Curatorial Rationale

I am going to explore the imaginative conceptualized space in this exhibition. A conceptualized space can represent a number of quality dimensions with full imagination. Due to the artworks presented mostly conceptualize, the viewers may have different interpretations based on how they look at the artwork. This unintentionally increases the playfulness of interpreting these artworks. The body of work in my exhibition explores imaginative spaces and illusions that communicate the theme of “my childhood”. Through these extensive imagined pieces, the viewers might be able to recall the newfangled activities and objects that frequently appeared in their earlier years of life. The vision for presenting this body of work in the first place is to recall back to my own childhood memories and thoughts. These memories include the activities I do and the place I imagined living in. During the drawing process, I tried to stand on a child’s perspective by not being restricted to any of the realistic common senses and thinking vigorously which demonstrates my imaginative skill.

The body of works will be presented in various mediums including models, comic series, 2D and 3D paintings, and animations. Different mediums are explored to enhance my utilization and interpretation of conceptualized spaces. Each of the art pieces reflects one childhood activity or memory such as hide and seek, in the form of conceptualized spaces and abstractive paintings. As these drawings are not realistic, they can have many possible interpretations. I used various materials in this body of work including acrylic, wood board and hemp rope. The use of a variety of materials trained my ability to use different materials to present a single theme and also allows me to explore the potential of combinations of different materials. For example, the hemp rope and wood board can add on 3D textures or patterns on a 2D platform to create layers of effects. The artworks repeatedly refer to the lineation art and geometric abstraction drawing style which unified all the art pieces cohesively. These techniques correlate with my aim to explore conceptualized spaces such that the arrangement of colors of geometric shapes can create positive and negative spaces. The exhibition is mainly divided into three bodies of work. Each body of work represents one of the experiences or thoughts that occupied my childhood. The first body of the treasure hunt series is influenced by the movie I watched past days. The second body of work presents the activities I did when I was young. This includes playing hide and seek, blowing bubbles and dancing. The third body of work is my personal conceptual development during the growing up process. It displays my interests in Chinese traditional architecture and my concerns about the relationship with nature during my younger age. My own past experiences mainly shapes the fundamental concepts of these artworks and there are technical inspirations from other artists.

Since the body of works is separated into three main categories, each represents a different piece of my childhood. The way it is exhibited is like a timeline from participating in games and activities to independent thinking and learning. It aims to trigger the audience’s thinking about how their own childhood memories developed along during the growth from simple activities to life thinking. The strategies I used to develop the relationship between artworks and viewers are consecutive pieces and complimentary demonstrations. It is because some of my models have a greater visual effect under light so I would also display the photographs to complement the art pieces. Others such as the consecutive comic series would trigger the viewer's interest to follow along with the pieces. Similar techniques of geometric abstraction, lineation art, and materials colour are used in each body of work to unify the art pieces. These interactions make the body of work coherent thus conveying a completed childhood story. The exhibition has a sense of joy and unrestrainedness together with childishness and vigour. The series of works are full of imagination and unrealistic, thus triggering the imaginative thinking of audiences when interpreting the artworks. By exhibiting my own story of childhood, I would like to resonate with the audience about their own stories as a kid and reflect on their growing route all along.