BLUE HOUR
IB VISUAL ARTS EXHIBITION
all around me
Actinic Ray Collection (1/2)
Spray paint on canvas
70cm×50cm
Born into a travel-loving family, travelling has been a big part of my life since I was born. My parents find that experiencing new places and cultures are very important. The painting shows a couple of landmarks that really resonate with me from my years of travelling with my family. The elevated cutout symbolises how travelling to different places has shaped me into a more open and spontaneous individual.
Preliminary Sketches and Idea Development
My parents were both incredibly passionate about travelling and met while they were both traveling to Beijing. Travel has been a big part of my life since I was born. The first place I went to was back to Singapore, where most of my family was located. From that trip on, my parents has enjoyed bringing me to different places to allow me to experience different cultures. This piece was to highlight the memories stored in my mind of all the places I have been to. Including Dubai, Germany and Singapore.
Incorporating my identity
To create a sense of coherence in my exhibition pieces I wanted to stick with the shadow and highlight concepts. Therefore, I created two of the exact same cutouts mirroring each other, one on normal black paper while the other was made with styrofoam (with the top layer coated in black).
“Sunset in Paradise”
To represent this term, I took it literally and started the piece by painting a sunset gradient on the canvas, but felt that it was too opaque, which was why I decided to put the canvas underneath a running tap to wash out some of the paint.
Shadows & Highlights
Before starting the piece, I wanted to continue to improve on my differentiation of highlight and shadows. To do so, I did live sketches of myself and my friends, which gave me the opportunity to practice identifying the highlights and the shadows.
The Echo Effect
I wanted to use the idea I had for one of my pieces into this one. I created a stencil with the same shape as the cutouts that were placed stuck onto the canvas. Since this artwork is done on a canvas, I was able to use Alcohol-based spray paint without corroding the background, which gave me more options to the colours I could pick for this project.
Fluorescent spray paint
With more freedom in the colours I could pick, I decided to use fluorescent spray paint in order to create an alternative way of enjoying the painting which symbolises that I get to experience the same place in a different light as I grow up and learn more about the world around me.
Variations created with spray paint
I tried to vary the transparency of the background by varying the distance between the spray paint nozzle and the canvas. The further away the nozzle was from the canvas, the lighter the paint would be and vice versa. This variation paired with the different positionings of the stencil gave the piece more dynamic channelling the ever-changing world I get to experience.
Challenge: My plan was to use 2 styrofoam cut-outs, inverse of each other (burning into the styrofoam and cutting the styrofoam out). This was to vary the different depth. However, I realised that it was hard to control how deep I was burning into the styrofoam and it made the entire cut out incredibly uneven [Fig. 12].
Solution: So instead, I changed one of the material, changing it into paper. The thickness difference in paper and styrofoam was able to create the effect I need while maintaining an even surface throughout.
This is the “actinic ray collection”
Although these are separate pieces, they stand out from the rest of my exhibition, which is why I decided to collectively name the two the “actinic ray collection” because they incorporate the use of UV light. However, the meaning of these pieces contradict each other, in “all around me”, the piece highlights how the memories from each location has impacted me, every place I travelled has left a mark on my memory that I know I will treasure forever. On the other hand, “no matter where” emphasises on how location is not important if you are with the right people, as memories are made with the people and not with the place.
