Stacking the Exotic Scenery in a Scroll
or highway. Yet, all locations belong to Mexico City.
The logical relationship created among them is be- cause they are all part of the same city and stand for the city, no matter which parts they originated from.
So as in the verticality of ancient Chinese scroll painting, the scenes of Mexico City are composed together and this is the started of my interest in collaging.
As the concept was determined, with it’s close appearance of Chinese scroll painting and its tall vertical size, the images are collaging as if they could belong in a roll. The experience of experimenting with screen printing with different kinds of paper, especially the thin and crispy Xuan paper, brings it to an even closer relationship to Chinese scroll painting. Similar to the small high-
light of empty space often on the top or the bottom in Chinese painting, the most attractive objects are placed in a similar way in the collages of the Mex- ico City Landscape as well. Nevertheless, the style of the image is more western, pop-art, and abstract expressive. So, the contrast between the composi- tion between the image and style is quite interesting.
Although I plan on the longer size of “scroll prints”, I turned to another direction, that is playing with duotone, tritone, and randomness and chance. The idea of an actual scroll of the Mexico City scene did not last long.
Layers are always cleverly interspersed in my work. Tracing back to my work of experiment- ing with Murakami’s piece, “Pass through”, I was fascinated with the layers of paper that he transited.
So, instead of paper, I used the semitransparent cloth as the layers to reenactment the piece “Pass Through.” Also apparently, the layer by layer of the cityscape is heaped up in the Mexico City collage.
Each layer of the landscape image resembles the one-story buildings piled on the hill in Mexico City.
In my later artworks, the layers subtly appear in col- ors within the randomness. The most conspicuous layers are layering colors into duotone and tritone.
The new colors put on the city just like the new buildings built on the old buildings, which like the city is besieged by layers of layers building groups.
The different layers of color are concretized as the layers of the building. It does not say more layers are better, but from my point of view, randomly the way of overlapping the layers of the cityscape in just one image or staggering them is greatly adding more meanings to the city, no matter the layers of color or shape.
Printing is a way of displaying layers, even sometimes it gives people the illusion that layers are three-dimensional, but actually it is not exact- ly as same as the physically stereoscopic form. As a result, I attempt more ways of transforming the layers by various media, like the artist book and video. Printing on a book might be considered as a way that is also flat and shallow. In this case, to weaken the visual effect of just one layer on the surface, modifying the shape of the book is a vi- sual effect way to execute. Folding each page with different layers of image unevenly as the accordion book is used in my process. Though the images are horizontally tiled on the book, folding the book in different angles and shapes, and standing the book vertically offers the other two dimensions to the im-
age. Thus, it is bizarre and deformed three-dimen- sional layered performance displayed in this action.
Video is changing time as it flows to reach ways of reforming the dimension. Combining the layer of real-time video and the layer of the digitalized and abstracted image into one video, the two tracks are distinguished separately so that the distinction of the sense of space is noticeable. The dislocation shown in the book and video can vary people’s un- derstanding of the original image of the landscape so that it raises the awareness of speculation of how the structure changes.
There are many cloudy days in Guangzhou, which become the backdrop of the gray buildings in the center of Guangzhou. It’s hard to say if the weather should be always like this, or the air pollu- tion made it, or the gray buildings made it so. Even the weather in Guangzhou is industrialized. Around these buildings, people are busy, and they are integrated with the sky and the city. The cityscape is still. But there is the energy in the city: the trees are always green; the colored speeding taxis and the takeaway person with a bicycle… the city is busy, but it has an internal color. After the trip in Mexico City, I know I should look at Guangzhou in a more objective way, and to find the power in the city by itself. Not looking at it by only the eyes, but looking at it spiritually by the imagination. So I’d like to
convert the colors of the city from my perspective, to translate it into the true spirit of the city that I conceive.
Everyone’s understanding of the color of the city is different, but bringing color into the city is a way to provide other interpretations of the city. En- dowing or even exaggerating the color is only one of the paths. By abstracting the impression of the city, it is easy to break the rectangular shape of the cold buildings bringing to the city. Highly saturated color staining the city into another temperature, regard- less of simply cold, or warm, the city has emotion when people looking at the colored city, no matter how the audience read the emotion. The city is flesh and blood.
Whether the color can stand for the emotion
of the city or not, it depends on the point of view of the audiences. Whatever they think when they look at the object, what it means to them. As the city is grayish to me, and the only color makes the city consistent, so why not let the few vivid colors to ex- press it taking the place of gray? Is it still harmoni- ous? To some extent, gray is more neutral according to the color lightness. Neutral means no feelings.
But when other colors replacing gray, it is more per- ceivable with emotion, because there is more associ- ation between color and emotion in common sense.
Only change the hue of gray, it is the emotion that the gray has. Thus, when simple colors added to the image, we can find out if it takes effect on the city.
And this might be the real face of the city. Is the emotion of the city like the colors can be perceived?
Is the color just surface color, or is it the true tone of the city? Even if it is the monotonous color just like the stereotype from people when seeing these city views, can’t it be the factualness of the scene? Being is real. When you see the city and project your emo- tions in the city, the city has emotion.
History, is another characteristic that Guangzhou has, so it is deeply engraved in every city views. History might be dark, might be bright.
But the elapsed time is unknown misty darkness because we cannot see the truth through it, the fact is latent and history is always the history that we
ings like the collapsed, faults of history, are cracked.
Different parts have their tints. Also, the digitized color on other parts of the image, which is more sharp, crispy, combining with the luminous city and the dim sky offers an uncommon sense to the mood.
The mood contains more mysterious endevaors. In the meanwhile, the old buildings and the modern buildings are assimilated into each other, in which the scene eventually attains to harmony.
When first playing with color in screen printing, I started from the simple duotone and tritone on the cityscape. Although I have met many technical problems at first on how to split colors into duotone or tritone images so that I can use different screens for the prints, I stuck to utilzing it.
I did not think much why I desire the duotone and
tritone in the beginning. But now I believe that is because I choose to express the cityscape in another way then with the multiple color composition but it still only one-sided, and arbitrary, like how only gray describe the city. Just like how people usually comprehend an object only from their subjective speculation. When people only see one side of the city, the city is exactly stamped only on this one meaning. It is the duotone and tritone that the only few colors limited to depict the cityscape. No matter what these few colors stand for, or if they misunder- stand or over-understand. Thus, the duotone and the tritone restrict the connotation of the city scene in every single print.
At first, I was more likely to pick monochro- matic or analogous colors to transform the image,
because in this case, the colors are more consonant in the condition of duotone or tritone and it tends to not violate the grayish city. Gathering similar hue colors is pretty, but boring. It might be stun- ning at the first sight for you see it, but it is plain, it is shallow, like tap water, or the immutable daily walk. The complementary color and it’s transforma- tions, like triadic, tetrad color definitely bring a new source of my whole color system in terms of duo- tone and tritone printing.
Also, as I playing with colors more conver- gently, I try to make different colors on the same image as well. The collapse of the old city is what I desire to involve it in the new city site. Under this circumstance, I tear the image into many different pieces. Most of these pieces an irregular rectangle
colored differently. It is like a glitch from a distance way of seeing it. Thus, it is a different color compo- sition that the one print finally can perform. On the other hand, I extract some highlight color from the city scene, or just decompose the color from the city scene and reconstruct them together, so that the tone of the city can be changed completely. The deriva- tion of the city is not changed, but the alteration of the color might be conveyed other meanings, but not only limited to the emotions of the city. The mean- ing can be the shift of the economy, or the develop- ment of industrialization, or just the passage of time.
It depends on how you understand it. Thereby, the shift of the city in my eye shows under the color. In the meanwhile, how my opinion shifts from time changes upon the color changes presented as well.
However, most of my color decision is intuitive. I keep trying different color palettes to find the optimum arrangement in pairs or groups.
I do not particularly liberate a reason to pick the color that corresponds to my aesthetic, my under- standing on a part of the city scene. Sometimes, the color might not be the fanciest one, but the color is in most accordance with the corner of the city from my perspective. With the different color palette, the multi-colored gray is what I have seen from the city.
Fig. 9 Color Experimental
A Billboard in the Highway 2019Screen Printing
24 x 32 inch
A Signboards in the Highway 2019Screen Printing
24 x 32 inch Untitled
2019Screen Printing 12 x 20 inch
Untitled
2019Digital Printing the Scanned Screen Printings
32 x 48 inch
Untitled
2020Screen Printing 18 x 22 inch
Untitled
2020Screen Printing 18 x 22 inch
The Bicycle
2019Photo Polymer plate intaglio
18 x 22 inch
The Tricycle
2019Photo Polymer plate intaglio
18 x 22 inch
The Sanitation Worker 2019Photo Polymer plate intaglio
18 x 22 inch
The Thrown Away Coach 2019Photo Polymer plate intaglio
14 x 18 inch
The Fake Policeman 2020Photo Polymer plate intaglio
18 x 22 inch The Sanitation Worker
2020Photo Polymer plate intaglio
18 x 22 inch
Untitled
2020Screen Printings, Photo Polymer plate intaglio and Collage 32 x 48 inch
Untitled 2020Video 1920 x 1080
Untitled Digital prints and, 2019
Accordion Book
Untitled
2020Screen Printings and Digital sublimation image transfer 32 x 48 inch
Digital Sublimation Image Transfer + Other printing Method
Untitled Untitled
Untitled
2020Screen Printings and Digital sublimation image transfer 32 x 48 inch
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