Narrative

MA U2: Research Paper – Reflections and learning

| elizarawlings
Heron – Chinese ink on rice paper

I recently completed a research paper titled:

By analysing the work of Njideka Akunyili Crosby and Fiona Rae this paper will argue that transcultural art can enhance understanding of the human experience amid unprecedented levels of migration and displacement.

A copy can be found here:

MA U2: Research Paper

I have enjoyed working on the research paper because it gave me the opportunity to analyse the work of two of my favourite transcultural artists. I like studying other transcultural artists’ work because I usually find resonance and they help to inform my practice.

Below is an extract from my MA Study Statement where I detailed my objectives for my narrative development work.

I believe doing the research paper has helped me to address Objectives ii and iii and the reasons will be explained within this blog. This blog captures my thinking, questions and reflections along the journey of writing the research paper with a learning summary at the end.

REFLECTIONS

As stated in Objective ii, I want to use research and academic rigour to bring clarity to my thinking in examining my narrative which is based on the idea of The Third Space.

The Third Space

I first found out about Homi K Bhabha’s notion of the Third Space three years ago when I watched a lecture by the artist Njideka Akunyili Crosby (link included later in the text). In the lecture, Akunyili Crosby explained Bhabha’s Third Space and directly located her art practice within her Third Space. I found such strong resonance with her explanation and her work that I started to research Bhabha’s work, especially his book The Location of Culture:

Bhabha, H. (1994) The Location of Culture. London: Routledge

Bhabha uses concepts such as mimicry, interstice and hybridity in the book and his work was deeply rooted in colonial and postcolonial theories. I found his work very useful in helping me to unpack some of my personal experiences, growing up in colonial Hong Kong, then migrating to the UK in 1980 and now living as a British Chinese. Understanding his work has helped me in the sense-making of parts of my transcultural journey and I have been expressing some of my insights in my identity-based art practice.

So I was excited to approach my research paper using Bhabha’s work as the theoretical foundation to analyse the artistic expressions of the two chosen transcultural artists to examine how the notion of the ‘Third Space’ had influenced transcultural artists. However, my supervisor (rightly) challenged me on why I chose Bhabha’s thirty year old theory and if it was still relevant today.

To justify the use of Bhabha’s theory was a good challenge. For me, Bhabha’s theory was personal, it helped me to unpack issues that have puzzled or troubled me from my childhood in colonial Hong Kong as well as living as a migrant in the UK. So for me, Bhabha’s work is relevant for me today despite it being written thirty years ago. However, I knew that only putting in my personal experience in the research paper as a justification would not be sufficient or academically robust!

I started by researching texts on the meaning of ‘culture’ which helped to anchor my thoughts before proceeding onto the meaning of ‘transcultural’. I then researched more recent academic texts in transculturalism that either directly referenced Bhabha in their research, or described contemporary hybrid existence that reflected the cultural negotiations within the Third Space as asserted by Bhabha. The challenge of a limited word count meant I had to select the most relevant works to focus on for this paper. Examples of texts that I used to justify using Bhabha’s work are as follows along with the lecture by Akunyili Crosby where she located her practice within the Third Space. I felt the latter was the most powerful example of Bhabha’s contemporary relevance:

Iyall Smith, K.E. and Leavy, P. (eds) (2009) Hybrid identities: theoretical and empirical examinations. Chicago, IL: Haymarket Books (Studies in critical social sciences book series)

Grunitzky, C (2004) Transculturalism: how the world is coming together.  New York: TRUE Agency

The Museum of Contemporary Art (2018) Njideka Akunyili Crosby [Online Video] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pUZijlho9CM (Accessed 14/05/2024)

Contemporary relevance of my research

My supervisor also suggested that I should extend my scope of research to find relevance in my topic in the contemporary world because merely analysing artistic expressions was not enough. I should seek to ‘go deeper and richer’. This was a bigger challenge than justifying Bhabha’s text.

In my Study Statement Objective iii, I had always planned to expand my practice from personal identity to societal issues to give it a wider purpose. At the time of writing my Study Statement, I had in mind to expand towards the area of postcolonial theories because of my background and also my interest in Bhabha’s work. However, I did not feel the urge to bring postcolonialism into my research paper right now because there has been something else more pressing preying on my mind. I have been very troubled by the ongoing escalation of wars or conflicts around the world and the sheer amount of displaced people as a result. To the extent that I fear society might become immune to such news. The issues surrounding immigration have been at the top of political agendas around the world especially in countries that continue to hold power. Furthermore, closer to home for me, over 200,000 Hong Kong people have moved to the UK in the last three years as voluntary international migrants with the special visa scheme granted by the British Government. I wonder how they are managing in a country with a very different culture after uprooting from their homeland under the circumstances. So all these thoughts have been on my mind.

Then as I started to analyse the works of Akunyili Crosby and Fiona Rae who are both migrants, I was drawn to the extent of the sense-making in their work, the way they use their art to respond to and make sense of their changing environments as they migrated from one country to another. I found much resonance with their work. Bhabha’s notion of the Third Space gave me a structure to analyse and contrast their artistic expressions. It helped me to find differences and similarities. The two artists expressed their transcultural sense-making very differently but their wish or need to go through that sense-making was a common theme. It brought home to me that every migrant or displaced individual have that need to make sense of their new or changing environment and that is fundamental for survival – this was explained and verified when I researched Damasio’s texts such as:

Damasio, A. (2021) Feeling & Knowing. New York: Pantheon Books.

I proceeded to try to bridge my transcultural artists research with this very human ‘need’ that must be happening to millions of people right now around the world (281 millions in 2014 according to The International Organization of Migration).

However, a fundamental question remained – so what? So what if migrant artists share the same human experiences as other migrants? It is not exactly a grand revelation. I instinctively felt that there was something more that a transcultural artist could do than just make art, their stories are human as well as relevant and can enhance our understanding of the human conditions involved or perhaps something even more. So I continued to research hybrid identities, the role of artists, transcultural art etc. hoping to find some inspiration. A ‘lightbulb moment’ came to me from:

Petersen, A.R. (2017) Migration into art: transcultural identities and art-making in a globalised world. Manchester: Manchester university press (Rethinking art’s histories)

Petersen proposes the notion of ‘the artist as a migrant worker’ and explains that instead of cementing the myth of the artist as a detached creator, the proposed notion invites a more profound exploration of how the artist’s role can be reconfigured as that of a translator, mediator and bridge-builder between people and cultures. Petersen contends that art can be an instrument of orientation and has the ability to negotiate contradictions and complexities.  Petersen uses a botanical metaphor to describe a migrant’s way of forming affiliations as ‘radicant’, planting roots along its travel like an ivy or strawberry plant, as oppose to a native, or ‘radicle’, that plants a root from it’s original location. Researching Petersen’s text gave me the idea of using transcultural art to help migrants with their personal sense-making and enhance their sense of belonging through finding resonance.

Having analysed the different texts that I researched, I further assert that the native can also benefit from critically understanding transcultural art in order to better appreciate the human experience amid the unprecedented levels of migration that will likely impact all aspects of society whether one is a migrant or a native. I felt that there was also a place for transcultural art to humanise the migration experience so as to prevent society from becoming immune to the ongoing conflict situations and the resultant displacement of people. This is an area that I would have wanted to expand on more but was constrained by word count, therefore I am considering doing further research on this subject.

LEARNING

I have learnt a lot through doing the research paper and it would take too long to detail everything here. In the context of my art practice, the key learning points for me in doing the research paper are as follows.

– Through a deeper insight into Bhabha’s work, I have cemented my belief of its relevance in today’s society despite being written thirty years ago. I also feel more strongly than before that it is relevant to me and I will continue to use it as a theoretical foundation for my personal inquiries. Furthermore, through my research, I have found other more recent texts that will help to broaden my thinking in the topic of cultural hybridity and inform my contemporary art practice. This learning has directly helped me with Objective ii in my Study Statement.

– Analysing the work by the two transcultural artists alongside academic texts has made me think more deeply about what sense-making means. Of course, I understand the dictionary meaning of the phrase but I am beginning to grasp what sense-making feels like. To the extent that after finishing a recent painting, I really felt that I had gone through a sense-making process. It felt like a new enlightenment for me. It still feels nebulous and I hope to grasp it more firmly as I develop my practice.

– I have learnt about the magnitude of the number of international migrants and displaced people in 2024. I knew it was large and increasing, but it was beyond my expectation. Also, it was useful to study research about what causes feelings of isolation for migrates and how senses of belonging are developed. I appreciate I have only touched on the surface of those profound subjects through a 4,000 word research paper and I am compelled to find out more.

– The research has helped me to find relevance for transcultural art and propose a role for the transcultural artist in our society amid unprecedented migration and displacement. As a transcultural artist, I find this exciting and it supports the pursuit of my Study Statement Objective iii – finding a wider purpose for my practice. However, I need to be mindful of some risks…

– I am mindful that a 4,000 word research paper could only touch on the surface of all the issues and ideas that I have discussed. Much more research needs to take place and ideas need to be rigorously examined with a wider audience than just myself before I can really claim the location of my practice within this wider purpose. Otherwise, I could be at risk of being naïve which would not help me and definitely not help the 281 million migrants and displaced people.

NEXT STEPS

Since I have enjoyed writing this research paper and I feel strongly about the topic, I am considering doing further research as part of my personal and practice development.

MA U2: Cheongsam Series – Family dinner #1

| elizarawlings

After finishing three other Cheongsam paintings, I started this work with a new Cheongsam canvas design and thicker gauge canvas as described in this blog:

https://eliza-rawlings.com/2024/11/04/ma-u2-cheongsam-dress-canvas-new-method-and-design/

I then explored the possible subjects for this painting and decided to focus on food. In the last two ‘food’ Cheongsam paintings, food was used as a racial identity metaphor. Food in the context of this new painting is about memories of family dinners in the 1970s when I was growing up in Hong Kong. Food was and still is a very important part of the Hong Kong culture. Family dinners are very important and day-to-day life often centres around family dinners. The Hong Kong society is a fusion of many cultures and this is strongly reflected in its food. I want to make a series of paintings to explore my childhood memories and tell my transcultural stories through my family dinners.

METHOD

The idea of making paintings about my family dinners came to me when I visited my sister and she cooked a dish of steamed whole seabass with ginger, spring onions, shiitake mushrooms and coriander in soy sauce. She reminded me this was exactly the same recipe that our late mother used to cook for our family dinners. Seeing the dish and her description triggered many deeply buried memories. I started to remember all the different dishes that my mother use to cook – all those memories that I have long forgotten. I took a photo of my sister’s steamed fish as I wanted to incorporate that into my painting.

As soon as I returned home, I started to research images of dishes that I have had and worked on the composition. Below are some examples created using Adobe Fresco:

Here is a video of the Fresco creation process:

I also used my sketchbook to experiment with different compositions.

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The previous Cheongsam paintings were in acrylic on calico canvas and I wanted to paint in oil for this work because I enjoy painting in oil and I wanted to return to oil after not doing so for some time. Also, I had in mind that the toppings for the fish would be ‘piled up’ and I felt that oil paint would give me more freedom and time to play with getting the right texture. I usually just start painting straight away on the canvas, but on this occasion, something was holding me back and I had the urge to do some study drawings first to give me time to think about the details and composition. Below is the study drawing for the fish dish:

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At the top of this blog, I listed an earlier blog about using a new design for the Cheongsam with thicker canvas material. This latest dress design and material combination caused the waist area to crease on the mannequin. So far, I have painted all the previous Cheongsams on a mannequin. However, for this one, I felt that it needed to be painted flat to eliminate the creases during the painting process. So I moved the canvas from the mannequin to the easel.

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Painting moved to the easel so that I could paint on a flat surface:

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I proceeded to mark out the composition starting with the centre piece – the steamed fish. The placement of the fish dish is reflective of a Chinese family dinner where the steamed fish (if on the menu) would typically be placed in the centre as the signature dish.

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Having roughly marked out the fish dish, I added a plate of steamed baked beans. Since Hong Kong is/was such a fusion of different cultures and heavily influenced by the British due to colonialism, it was not unusual to have imported tinned food served alongside traditional Chinese dishes in my family. In hindsight, it sounds strange and funny to serve these two very different dishes together; but at the time it was the most natural thing – food was just food especially for a child. I never thought about their origins or the reasons that caused these two dishes to came to be served next to each other. I remember my mother calling baked beans ‘pork beans’ at the time and I remember at times there were small pieces of pork fat among the beans. I researched this and found that manufacturers did put pieces of pork in with the beans but removed them due to World War II meat rationing. I am not sure if they reintroduced pork in the 1970s or if what we ate were left over from the old pre-war stock!

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Other dishes were gradually added to the menu, each dish having their individual significance in the role they played in our family dinner. I also enlarged the two fish to give them more prominence and I wanted a tight composition as from memory, dinner tables in Hong Kong were always crowded with food.

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I tried using charcoal with oil which I had never done before and below are photos of the initial experiment on oil-paper:

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The experiment was not satisfactory because the charcoal did not work well on oil-paper, so I returned to experimenting on the canvas:

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I was pleased with the charcoal effect and proceeded to paint the fish:

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Toppings of spring onions, shiitake mushrooms etc. were added in thick layers of oil paint:

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Time to add the dessert – Del Monte fruit cocktail.

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To complete the composition, I added pattern details from the Chinese dinner set that my parents used at the time around the various dishes on the painting.

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The completed front part of the Cheongsam painting:

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The painting was put back onto a mannequin as I wanted the oil paint to cure according to the shape that it would eventually be displayed in. Then green satin ‘frog’ fasteners were added to complete the Cheongsam look.

Below are images of the finished front half of the painting with –

-Steamed whole fish with spring onions, ginger, coriander and sliced shiitake mushrooms in soy sauce;

-Braised pork belly with preserved mustard greens;

-Gai Lan (greens) with oyster sauce;

-Steamed baked beans (imported) and

-Del Monte fruit cocktail (imported).

‘Family dinner #1‘, oil and charcoal on 240gsm cotton canvas. Size: 98 x 68 x 28cm.

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REFLECTIONS

So many thoughts and memories went through my mind while making this painting, it is hard to know where to start for my reflections. Like I have done before, I will use ‘free writing’ to capture them as they come into my consciousness as I write.

– Only in hindsight when I am doing this painting did I realise what a strange fusion of cuisine we experienced growing up in Hong Kong. Not only because imported tinned food like ‘pork beans’ (now known as baked beans) were served alongside carefully prepared Cantonese dishes, but the fact that the beans were steamed in a wok to heat up was rather amusing. Since my mother would not have known how baked beans were meant to be served, so steaming in a wok was her default method. As children, we loved mixing the baked beans with our boiled rice in our bowls because of the sugar and salt in the beans. Like many children all over the world, we (sadly) appreciated the processed food more than the poor mother’s fresh cooking!

– My father was the patriarch. He expected a well cooked meal twice a day (he used to come home for lunch). If the meal was not up to standard then there would be consequences. He was not physically violent but there would be a ‘dark cloud’ over our dinner, eaten in silence with the children exchanging glances but no one dared utter a word. The rejected dishes would be sent back to the kitchen to be remedied if possible (if overcooked then not possible).

– So my mother had to deliver two perfect cooking performances per day, everyday. Chinese cooking can be challenging, to get the taste balance, texture, freshness, aesthetics (just to name a few requirements) correct for every dish is very demanding. Especially when the ‘judge’ had high expectations. For example, for a steamed whole fish, the fish had to be cooked just right, not overcooked or undercooked – this is challenging even for restaurant chefs. If there was steamed fish then as soon as my father sat down at the table, he would split the fish open along the spine bone with his chopsticks and examine the ‘colour’ of the flesh, if there was any hint of pink along the spine ( meaning undercooking) then the chopsticks would be slammed down as a gesture of disapproval, no words needed to be said and the dish would be taken back to be remedied. It is no wonder my mother sometimes used Western tinned food to make up the number of dishes to get by. Since my father worked for the Hong Kong Government and was a life-long civil servant to the ‘Colonial Crown Service’, he was very accepting of Western tinned food because we (the colonised) were led to believe that anything from the West was superior. So in this context, colonialism in fact brought with it some occasional relief for my mother in her job of family meals planning.

– I think I chose a bright yellow background for my Cheongsam dinner because I love food and enjoying good food makes me happy as it is such a key part of my heritage. I always wanted family dinners to be fun, bright and cheerful. Although there were often ‘dark clouds’ that loomed over our family dinners, as kids, we would find reasons to giggle at the dinner table – it was our way of responding to the situation through kids’ humour.

– The background yellow is also similar to one of the dinner sets that my parents had hence I incorporated some of its design onto the dress. I will elaborate about the dinner set design on the back of the dress as it has an interesting history.

– There were other back stories to the dishes on the painting and on how ‘the family dinner’ was often where the dynamics of my parents’ relationship played out. I am reluctant to detail all of them because it would be unfair to my parents who are not around to say whether they wanted their stories to be told. Also, I am not sure if I am ready to express everything yet.

– I wonder, how does one find out if the dead would want their stories told and how does one decide whether to tell them anyway? Also, I can only tell a story through my lens, so whose story would I be telling?

– Recently, I have been thinking a lot about ‘process vs outcome’ in my practice. I have thought more deeply about this since I started to make Cheongsam paintings. I think it is because the work takes longer and involves more complexity, so the extensive creative process gives me time to think more deeply. Especially with this Family Dinner painting – the composition is more complex than the previous ones and painting in oil takes longer which is part of why I love to paint in oil – the process and materiality force me to take my time. The surrendering of agency to the process elates me. My thinking during my making process comes in many forms, such as reflections and memory recalls that I would often incorporate into my painting, or ‘put aside’ in my ideas bank for future paintings. All these thoughts go towards the sense-making of my journey, my identity and the world around me. It is right now at this very moment in time while writing this set of reflections that I have come to truly understand what ‘sense-making’ means – to me. I wish I could bottle this moment before the thought eludes me.

– I wrote in my research paper about two transcultural artists and their sense-making that takes place on the canvas. For the paper, I researched about sense-making and how that process fundamentally supports the human survival. In the context of migration, people displacement or in a transcultural setting, where the environment is new or constantly changing – I believe the opportunity to reflect and make sense of one’s experience is essential to survival in a meaningful way; to feel belonged in the world and not merely to exist. Unfortunately for many, the quest for physical survival can be overwhelming therefore depriving them of the opportunity for the much needed sense-making.

LEARNING

When I first started planning the structure of my blogs at the start of my MA programme, I had planned for the REFLECTIONS section to be free-thinking and free-flowing, capturing whatever came to mind related to the work or during the making process. The LEARNING section is there to bring the thinking back to the context of my practice to extract any practice-related learning and plan the next steps. This structure has helped me to develop my practice so far and is becoming even more important as my reflections become more extensive and ‘free’. So I will now try to extract some learning from the this piece of work and the above reflections.

– Referring to my thoughts on ‘process vs outcome’, there is increasing clarity for me as to why I am not always bothered about the work once it is finished. For me, the work is a way to provide a process – the process is more precious to me. The process gives me quality thinking time and it ‘walks with me’. I enjoy making very much, but it is the making while thinking or reflecting that is the most valuable for me.

– So what am I going to do with this realisation, or confirmation of what is valuable for me in my practice? I don’t know yet, maybe I don’t need to do anything to bring these thoughts to a conclusion, perhaps it is just a beginning with no end – that feels exciting. So I will go with ‘it’ and try not to over think ‘it’.

– I have thought a lot about how I could capture some of the more abstract elements that came out during the making process, perhaps onto a piece of physical work – could be painting, writing, 3D etc.. I remember in a much earlier blog, I talked about wanting to find ways to express my thoughts through abstraction as that might liberate me to express more freely without the confinement of physical preconceptions. A specific image that has been recurring in my mind since finishing the Family Dinner painting was the pink tinge (of blood) that would sometimes be visible along the fish’s spine as my father parted the flesh of an undercooked fish with his chopsticks. For me, that tinge of pink symbolised innocence and trouble at the same time. I need to do something with that pink to get it out of my head.

– As I was making this painting, many memories of other interesting family dishes and stories came to mind and I am bursting to paint more dinners to capture them.

– I also need to complete the back of this dress. I had originally thought about painting a second dinner on the back, but I have decided to not do this because I want to save some of the dishes for other dresses as I want to make a series of several ‘Family Dinner’ paintings. Also, I want to paint the design of the dinner set that my parents had because it has an interesting history.

– As for the new Cheongsam sewing pattern that I used for this painting canvas – I am very pleased with the new design because it does not have any darts so the canvas can be painted flat which means I can use thicker canvases and paint in oil which is my preferred medium for this current series of painting.

– The new Cheongsam canvas design also means I have reduced the making time of the canvas from two days down to around half a day. This improvement was due to a simpler design and my experience gained in making these canvases – I am now more confident in sewing with my machine and quicker in trouble-shooting. This means I have more time for the other parts of the creative process.

– A key learning in making Family Dinner #1 was to take time in my making. I have in the past rushed my work, for no specific reason but to just ‘get things done’. The study drawing of the steamed fish was invaluable for me and gave me the confidence to experiment and take chances when painting on the canvas because of my enhanced observations. I now appreciate why artists make study drawings!

NEXT STEPS

– Paint the back of Family Dinner #1 with the family dinner set design.

– Start to research and make Family Dinner #2.

– Continue to take time in my making, e.g. allow time to make study drawings and appreciate materiality.

– Experiment and play: do some abstract paintings of ‘the pink tinge’ to explore how to capture some of the ‘magic’ that I have felt during my making process.

MA U2: Working from a dream – Mending tights

| elizarawlings

While I was on holiday in Scotland during summer 2024, I had a dream one night about making a piece of art work with pieces of laddered (torn) stockings or tights. The ladders were ‘repaired’ using nail varnish. Then each piece was framed individually in an ornate thick gold frame. It was such an unusual dream that as soon as I woke up, I captured the dream in my sketchbook in case I forgot the details as I often struggle to remember my dreams.

Mending stockings or tights with nail varnish was a technique that I learnt from my mother when I was little. If I laddered my school tights then she would mend it with her nail varnish. If the tear was small or in an area under my dress then it was fine to repair in this way without having to buy new tights all the time. Otherwise it would have been costly with an active child. In hindsight, it was ridiculous to make small children (girls) wear tights as school uniform, it was most impractical!

When I returned home after the holiday, I decided to realise my dream to make some art by mending a stocking.

METHOD

The first challenge was that tights and stockings nowadays are usually made of ladder-resistant materials which means they don’t ladder!! I had to dig out some old socks in order to find materials that would ladder. After laddering the material, a piece of white card was rolled up and inserted into the sock.

Some tissue was placed behind the ladder then red nail polish was applied at various points to stop further laddering.

This process was repeated with a second piece to create two pieces in total:

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The two pieces were placed on a large piece of white card, in different arrangements, to experiment with composition:

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REFLECTIONS

It was such a strange dream that I could not think of what would have triggered such a memory during a holiday in Scotland. Throughout the planning and making process, I thought about all the things that we learn from our parents. My mother didn’t actively teach me to mend my tights, I just watched her and that technique was cemented in my subconscious.

During the last year when I have been making Chinese Cheongsam dresses as painting canvases, I have been thinking a lot about watching my mother dressmaking when I was little and how much I learnt from her without being conscious of it.

Thinking more about it – a week before I had the dream, I was looking at some old family photographs shown to me by a family member. Many of the photos of my parents that I had not seen for years. Perhaps seeing those images somehow unlocked the memory of mending my school tights. The act of mending tights is uniquely personal and it only happens between mother and daughter because boys do not wear school tights and it’s unlikely that fathers have nail varnish to hand. Also, a mended pair of tights hidden under a dress is a secret between mother and daughter, or between women when such techniques are passed from one to another. Those moments are precious.

It is usually at this point of reflection that I start to feel sad because I left home so young (14) and I must have missed out on so much learning from my mother, or just time with her to enjoy that unique bond, sharing secrets that only we knew about and that united us from the world. As always in life, we don’t appreciate how precious those moments are until much later.

I decided to stop after making two pieces and didn’t realise the whole dream of making multiple pieces into an installation. I may come back to it at a later stage. For now, I feel that this experiment has served its purpose in testing out the process and triggering reflections that will keep me thinking for some time. Overall, I am happy with how this quick experiment went and pleased with some of the images I produced.

LEARNING

I usually make work after lots of thinking and planning. This piece of work came from ‘left field’ (a dream) and the making was quick and experimental. I enjoyed the diversion from my main project and to get some results so quickly was enjoyable. A large painting often takes so long that having some quick work in between can help to feed my need for results as well as interrupt the agony of painting. I recently heard an artist on TV saying that painting has the word ‘pain’ in it – too true!

Also, I have become increasingly aware of the importance of my thinking during making. Before I start making work, I think a lot about how to make it. But during making, the work takes my mind to many places that I have either long forgotten about or didn’t know existed. Hence I am becoming aware of the quality thinking time that ‘happens’ when I am making art. In a recent discussion during one of our MA online sessions, we talked about process vs product. That was very helpful as I feel excited about my discovery of how important the process is for me, much more important than the product. In fact, I am usually not so bothered about the product as it is secondary to the process for me. Perhaps for me, the purpose of the product is merely to provide a process.

NEXT STEPS

– Continue to enjoy the thinking and reflecting time during my making process.

– Do not feel guilty about taking diversions from my main projects; quick diversions like this one has provided invaluable insight from my subconscious. I should value it.

MA U2: Cheongsam series – reworking Appropriation. Appropriation.

| elizarawlings

After completing two Cheongsam paintings (‘You’re a banana’ and ‘No, I’m an egg’), I wanted to revisit the first Cheongsam painting I made – ‘Appropriation. Appropriation.’ because I felt it was an unfinished piece. I knew it was unfinished at the time but I was eager to move onto the banana and egg paintings, so I left it. After some time had passed, I felt the urge to finish it off. The areas that I was not happy about were:

– The lack of depth in my representation of what I was trying to say.

– In fact, it wasn’t clear what I was trying to say and how it was relevant to my practice.

– It felt like an unfinished or abandoned piece of work.

I am not always bothered about abandoning work, but so much effort had already gone into this piece, the making of the dress, sewing and painting etc.. I felt it would be worthwhile finishing it.

Below is the unfinished work from earlier and the original blog about my feelings towards the Blue Willow pattern:

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MA U2: Cheongsam Series #4 – Appropriation. Appropriation.

METHOD

In carrying out additional research for this piece of work, I referenced a book about the Willow pattern:

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In my earlier blog, I talked about the incorrect depiction of a tree on the Willow design. What should have been a large pine tree that was common in Chinese paintings, was instead depicted in a way that led many to believe it to be a disproportionally large fruit tree. This particular tree was discussed extensively in the ‘Willow!’ book with many suggestions of the different types of fruit tree that it could have been, but without any clue about what tree it really was. So to expose this classic example of an appropriation of something without having basic understanding of what was being appropriated, I decided to add the said tree to my Cheongsam painting and copied some texts from the book to highlight such cultural challenges.

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Texts that were added as part of a fence on the painting were copied from the above pages describing the (pine) tree as leafless, bulbous, grotesquely laden… apple tree. Close up of the texts copied are as follows:

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Another paragraph was copied onto my painting which gave insight into the attitude towards Asia during the time when the Willow pattern was designed:

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Close up of the texts copied:

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The ‘bulbous and grotesquely laden fruit tree’ was added to my painting:

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Masking tape was used to mark out the shape of the fence for the texts:

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The second set of texts was added on the back of the painting next to the large tree with some ornate borders like those on the edge of some Willow plates:

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The finished painting:

Back view
Front view – left
Front view – right

REFLECTIONS

I am pleased that I have reworked this painting because my practice is not just about making work, it is also about examining issues relating to my identity which includes understanding my heritage. In the case of the Willow Pattern, it highlighted the casual and incorrect appropriation of Asian art during the colonial era. My original idea for this piece was always to highlight the mistakes made in the Willow Pattern appropriation. In particular, the pine tree. I have researched numerous design texts about the Willow Pattern and most of them express puzzlement about the disproportionally large ‘fruit tree’ towering over the building. The debate surrounded what kind of fruit it was, apple, pomegranate, peach etc.. All acknowledging that no fruit tree could grow to several storeys high hence description such as ‘grotesquely laden’ was used here. I am certain that if any Chinese artists were asked, they would have said it was a (badly depicted) pine tree.

My research shows that there are many species of pine trees in China. Ranging from the common Pinus tabuliformis which can be 20-30 metres tall, to the famous Pinus hwangshanensis (or Huangshan pine) with some being 1,500 years old. Pine trees are often depicted in Chinese paintings. The pine needles are typically formed in dense round clusters:

The pine needles are often depicted as below in traditional Chinese paintings with a few needles radiating from the centre of the cluster and a thin wash of colour (usually green) to give a sense of the overall round shape of the cluster of needles.

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Here are my pine tree paintings that I made in one of my Chinese brush painting lessons, the left hand image shows the round clusters of needles with a green wash:

My Chinese pine tree paintings

Carvings of pine trees often take on a more accentuated round shape such as this example:

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The Chinese pine tree was depicted as follows by the Williow Pattern designers:

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The Willow Pattern became very popular in Britain as a result of demands generated for Chinese artefacts during the British colonial period. Subsequent generations of people who buy or study the Willow Pattern have wondered what tree that was and due to the rounded shapes coming off the branches, they concluded it was a fruit tree of some kind – such as the hypothesis in the ‘Willow!’ book even though they all acknowledged the disproportionate size.

When I made the discovery of the mistaken identity of the tree on so many design documentation, I wanted to do something to capture my findings and expose the lack of research that I have witnessed. I am not a design historian, nor a botanist, nor am I that experienced a Chinese painter, even I could tell that it was meant to be a pine tree. So it shouldn’t have been difficult to deduce. I could only conclude that people just didn’t really care enough to find out. Even those who were writing books or papers on the Willow design didn’t seem to make that extra effort to find out and just accepted that it was a strange fruit tree or badly depicted overly large and grotesque fruit tree. Hence I wanted to make a painting to express this example of our casual laziness towards other people’s culture. The second set of texts that I copied from the book aptly acknowledged the ‘couldn’t care less’ attitude towards Asia at the time.

When I first did the painting, I stopped before putting in the pine tree. This was because I felt the painting was turning out to be a bit ‘twee’. I didn’t like it. In hindsight, what did I expect when I was copying from a design that was a bit twee! So I left the piece at the time and went onto make two other paintings. I am very pleased that I returned to finish this painting because I had spent much time in researching the Willow Pattern, especially the mystery surrounding the pine tree; I really wanted to say something about it. Hence I am pleased that I returned to complete the pine tree as well as copy some texts that confirmed the casual approach taken towards other people’s culture.

LEARNING

I have learnt a lot about the history of the Willow Pattern. That also helped me to understand more about the British Empire and its history at the time. I am not really that offended by the poor appropriation of the design, it amused me more than anything. However, it highlighted how easy it is to poorly appropriate and that is usually out of laziness, ignorance or not being thorough in research. That is good learning for me and has helped to make me more mindful about my work – if I were to borrow ideas from other cultures, or my own culture, I need to pay more attention to get my facts right. It is often not difficult, just takes a little more time to ask or research. Otherwise, I would be just as bad as those that I’m criticising here.

NEXT STEPS

With completing this painting, I have now done three Cheongsam paintings. I have several ideas of other Cheongsam paintings so I will get on and make some more!

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RESEARCH BACKGROUND – WILLOW PATTERN

Below are some examples of mistaken identification published for the large pine tree in the Blue Willow pattern. The examples shown here assume the tree is a fruit tree.

Example 1: Wikipedia

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Willow_pattern

Wikipedia describes the tree as an orange tree even though orange trees do not grow that tall and if the round shapes were fruit then it would have been a leafless fruit tree.

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Example 2: Liverpool University – Victoria Gallery and Museum

https://vgm.liverpool.ac.uk/blog/2021/willow-pattern/

Liverpool University’s Victoria Gallery and Museum has a blog dedicated to the Blue Willow design. It details the key elements of the design but does not mention the largest tree depicted. It does, however, include an insert of an illustration stating that the large tree was an apple tree – did they really think that it could be a leafless apple tree that was nearly twice the size of a three storey building?

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Example 3: Quote from ‘Antiques Collectors’ magazine by ‘World expert on the Willow Pattern’

https://www.worldcollectorsnet.com/articles/willow-pattern/

This article includes a quote from a ‘World expert on the Willow Pattern’ talking about the oranges on the tree, whilst acknowledging that there are accounts of other fruits such as apples or pears being published.

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Example of a correct identification!

Finally, the example below correctly identifies the tree as a pine tree:

https://thebrooklynteacup.com/blogs/blog/blue-willow-china-pattern?srsltid=AfmBOoqLrjlC-ILPuRDrVdf2hHF-jvthiO5xCl6CQV2aTv2vazJg_Xtt

Chinese painting – shrimps, sunflowers, pine trees and more

| elizarawlings

EXPERIENCE

I have been learning Chinese brush painting in parallel to doing my MA Fine Art Digital course. I am new to Chinese painting and there is a lot to learn. So practicing is key. Below are some of my latest Chinese paintings, some of them are copies from books and worksheets that my tutor gave me. I believe it is important to periodically capture my progress but I do not plan to reflect extensively on these paintings because they were mostly learning exercises.

Shrimps – inspired by Qi Baishi

Trying out different compositions, colours and canvas sizes:

Image of one of Qi Baishi’s famous shrimps paintings:

I also tried to paint them in oil to compare the process and effect:

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Sunflowers

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Abstract experiments

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Pine tree

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Mountain water landscape with silk wash

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A basket of grapes

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REFLECTIONS

– I am increasingly enjoying learning Chinese painting and have improved to a stage where I actually can enjoy it rather than get frustrated by it!

– I am particularly interested in learning more about Qi Baishi’s shrimps because I admire his style of painting. I have been advised by my Chinese painting tutor to start with understanding the fundamental anatomy of a shrimp before going free style. I will do that next.

– Much of Chinese painting involves symbolism. After researching more about the symbolic meaning of shrimps, I found (and remember) that the word shrimp in Cantonese sounds like ‘ha’ which is the sound of laughter. In Mandarin, it also sounds like the word ‘laugh’. So it symbolises happiness which is good to bear in mind for future use in my work.

– I was disappointed with how the shrimps turned out in oil. They seem clumsy compared to the ones in Chinese ink.

LEARNING

– Always start with understanding the anatomy and doing some sketches of them (in pencil or thin line paint) before going free style in Chinese painting.

NEXT STEPS

– Do the shrimp anatomy sketches in meticulously style before painting more shrimps!

MA U2: Cheongsam Series – Food as metaphor for cultural identity – Overall reflections for ‘banana’ and ‘egg’

| elizarawlings

This blog details my overall reflections for the Cheongsam Series – Food as metaphor for cultural identity. I made two paintings on this topic and they are captured in the two blogs below:

https://eliza-rawlings.com/2024/08/08/ma-y2-u2-cheongsam-series-food-as-metaphors-for-cultural-identity-youre-a-banana/

https://eliza-rawlings.com/2024/08/08/ma-u2-cheongsam-series-food-as-metaphors-for-cultural-identity-no-im-an-egg/

The finished paintings are intended to be displayed as a pair because they respond to each other.

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REFLECTIONS

It has taken me some time to write this blog as I am not sure where to start. My reflections on the making process, composition and technical learning are captured within the individual painting blogs. This blog is meant for reflecting more deeply on what making these paintings has meant for me. I shall capture my thoughts as they come into my mind as a form of free writing.

The dressmaking part:

– Throughout the making of the Cheongsam dresses, I thought a lot about watching my mother dressmaking when I was a child. The way she designed the clothes, for herself and for her children; measuring us, making her patterns on waxy paper, chalking the cloth aided by her special yellow wooden rulers and cutting the fabric with the long sharp scissors. Then sewing using her manual Singer sewing machine with a leather belt that turned the wheel as she pedalled. I remember having fitting sessions with part-finished garments and then she would do the final finishing off. Every button was chosen with care. It’s not until I made these canvas dresses for my paintings that I realised how very clever she was. Although dressmaking is not difficult, making it well requires talents and skills just like any craft. She made evening gowns, tailored jackets and trousers! Those are very difficult items!

– One could ask, so what? Many people made and still make clothes. What’s the big deal? I reflected much about her life while making my canvas dresses because the process of dressmaking is largely unchanged therefore I could clearly visualise my mother going through all the steps that I am now replicating decades later. My mother married at 17 years old and became a mother at 19. Hong Kong in the 1950s and 60s was a very patriarchal society and she as a Chinese woman was confined to her role – wife, mother, cook, cleaner, homemaker etc.. However, it is clear on reflection that she had ambitions that were not fulfilled by her role ‘assigned’ by society. There were few avenues for a woman of her time to express herself and she chose to do it through her dressmaking. She later went onto Chinese painting and became an accomplished artist with many students. Two weeks ago I was shown the various awards that she was given as an artist by cultural institutions in Hong Kong and China – I hope to explore more about her journey as a painter at a later stage.

– As my father’s career advanced in the Colonial Hong Kong Government, my mother would accompany him to official white-tie dinner balls (British style). She would always design and make her own evening dresses. She was the only woman who made her own dresses at those events. She always sought to be different and I believe in those days, her dress design and making was where she found a channel of expression as well as solace. It gave her an escape from the shackles of societal expectations of a traditional Chinese woman.

– I left home when I was a young teenager to boarding school in England and never lived with my parents since. Sadly they both passed before I really had the time or inclination to get to know them properly. So in a way I’m reflecting on her as a stranger with fragmented information from my patchy memory. Despite that, how did I end up picking up art in later life and in a strange way walking her path? I don’t think I have the answers yet but my own artistic journey has given me insight into what she was seeking as a person, as herself.

The painting part:

– It took me a while to decide what to paint. I like using metaphors in my work and when I stumbled across an image of Warhol’s banana, it gave me the idea to paint something in pop art theme as a contrast to the traditional Chinese dress canvas – I like making work that has an undertone of incongruity because that is afterall the metaphor for myself. Furthermore, a banana was the perfect subject as a cultural metaphor – yellow on the outside and white on the inside.

– I researched the use of the word ‘banana’ to describe a westernised East Asian person and I was delighted to find many insightful and humourous articles that resonated with me. The highlight was finding the film clip from the Hollywood movie Crazy Rich Asians talking about the protagonist being a banana – it was for me an endorsement of the phrase and bringing it into contemporary popular culture.

– As I got older and started to take time to look into my heritage, I felt that ‘banana’ alone was an insufficient metaphor for me. Growing up as a child in Hong Kong, a British influenced Chinese society, it was (and still is) so culturally rich that my core is deeply rooted in that heritage. Hence when I read an article about an egg with the yellow core as a cultural metaphor, I was hooked by the idea and felt it was a good response to the ‘banana’ metaphor.

– As I was painting both dresses, I was keen to adhere to the pop art theme painted on the Chinese dress canvas to capture the incongruity, or perhaps the fusion of the different cultures that I seek to represent in my work. At the end, I felt I have largely achieved what I intended despite much time spent on getting the right ‘green’ for the banana dress.

– The most poignant moment came when I was mixing and remixing to search for the correct shade of yellow and white colours to use for the eggs and bananas. I kept asking myself – ‘Is the white ‘white’ enough?’ or ‘Is the yellow too ‘yellow’?’ The constant search for the right shade of colour to use was a good metaphor for my attempt to fit in especially in my early years as a youngster in a new culture. Like many young people in a new environment, one was always working out how to behave, how to dress, how to do the makeup, what jewellery to wear etc. in order to fit in and be an insider. Or not to be treated as an outsider. It was a mutation process over time.

– The making of the two paintings here has turned out to be a better metaphor for my cultural transmutation journey than I ever expected.

LEARNING

I believe this blog concludes the ‘Cheongsam – food as metaphor’ series of work. I want to continue to make more Cheongsam paintings including looking for a more efficient way to make the dress canvas – it is time consuming but I want to continue with the idea so I need to find better ways of making the canvas.

I will continue to use the Cheongsam canvases to explore my identity which is a fundamental part of my practice. I feel using a Cheongsam canvas is a turning point in my practice, the idea came to me just as I was struggling to find a way forward to bring my ideas together. These two paintings are just the beginning of something, not sure exactly what yet, but I feel it’s a beginning.

Since much effort goes into making these canvases, I want to revisit the first Cheongsam painting that I made with the ‘Blue Willow pattern’ to see if I could make more of it so as not to waste the piece because I was not that satisfied with the outcome at the time.

NEXT STEPS

Revisit the Blue Willow pattern painting dress to give it more meaning.

Explore more efficient ways to make the Cheongsam dress canvas.

Make more work!

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

| elizarawlings

This is the second painting of the Cheongsam Series – Food as metaphor for cultural identity. The blog below is the introduction to the series with background information on my thoughts on this topic as well as some research.

MA Y2 U2: Cheongsam Series – Food as metaphors for cultural identity – Introduction

The blog below is for the painting that responds to this one, called ‘No, I’m an egg.’. I was meant to do the ‘banana’ painting first but due to shortage of green paint at the time, the second ‘egg’ painting was completed first.

MA Y2 U2: Cheongsam Series – Food as metaphors for cultural identity – ‘No, I’m an egg.’

METHOD

Since I am not an experienced dressmaker, I am rather slow in making the dress canvases. I constantly look for ways to be more efficient in the dressmaking process, so the canvas materials for this dress was cut at the same time as the ‘egg’ painting canvas by doubling up the calico material to save time.

Here is the completed dress canvas ready for the banana painting:

Different banana images were considered for the design. I wanted a ‘closed’ banana and a half peeled banana.

Clear gesso and fluorescent green acrylic paint were used to prime the canvas and for the background:

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Banana shapes were marked onto the canvas using white chalk to map out the overall composition before painting.

Then initial blocking out of the banana images were made:

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I was not satisfied with the Daler Rowney System 3 acrylic fluorescent green colour – it was too dark and dull, I wanted a neon-look. So I bought some brighter paint by Pebeo.

The Pebeo paint looked brighter which was better.

The Pebeo paint dried slightly darker but still brighter than the Daley Rowney System 3 paint.

Since the Daley Rowney System 3 acrylic paint is a student grade paint, the pigment density was not great. I had to paint three coats to get a good coverage. Then I changed to the Pebeo paint and a further two coats were added. In total, there was five coats of acrylic paint which made the canvas stiffer than the ‘egg’ dress. This made sewing on the ‘frogs’ (Chinese style fasteners) much harder. See below for the not-so-tidy sewing where I had to just push the needle through wherever I could due to the thick canvas by that stage.

Finished work – ‘You’re a banana!’. Acrylic on handmade Cheongsam dress canvas. L105 x W76 x D30cm.

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REFLECTIONS

The making of this painting did not go as well as the ‘egg’ painting because of the additional coats of green background colour required making the process more extensive than before. Nonetheless, I am satisfied with the outcome and the way the two dresses respond to each other. I will capture my reflections in full for both dresses in this blog:

MA U2: Cheongsam Series – Food as metaphor for cultural identity – Overall reflections for ‘banana’ and ‘egg’

LEARNING

There are several learning areas from this painting…

1. The Velcro ‘zip’

The learning from the ‘egg’ painting on the making of the Velcro ‘zip’ was very important and I am pleased that it worked out well for this painting.

Reminder of the problem on the ‘egg’ dress with the Velcro seam being visible from the front, not ideal aesthetically:

Taking the learning from the above has helped me to improve the Velcro seam for this painting:

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2. Paint materials

Much time was spent on the many (five) coats of paint required for the background green colour. This was frustrating at times, but it was good learning. I should do more research into the colour and materials before embarking on a large painting. I knew student-grade paint typically has less dense pigment load and I should have been more prepared with this knowledge. The pink background of the ‘egg’ painting was ‘abstract innovative acrylic’ by Sennelier. It was relatively inexpensive with higher pigment load than the Daley Rowney System 3 acrylic. I was very pleased with the Sennelier acrylic and will bear this in mind in future paint materials selection.

3. Time saving methods

Doubling up the calico materials and therefore cutting two dresses together saved time. I will continue to look out for ways to be more efficient in making the dress canvas. I want to continue to make the dress canvases going forward because I enjoy the making process and it is good opportunity to think. However, I don’t want to spend excessive time on that part of the process because I knew I would become impatient and would want to get on with the painting.

4. More research up front

I could spend more time up front to test out materials, colour and composition (e.g. in my sketchbook) before proceeding onto the canvas. I think this will be useful and become more necessary going forward as I expect the next series of paintings to be more complex, both in idea and composition.

NEXT STEPS

After making these two paintings, it is a good point to pause and reflect properly on this series of work. I will capture my overall reflections in a separate blog. After that, I will go onto make more Cheongsam paintings because I am still excited and enthusiastic about this method of art making. I hope to crystalise my thoughts about the topic for the next painting while reflecting on this series.

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

| elizarawlings

After accidentally finding my late mother’s silk Cheongsam (traditional Chinese dress) in my loft, I have been exploring making my own 3D canvas in the shape of the iconic Cheongsam for painting. My reason for wanting to make such a canvas is captured in this blog:

MA Y1 U2: Cheongsam Series #2 – study drawing

Below are two blogs on the first experimental 3D canvas painting that I made as a start to the Cheongsam series of work. I have gained much invaluable learning through making this first dress because I am completely new to dressmaking:

MA Y1 U2: Cheongsam Series #3 – wearable painting

MA Y1 U2: Cheongsam Series #4 – Appropriation. Appropriation.

Then I started to think of subjects for my next paintings. I thought of doing something about my identity which is a foundation topic of my art practice. I explored using food as metaphors for cultural identity and started with a digital sketch of pop art ‘banana’ theme. The blog below explains what ‘banana’ means in this context with more background information:

MA Y1 U2: Cheongsam Series #5 – She’s a banana! – Part A

Then I decided to capture more about my thoughts on the subject with additional research findings. Hence I created a blog as an introduction to the Cheongsam Series – Food as cultural identity metaphors. This blog includes an extract from the film ‘Crazy Rich Asians’ where the meaning of ‘banana’ was explained as ‘yellow on the outside, white on the inside’ – a metaphor for a ‘Westernised’ East Asian person.

MA Y1 U2: Cheongsam Series – Food as metaphors for cultural identity – Introduction

Within the above introduction, I also talked about my personal response to ‘You’re a banana!’… my response would be ‘No, I am an egg.’ The two food metaphors were chosen as subjects of this Cheongsam series.

I wanted to make the ‘banana’ painting first, but I found that I didn’t have enough paint in stock for the chosen green background colour that I wanted to use. So while I ordered more green paint, I proceeded to create the ‘egg’ dress first.

METHOD

I made the canvas Cheongsam dress using the same dressmaking pattern that I had used before. Like the last dress I made, the material used here was also calico.

Learning from the first dress that I made, the pattern was a very loose fitting dress therefore darts are definitely required on the front and back of the dress:

The first dress that I made was hand sewn because my old sewing machine gave up on me. I bought a new sewing machine for this dress and I chose a heavy duty one since I was planning to sew thicker canvas materials going forward.

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Below is the completed dress canvas in calico:

I chose to use fluorescent or neon colours with a pop art theme for this Cheongsam series because I wanted them to be fun. These food metaphors are often used in a light-hearted way from one East Asian person to another, hence I don’t want these paintings to be too serious. I decided to use fluorescent pink for the background for the ‘egg’ dress as a response to the fluorescent green that I had planned for the ‘banana’ dress. Pink was meant to be a fun response and I felt it would help the eggs to stand out in the design. The medium below was used to prime the canvas:

Below are the front and back of the pink dress canvas:

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A variety of egg images were considered for the design:

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The shortlisted eggs were marked onto the pink canvas with white chalk prior to painting:

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Below are images of the finished painting:

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The painting is wearable:

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Finish work: ‘No, I’m an egg.’ Acrylic on handmade Cheongsam dress canvas. L105 x W76 x D30cm.

REFLECTIONS

I am pleased with the outcome of this painting. I feel the colours and composition worked out well with the eggs. I am also pleased that the canvas is wearable. Although I had not intended for it to be a piece of garment, being wearable will give more options of how to present such a piece of work. I enjoyed the making process, too. I will capture my full reflections for both the egg and banana dresses together at the end of the series in this blog:

MA U2: Cheongsam Series – Food as metaphor for cultural identity – Overall reflections for ‘banana’ and ‘egg’

LEARNING

Since dressmaking is so new to me, there were lots of good learning from a technical making perspective:

For this design, making the darts from the start (before painting) worked better so should bear this in mind. Get the dress to fit (if intending to wear) as well as possible before painting is key. Once the paint is applied, the sewing becomes harder and manipulating the canvas would risk creasing the paint.

The most important learning was the fitting of the ‘zip’. Instead of using a conventional zip, I used a strip of Velcro because that was easier. Since these dresses are not really garments for everyday wearing, I believe Velcro is sufficient and a good alternative. However, I learnt from this dress that how the Velcro is placed can make a big difference aesthetically. The two Velcro pieces have to be placed on the interfacing of the opening in a way that minimises its visibility from the front view. I hadn’t appreciated this because I accidentally did it correctly in the previous ‘blue willow’ dress, but I did it incorrectly here.

Incorrect way meaning the Velcro is visible from the front:

Correct way below – the Velcro is not visible from the front. I must remember that the edge of the seam for the zip-opening on the back piece should be left free, i.e. ‘not sewn down’; whereas the corresponding edge for the front panel should be sewn down so that the Velcro seam is rear facing when in place.

NEXT STEPS

Make the banana dress!