For this project, I focused on the depressive situation of urban life, the depressed look of the people I observed living in the city. Hanzhuo, focused more on emotional healing. In the work, we show the inner emotions of people in urban life. We show dynamic human life on electronic screens in the windows of the “house”, with hanzhuo's personalised feelings from daily life and my abstract portrait from the city.We showed the scenes inside the house, which are more like a feeling in the heart, an inner expression of emotion. We explored and experimented with how two different painting styles can collide and merge together, we could trying more possibilities in this way. 

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Peter Halley

Each of his works resembles a wall in the city and has the same texture as a real wall, using a combination of textured and smooth painting techniques. There is a deep symbolism in each painting. Most of his paintings employ bright colour, which gives the viewer a very active feeling, but a feeling of imprisonment. So his paintings give the viewer something to think about. In his writing 'The Development of the Geometric' he mentions that modern cities are connected by conduits, such as networks and so on. In this regard, I reflected on what connects people's depression in these huge cities. What are the causes of depression?

 

At the same time, I was inspired by his paintings of irregular building shapes. We can even create a 'metropolis', using many wood panels like buildings to create a wall of urban and inner worlds. The architecture of the city is cold, but the heart of each person is actually soft.

 

Chris Martin

Reading Peter Halley’s essay on Chris Martin (1997), I learned that Chris Martin's work stays true to his beliefs and maintains its integrity, ignoring the clamour of fashion and commerce. He uses the simplest of materials - black and white commercial house paint - to create his works, while really moving them into the right setting, "trying to create clear dramatic architectural spaces with minimal visual cues" (Halley 1997 p.7), trying to find the influence of the surroundings on the work, and the viewer's feelings.

When I have finished this work with Hanzhuo, we also want to try and place these works in the city and take photographs for observation. We could even take the paints with us to work on them directly on site. The feeling of being in a different environment changes depending on the specific environment. This change is subtle and uncertain. I look forward to the uncertainty in my images.  It is easy to see through my previous works that I experiment with a variety of materials and I am sometimes uncertain of the results of the processes I use. This uncertainty is what makes them unique.

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However, this project did not go ahead as planned due to my partner's illness, but I think it will be a good attempt and I will continue to finish this work in the next research. I will be cutting more boards and we can make more different "buildings"...

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​TO BE CONTINUED...

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Reference: 

Halley, P (1997) Introduction in Chris Martin, exhibition catalogue, New York: Pierogi Gallery