This blog details my preparation for Tutorial #4 due to take place on 29th November 2024 with Jonathan Kearney.

Referring to my Study Statement, I have circled two specific areas for Unit 2 on my work plan for this tutorial preparation.

For the last few months, I have been making art in parallel with writing a research paper. The progress for both are as follows.

PROGRESS (MAKING)

Since the last tutorial, I have continued to explore making Cheongsam shaped canvases for painting. I feel that this way of making could be the start of the convergence of my narrative and style development work. I was hoping that this convergence would happen sometime during Year 2 of my MA programme (as circled in red). So I am pleased that the Cheongsam paintings could be the convergence that I was looking for to take my practice forward.

Cheongsam Paintings

The following blogs detail the Cheongsam paintings that I have been working on as well as the thinking and narratives behind the work:

MA U2: Cheongsam Series – Food as metaphor for cultural identity – Introduction

MA U2: Cheongsam Series – Food as metaphor for cultural identity – ‘No, I’m an egg.’

MA U2: Cheongsam Series – Food as metaphor for cultural identity – ‘You’re a banana!’

This is a blog capturing the reworking of the first Cheongsam painting to give it the intended meaning and context:

MA U2: Cheongsam series – reworking Appropriation. Appropriation.

Below is my latest work which is the start of a new series of Cheongsam paintings about memories of ‘Family dinners’ from 1970s Hong Kong. The change of medium from acrylic to oil meant that I had to change the canvas material and dress design as captured below.

MA U2: Cheongsam dress canvas – new method and design

MA U2: Cheongsam Series – Family dinner #1 – Front

Other Making Activities

Chinese painting – I have continued to attend my monthly Chinese painting classes, here are some of my work:

Chinese painting – shrimps, sunflowers, pine trees and more

Drawing – travel drawings using non-dominant hand:

MA U2: Quick sketches with non-dominant hand

Book Art – I was very inspired by the Book Art workshop during the low res week in London. Here is an example of an attempt with some Suminagashi paper that I made:

MA U2: Book art – Part 1

PROGRESS (RESEARCH)

Writing the research paper has given me ideas to take the context of my practice beyond just examining my personal identity. It was always my intention to find a way to go towards something broader and societal (as circled in blue on my Study Statement). Below is a blog capturing my reflections and learning from writing the research paper which is the start of this thinking process.

https://eliza-rawlings.com/2024/11/19/ma-u2-research-paper-reflections-and-learning/

HELP NEEDED

I would like help with the following points please – I will expand further on 2 and 3 during our tutorial:

1. Any feedback on the Cheongsam paintings and research paper (if available) would be most appreciated.

2. Ideas for the final degree show – I am considering a series of Cheongsam dresses (3D paintings), shall I include other work such as video and 2D paintings as well? I am planning ahead because the Cheongsam paintings take a long time to make.

3. Next step on my learning journey – I have done further research and would like some more advice please.

– End of prep notes –

Notes from tutorial:

Positive feedback on the research paper. We are still waiting for formal feedback from my supervisor. An area of improvement is the overuse of ‘This paper argues…’, so important to be mindful of this overuse in future writing.

Degree show ideas – we discussed making more Cheongsam paintings about childhood dinners because I still have many ideas or dishes still to do. So I will continue with that series. However, I should not limit myself to just Cheongsam paintings and I will explore the other aspects of my practice. E.g. review the Steamed McDonalds video that I have made but not edited yet. I will review and edit to see if it would be a good piece of work to complement the Cheongsam dinner paintings.

We discussed the ‘fair use’ policy of using music soundtracks in my video. It is fine to use in an educational setting for a student video as I am not planning to profit from it. As for using sound – always be careful to make it relevant to the content and context.

We discussed the next steps of my development regarding options after the MA course. The discussion was very helpful and I have some actions to investigation options.

– End of tutorial notes –