great attention to assembling each cup, I consistently did try on the sculpture to get a general fit of the sculpture onto my body, while also considering the aesthetic appeal of this organic structure. Since each cup has a thick round edge and a depth, the repetitive use of cups created a strong visual pattern and volume that are reminiscent of a beehive, allowing me to learn the power of accumulation using same materials. Ultimately, this project has allowed me to appreciate the prominent artist’s work and view it as a stepping stone to find my own artistic style and interest in contemporary art.