#014 If only... (Photo Manipulation)

Many times I am reminded of my dad through old photos that we have taken when I was alot younger. Thank God for the photos. In a way, those photos feed me about how my dad is like and what we had done together. Akin to the the still photos, my memories are stagnant, not moving but a frozen reminiscene of how life was then. Sometimes when I recollect about the past, I would imagine if only then could be now. I started out using projection effect to create but it got really difficult to fit myself in the exisiting image due to the constrain of space and proportion problems so I tried the alternative of using photo manipulation. Once again I'm hinging onto the use of technology to make my recollection not just inference to the past, but to become something that could exist now.

Like...strolling in a park together?
How about celebrating birthday together?

#013 Hello Daddy How Are You I Miss You - Paper Cutout

While exploring the idea of using technology, another contrasting idea came in mind which is to go back to the basic of using paper. I could create paper cut-out of my dad's silhoutte (refering to pictures that were taken in the past) and on the silhoutte is my message to him.

The message contain things and words that I would like to say yet chose not to. Somethings just remain the same and refuse to change even when the issue of distance has been altered. Perhaps the reason is due to our 'closed' personality, perhaps its the distance between us is too wide not only in terms of physical distance but also in terms of time that had been lost through the years. It could also be the typical excuse in relation to the mindset and values of Eastern people that Fathers and children do not express much to each other...
Then again, why would I still want to express myself? Maybe its because even if I show this in the context of an art project displayed in a gallery, he would never get to see it... so I wouldn't mind expressing it there and then.

Here's a video clip on the shadows of the cut-out:

#012 Tapping onto Technology

Looking at the series of photographs titled 'Being Together' by local photographer John Clang created a sense of affinity in me. I interpret the photos as 'trying to make a family portrait' despite physical distance between Clang and his family.

John Clang, Being Together (Family)

John Clang, Being Together (Dad)

John Clang, Being Together (Dad)

Hence the work draws me to ask myself, why am I not making full use of technology? I have not seen my Dad for almost 5 months (OH GOSH! now then I realize) and I'm not doing anything about it despite thinking of him occasionally! But the thing about my family is that we are not those who are IT savvy and fans of using social networks to ease the trouble with distance... THIS TIME ROUND I decided to make a change and use technology for my own benefits so I can stop wondering at times how my dad is doing and start using the available network services and the device called 'webcam' to shorten the physical seperation.

This is my version entitled 'Shortening the Distance- You are by my side'... after a tedious DIY process...

'Shortening the Distance- You are by my side' (Mum)

'Shortening the Distance- You are by my side' (Ying)

#011 Creating Human Shadow

With the theme well settled, moving on with making my ideas come alive....looking forward :)) with a more personal theme it really helps to motivate me to work!

1st Stop) This time to create a life size shadow of a human figure and my mum became my model.

#010 Sticking to the theme 'Shadow'

After showing and talking to Paul regarding the different ideas I have created, I have finally decided to work on the theme 'Shadow'. I guess its really important to work with something that is closer to heart, more personal?

Below is a mind-map in my note book explaining the implications of the term 'shadow' is to me.

When I relate and think about the term 'shadow' I notice my preference of taking it literally. Shadows created by humans. So i have been taking photos of my own shadows on different pavements. I kept focusing on the outline of the shadow. Then it led me to think about silhouettes...

And there is a particular silhouette that has always been embedded in my memory since I was young. It is that of someone walking out of the front door with a luggage. Following the sound of his footsteps soon he had reached the end of the corridor and as the person turns, he disappears. Although the colours around have changed, the things around have changed, even the seasons have changed but that particular silhouette of the person remains the same...

Sometimes I find someone else whose silhouette or back view is almost alike, very similar and thoughts of "Does the person still look the same, has he aged?", "Has the person lost weight because of work? I hope the person is eating well..." etc. starts to resound in my head.

And this very special person is my daddy.

Hebrews 13:5

"Never will I leave you,

Never will I forsake you..."

#009 Corridor Shadows

I used the paper cut method to create the shadows found cast along the walkway of my corridor. Comparing to the cast shadows of my mum's potted plants, I chose to work on these because 1)The shadow is actually created by the stools that my neighbor used to to hang her bedsheets 2)I just happen to open my door and saw it and immediately stuck 6 pieces of majong paper together and created the work. 3)Half way through dark clouds started to gather and as the shadow gradually disappeared my neighbor also came out to keep her bedsheets and I had to ask her to give me a little more time to get my things done. I like it because it is a record of something that temporal yet so normal to the lives of people living in HDB flats.

#008 热Dog!

Having the folding and unfolding method in mind, as I have criticized on my idea in #007 if it is just images of food, I feel it lacked the effect of contrast. So I tried to play with text and images. Then I thought about how the Chinese characters are picture words which set me thinking about the association of text and images. Replacing the word with an image and still able to bring for the meaning of a thing. And so I purposely chose to work the word 'Hotdog', and in Mandarin it is said exactly like English, 'Hot = 热' and 'Dog = 狗' and decided to use the Chinese character for 'Hot' and literally a sketch of a dog for 'Dog'. I wanted to see if even without the use of the word 'Hot' would my non-Chinese reading friends understand?

When I brought it to class and showed Lee Ee she laughed. When I asked Farr to guess, she managed to guess that it was 'Hotdog' (through the colour of the Chinese text and the image) without any verbal hints from me. But when I showed Paul, immediately it was "I'm Malay, I don't read Chinese". For me, I enjoyed watching and listening to people's reaction towards the work. For Farr's case, she didn't need to know how to read Chinese to interpret, but for Paul, the Chinese text was overly glaring and uncomfortable to decipher.

Folded '热 =Hot'

Unfolded '热dog = Hotdog'