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The title for this exhibition, Let There be Light, was inspired by the Book of Genesis. “Let There Be Light” was first words God uttered in his creation of the world. After light and darkness were separated, each element of the universe was spoken into being. This body of work comprise two components. Seed and Bloom was a multi-media, sculpture installation. Weeds, a blueprint series. Together, they illustrate the grandeur and the intricacy of the created things. From these seemingly mundane and insignificant matters come my meditation on the unfathomable, glorious, gentle, and powerful act of creation. 

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Weeds

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This series was inspired by the daily walk from my St. Ann's dorm to the School of Art and Design at Nottingham Trent University. On my way back and forth these two places, I appreciated the forms and lines of roadside wild weeds. The finish blueprints comment on weeds as an overlooked and essential part of the ecosystem.

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Blueprints, or cyanotypes, require several steps. I first coated blank sheets of paper with a chemical wash in the dark room. After the wash dried, I carried the coated pieces of paper in a black portfolio to various sites. I collected different plants, and positioned them the the paper that I laid on the ground. As an experiment, I exposed them to sunlight at different times of the day, and for variable durations. Working outdoors, in nature, and in situ was intentional and important.

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Back in the dark room, I spray-washed away excess chemical coating on the pieces. The areas where the plants had touched were revealed. The image is set by allowing the paper to dry. The degree of lightness or darkness of the blue background varied according to time and sunlight. For example, the exposure time, the time of the day, and strength of sunlight.

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Inside the gallery, I used clothing pins to attach the print blues to the wall. This minimalist approach allowed the viewers’ direct interaction with the images. The frameless display showcased the materiality of paper. The lightness, the thinness, and the fragility of the paper echoed the ephemerality of grass and time’s fleeting. In turn, cyanotype captured this temporality in a permanent image. The variance in shades and shadows on the flattened surface illustrate the three-dimensionality of the objects that once rested there. These still images marked the movement of the Sun and the passage of time.

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This mixed- and multi-media sculpture installation combined my interests in three-dimensional works, film, and sound. The process started with the sculptural elements. I poured melted microcrystalline wax onto the convex of a half dome-shaped mold. The wax, once cooled, resulted in a thin and translucent film. I then used an exacto knife cut out various-sized shapes inspired by the dandelion plant.  In order form a three-dimensional sculpture, I melded the pieces by inserting a hot butter knife treated with a heating gun.

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The Seed . Bloom project enabled me to experiment with moving image and sound editing. The result, a sculpture installation that comprised film projection onto sculpture and an ambiance sound track. Each sculpture had its designated film clip. Seed contained dandelion flowers wavering in the wind, and Bloom reflected grasses dancing to the wind.

I enjoyed merging new technology with the traditional, tactile methods. 

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At the exhibition, viewers entered the installation space through a veiled portal, as seen in the last blueprint photograph above. With transparent fishing wire, I suspended the sculptures to hover just above the floor. As a result, the seed and the bloom seemed to be floating upon first glance. 

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A visitor, a young lady, came up to me and said that she sat and rested in that meditative space. The meditations of my musings on nature and during art-making did translate through material, sound waves, and light.

 

 

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Left: Bloom in the dark, with video moving image projection.

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Left: A detail of bloom showing the layers of microcrysmtalline wax.