Responding to Response

When I create art, I seek to embed a connection between myself and my work, whether consciously or not. Prior to taking IB Visual Arts, I mainly focused on solely the appearance of my artwork, but I came to embed more ideas and topics that connect to being humans to make the pieces more meaningful for the viewers to resonate with them. This thus pushed me to diverge on human response to various factors within the subject themself or complications in the outside world for this exhibition.

The pieces begin with more external and larger-scope situations. These revolve around the many existing issues in our world, such as societal pressure as displayed in “All Eyes” and poverty in “Reach for the Dream”. However, not all of these are specifically negative. For instance, “Word to Word” is on the upper left side of the wall to start the exhibit more positively and to guide the viewer down to internal complexities. This was inspired by activists fighting to solve global issues like climate change, having been moved by the significance of their speech. As the works go from left to right, they become more personal and heavy. From “offonoff” on, the pieces are all based on experiences that I encountered in my own life regarding stress, self-hate, and insecurities. The COVID-19 pandemic has undeniably taken a toll on my mental health, but this gave me more opportunities to sit with my emotions and struggles. In turn, I had more freedom to communicate these with materials of choice. Therefore, while this was not the most favorable time to formulate an exhibition, it encouraged me to use visual expression to address my adversities.

Also due to the pandemic, the exhibit needed to be in a digital format, limiting me from creating a dimensional setup for more interaction with the pieces. If this was done in-person, I would have hung my pieces on different walls rather than just a single straight wall, potentially allowing the artworks to be displayed in a more separated but organized fashion. Likewise, it is more difficult to get the same emotional effect from the artworks in an online format. Nonetheless, this assisted in preventing me from overcomplicating the series as a whole, as I focused on the bigger picture rather than each piece individually or other details like the arrangement of the walls themselves.

To obtain distinct effects throughout, I explored a variety of materials, including clay, linoleum, and acrylic paint to express the human actions in response to contrasting items and situations. The material-layering pieces are prevalent at the beginning of the exhibit, with the first three pieces all adjacent to or near each other. These manifest the chaos of the world. The more detailed works are clustered near the end, including “Your True Colors”, which highly focuses on the specificity of color choices with colored pencil. I placed this on the top center as a point of emphasis among the less saturated works directly surrounding it. The following “Dilatearing” and “Bottle Down” are distinct with their limited use of materials of only black pen, but this enables for more precise line and texture details. The simplistic artworks are around the middle of the exhibit as almost a middle-ground between the chaotic and detailed works. These consist of charcoal pieces that focus on composition and contrast. This transitions conceptually between the pieces concerning external factors versus internal factors, ensuring that the series starts and ends with a larger impact.

I hope that when viewing this body of work viewers will engage with questions about the nature of how we react to and coincide with both our surroundings and ourselves. At the front of the series, I wish the audience will educate themselves on the issues that take place in society. In the more personal works centered near the end, I wish the audience will understand the intense feelings embedded within the piece and find some relation or connections with themselves. I additionally want them to examine the discrete ways in which they respond and act to a range of situations, spurring a realization of the importance of awareness to not only heal mentally but better issues in society.

“Reach for the Dream” plastilina clay, 24.1cm x 14cm x 14cm

Many people hold dreams. For some, it’s fame, and for others, it’s power or wealth. In this sculpture, the branches of the tree are hands reaching above for leaves to come their way, as a response to their own leaves that have already fallen. The various hands characterize people trying to gain more money, which is represented by the abundance of leaves on the bottom surface. The carved textures of the tree and leaves give an organic touch that showcases the realistic nature of this topic.