Unit 3 Critical Reflection
In my academic year at Camberwell College of Art, I have explored how everyday objects are perceived and How do I relate to painting as an object? Here are the questions I asked in the first two Units of the year.
1. For me, how are objects in our everyday life perceived?
2. What is the narrative of things?
3. How to explore the visual experience of space through paintings?
4. Painting is an object with subjectivity in itself.
Even though these questions remain unanswered and are challenging to answer, I have always guided my work practice around them. Over the course of the Unit, I have developed a more nuanced understanding of these concerns while making a turn in my painting practice.
My role in Unit 1 is to serve as an observer in front of the object. In Unit 2, I attempted to reflect on my identity by depicting the object. As a result of Unite 3, I am more appreciative of how the practice works. Painting becomes both the object shaped by the painter and a participant in moulding the painter's acts during the creative process. I create the painting, and the painting as an object concurrently creates me; this is a dynamic interlocking process. In this process, the boundaries between subject and object are becoming blurred, and this blurring can be expanded and explored precisely in painting.
My painting is a visual representation of the tension between my interlocking relationship with the canvas; it does not exist in a vacuum. It becomes a relativised object that constantly shifts along with the actor's perspective. The painting provides a place for me to interact with the surrounding objects and the painting itself.
Nevertheless, the previous version of me remains and becomes my way of intervening in life. I continuously seek episodic events that give me a sense of detachment from them. These events include subtle disruptions, reorganisations and reconstructions of the order of daily life, presenting an absurdity and heterogeneity that deviates from reality. By manipulating, reorganising, reconstructing, fusing, and altering commonplace objects, I actively generate events in my head that give me a sense of heterogeneity. This method has become a daily intra-cognitive practice and a conduit for generating imagery in my paintings.
Occasionally, I attempt to construct a model of my images directly from readily available materials, but after a few attempts, the model disintegrates. Interacting with an object, I obtain a perception of it, and these perceptions (touch, weight, colour) create the raw material that fuels my desire to paint. Consequently, the models I construct using ready-made things can serve as the primary image in paintings, and the paintings themselves can serve as blueprints for the installation. In this process, the object and I are connected through painting organically. While I am working, I am surrounded by stuff that distracts me. I unintentionally graft the current state onto something else and conflate the concepts of painting, installation, and sculpture. Consequently, I produce a great deal of work between the mediums. It also addresses how I translate my awareness of painting into the creation of an installation.
I want a specific image in my paintings that the viewer can recognise. This image may be incomplete, yet it is sufficient to evoke the viewer's imagination about things not in front of them.
a. Background: The returns of the object
"I'm sitting at my computer and there's no landscape around me. It's all those objects that surround me. The space is full of these things, old belongings, and I look at the curlers next to each other, and the soft spikes on them give me a sense of strangeness, how can there be such odd things? I recalled that this room was a huge object and I was inside it, squeezed and deformed" (2022.7.20)
Objects define us.
'The world of objects, however 'ordinary', is a trove of disguises, concealments, subterfuges, provocations and triggers that no singular, embodied and knowledgeable subject can exhaust.' ( Antony Hudek, 2014, p14)
In this age. Objects are no longer recognisable, perceivable, consumable objects as we know them. Objects can have no entity, images can be objects, language can be objects, and people can be objectified. "By releasing the energy stored in them, things become co-workers, potentially friends, even lovers." (Hito Steyerl, 2011) Kira Freije, this Unit's lector, has made a non-figurative installation assembled from everyday objects, which she called a portrait of her dog'. The artwork is a prime example of the object's capacity to evade the knowledge gap. Artists can elucidate the multi-facetedeness of objects and things in general.
Kira Freije, in the way of the wind, 2022, Stainless steel, sea weathered bottle, sun bleached silk, tapestry fragment, 30 x 22 x 45 cm
But in the earliest times, human beings did not perceive objects in the same way as they do now. The idea that objects are the measure of objectivity is clearly expressed in Aquinas's argument, for example, that truth can be verified by the consistency of things with reason. The greater the consistency between the two, the closer the subject's thinking is to the truth. Objects that are not perceived or that are considered to be impossible, virtual, or imaginary are distant from reality and are therefore untrue. This view laid the foundation for an object-object-centred epistemology throughout the ancient philosophical period.
According to art history, it is the period of human imitation and reproduction of nature. Early still life painting is the visual embodiment of the process of man's (the subject's) constant correction of his conceptual perception of the object. Man is constantly studying, volumetric light and shadow, and trying to summarise the rationale.
But sometimes this can lead to confusion. Take for example the painters Zeuxis and Paracius. The curtains of Parasius deceive the eyes of Zeus. By painting as an 'object', Palatius is trying to make people think that the curtains are real. At this point, then, he is painting more than a phenomenon that nature presents directly to man. He has the intention to create the object, to actively construct it by painting. The subject, the viewer, unconsciously specifies the painting as the curtain. The traditional philosophical perspective of the subject surrounding the object is inverted. 'It exposes the subject's unconscious gaze to the light' For Lacan, Pararhasiu's theatrical device proved not a mastery of technical means (a trap for the gaze) but rather a successful Trompe-l'œil, an eye-trick, which brought the subject's unconscious gaze to light. (Antony Hudek, 2014, p14)
Kant's Copernican revolution changed the position of subject and object. In the discussions of metaphysics in the past, philosophers invariably saw the object of knowledge as an unchanging object. They argued that the subject's knowledge (concept) must conform to the object. Kant maintains, however, that what we know intrinsically about an item is nothing more than what we put into it ourselves.
Human reason necessitates that we gain knowledge of objects by experience, but this does not imply that the conceptions we derive from experience must conform to the objects themselves. In contrast, according to reason, all experience objects must be known in accordance with our innate notions and must be consistent with these concepts. The idea is seen in the work of Kossuth regarding the One and Three Chairs. The dictionary definition of a chair (an object constructed by humans) is derived from the basic nature of a chair. However, the dictionary definition of a chair does not necessarily correspond to the chair in the picture next to it; it can refer to any chair. Kant's theory emphasises the individual's consciousness while creating a distance from the object.
Within the 20th century. Edmund Husserl argued that humans could only perceive objects through phenomena. And Heidegger was grappling with something like an autonomous thing in itself. In Lacan, things are getting closer and closer to what the subject cannot perceive and further from the perceptual mastery of the subject. 'We have now entered, with speculative realism (or 'speculative materialism' for Meillassoux), a world where the object, whether thing, tool, thought, phenomenon or living creature, has regained its rights, freed from the subject's determining mind, body and gaze.'(Antony Hudek, 2014, p14)
Graham Harman released a paper in 2019 that was based on Heidegger's idea. 'Object-oriented Ontology' suggests no ontological distinction in the form of subject-object; instead, there is an equivalent object-to-object relationship. The dichotomy between subject and object disappears, leaving behind a form of contact between two participants. The "quasi-object" is articulated in M. Serres's Métaphysique Souche, the Quasi-Object. M. Serres compares this 'quasi-object' to a football in a game, a medium that both influences and is influenced by the participant's behaviour in the relations between the two sides of the game.
Quasi-Object reminds me of my painting practice. Whenever I leave a mark on the canvas, the painting gives me feedback. The feedback process is more like the painting holding me in check. I receive this feedback and proceeded to the next step. Therefore, my painting process deviates frequently in the absence of a sketch. From my point of view, This is the portion of the process where I interact with the painting outside of my subjective solid control.
Does the painting have the possibility to become the 'Quasi Object' as M. Serres suggests？ Painting is both a medium and an objective object. In the process of painting, the painting itself acts as a medium. The Painter corresponds to another participant (the other side of the football game stated above); possibly, this participant is already present on the canvas as a trace, mark or moment. All acts of painting are contained within this interlocking relational tension. The painting thus becomes a visual representation of this dynamic relationship. Compared to sculpture, installation, and video works, the painting depicts this dynamic process the quickest, most directly and most visually.
In conjunction with my reference to the liveliness of painting in Unit 2, the passage of Isabelle Graw, 'Since painting can produce the sensation that it has captured living labour, this could explain its current popularity in our new economy ....... I believe that painting is particularly well positioned in such an economy since it gives the impression of being saturated with the life of its author' ( Isabelle Graw ,2015, P3). That's why painting still exists in an era where many contemporary art forms are prevalent.
b. The use of words and illusions in paintings to emphasise the objectivity of the painting.
Words or word fragments are occasionally concealed within my artworks. In Paper House and Exile, for instance, I add fragments of brushstrokes to the picture unconsciously. Or, I give the appearance of a texture that could be confused with another substance. This method prompted me to consider the function of words and illusions, which play an increasingly important part in contemporary painting.
In ancient China, painters would mention poetry in their paintings, but the purpose was to enhance the image's visual effect on an aesthetic level. There is also much text in contemporary painting, yet it does not improve the impact. Instead, they are intended to rob the image in the picture of its presence. By interfering with the painting, the text causes the image to be impacted, thus highlighting the objective quality of the painting.
Exile (detail)
木石图
苏轼
The words carry a meaning that, for the viewer, can point directly to new imagery. With this association, the viewer can withdraw from the picture and enter an imagined world. There is a paradoxical tension between the imagined and actual images, which enhances the painting's presence. Similarly to Luc Godard's films, he constantly reminds you that you are watching a movie. Besides, the sharp edges of the text tend to break the original harmony of the image.
The Red Dust (New Joy and Sorrow)
2022
Oil on canvas, acrylic, collage on paper, watercolour, transparent watercolour, paintbrush, stamps, gold leaf, screen print, glitter
200 x 300cm
Pu Yiwei's paintings contain numerous pop motifs. In his work, words and images are overlaid. This overlapping of symbols with a clear purpose, the self-created words that viewers cannot read quickly, are the aspects of his work that command attention.
Most graphics in contemporary media communication serve a purpose nowadays, such as advertisements, news, and games. Many pop-ups and captions are floating at the top of the screen. We are used to being guided by language, and words are already subconsciously present in the visuals we perceive. Painting, however, is typically viewed as a realm of purity in most people's minds. It is pure, unsullied. When a painter incorporates words into a painting, especially ones with powerful propaganda, the observer is actively provoked.
Moreover, digging holes in the painting can have the same effect as applying words. Fontana once scratched the canvas, but he did not kill the painting. Rather, he brought the painting back to life. In Vivien Zhang's work, she plays an obvious trick on the viewer's vision by simulating the paper's hollowness and texture. In this process of deception, she breaks the viewer's habitual way of looking at the image. The artist plays a visual game with the audience.
Studio
Zhang Yuewei, Grid Method, 2021, acrylic, oil and pigment spray on canvas, 61.0 x 55.9 cm
Such illusions give the viewer a sense of uncanny that is contrary to their everyday experiences. The work of David Musgrave, lector in this unit, has a similar intention. His work always features a texture distinct from the material itself. Such a pictorial practice negates the one-to-one correspondence of Panofsky's iconography with the image's content. Panofsky's iconography divides the work into three levels, providing the viewer with a clear path to explore the art objects. However, based on this approach, viewers consume images at an ever-increasing rate, undermining such a singular form of consuming and viewing.
The artists mentioned above create images not to tell a story but to make paintings visible. They developed the idea with the intent to kill, break, and destroy it. This aims to raise viewers' awareness about how unreal the image is; only the painting is the actual object. So Destroying an image instead of trying to recreate it is a way of evoking the existence of painting. Gremlin In The Studio is a painting by Martin Johnson Heade in which the artist has drawn a firm line on purpose at the bottom of the canvas. At the top of the line is a conventional landscape painting with a detailed and nuanced depiction of the subject. Below the line is the easel in the artist's studio. The viewer sees a picture within a painting, which is a Trompe-l'œil. Additionally, Martin appears to emphasize the objectivity of the painting within the frame by destroying the normal landscape painting.
David Musgrave
Embryo,2015
Gremlin In The Studio is a painting
by Martin Johnson Heade
c. The repetitive movements of the artist in the painting process as a means of enhancing the objectivity of the painting.
In my Unit 2 reflection, I discussed the technique of continually sketching outlines to create a richer figure. I have continued to employ this method in my work for Unit3. The method applied to the background of Exile 2, to the small strokes in The Homeless Intimacy, and in the drawing of the edges of the giant building in Babel. Particularly in Babel, I tried to draw each keyboard exactly the same, but I was unable to. However, I appreciated the recurrence of a process that appeared to diverge but was bringing me closer. The repetition can be explained by the fact that as I become more experienced with the approach, my engagement with the drawing becomes increasingly preset. Repetition provides me with a sense of security and command. This is a break from the traditional state of painting, where leaving traces on the canvas is considered a movement full of agency. Through this differential repetition, I am objectified, and the subjectivity of painting is heightened. My engagement with the picture evolves into a dialogue with the performer.
Exile 2(detail)
Babel(detail)
Besides, the presence of the painting itself can also be emphasised by the use of different painting techniques within one scene. In my pieces The Homeless Intimacy, You Earn It, Babel, and Exile2, I use brushstrokes to traverse the 2D and 3D visions. Brushstrokes frequently traverse the 2D and 3D visions. I see this as a method to enhance the physicality and objectivity of painting.
You Earn It (detail)
The Homeless Intimacy(detail)
I went to Cezanne's exhibition at Tate Modern. His work also contains numerous repeated contour lines. These contour lines appear disorganised and haphazard. He gradually rounded off the shape of things by repeating them repeatedly. 'Cézanne did not impose an innate framework on the phenomenon through a 'mechanical process, but rather an 'interpretation of the phenomenon, extracted gradually from the object through a long period of silent observation.' (Roger Fry, 1927, p89). Cezanne performs a kind of tactile painting.
Cezanne
Still life with Water Jug
1892-3
Tate
Unlike Cézanne's repetition, in Vivien Zhang's work, there are also repetitive high-resolution images. She believes that the repetition of drawing small three-centimetre grids releases her from the satisfaction of recurrence, the discomfort of controlling the psyche, and the pain of stagnation. These images stand in contrast with other natural and random brushstrokes. Over time, the drawing of the grid becomes an unconscious labour, and the colours and directions become conditioned. The mind is then freed from intense concentration.
The recurrence is not only reflected in the repetition of an object. But also evident throughout the painting process, where destruction and construction alternate. There is no definitive final state. In the painting The Coin Machine, there is no preconceived image in my mind and the process is full of uncertainty. The painting remains unfinished. After repeated smearing and coating, the "ideal" result becomes irrelevant. The process of shattering, tearing, digging and colleging the images I produce is more important. These show the tangled process between the artist's subject and the subject of the painting, thus enhancing the viewer's sense of the painting's multiple meanings.
The Coin Machine (detail)
Tate The Holy Shoes(detail)
From this perspective， the final piece in Unit 3, Babel, does not meet my expectations. This painting is an unfinished piece for some reason. First, this is the biggest painting I have ever made. I put myself in uncertainty at the beginning. So I felt lost when I completed the image with all the colours filled in. Due to the absence of the process of building an intimate relationship with the canvas, there was a lack of dynamic repetition. I traditionally painted the background landscape but did not consider the textures; for example, no one can tell what the ground's materiality is. Secondly, the composition of the painting is stable, solid and imposing, which goes against my idea of breaking the complete composition and creating an open narrative space by partially scaling the painting, as proposed in Unit 2. But it also suggests a fresh direction for my next work.
Babel (detail)
Babel (detail)
On the other hand, this piece is still experimental, as shown by the small magnetically connected frame in the canvas centre. This transforms the painting into a living organism. In addition to this, I realised that the reason why I painted the complete image was to allow accidents happened. For example the figure from the sky, I leave a blank hole on the canvas to push the sense of conflict between the images, thereby creating new relationships.
d. Naming my work
I usually take my time naming my work; for me, names need to grow. It takes me a long time to think about it before I name it. And the name is essential for the work. It's like a flare that gives viewers hints and allows them to enter the painting with imagination. It also allows the author to interact with the audience.
The name is often very oriented towards the work and can regulate the distance between the work and the viewer. The name of the work can be intuitive, imaginative, a pun, an allusion, an intentional barrier for the viewer or an index.
Many of the titles of my works are poetic. I perceive a poem as the umbilical cord between language and the world. It is like the shreds of heated cheese cut and pulled. These shreds are incomplete and finely chopped. But it allows you to see and smell the cheese. At the same time, poetry reading is an evocative process. We know the word 'pain' and think of the pain in our own life experience, which varies from person to person. Words in poems describe the indescribable accurately. This is how the poem touched our hearts. Therefore, the unfulfilled is the most potent. Because the empty holds the possibility of being filled.
Similar to the difference between a picture and an image, there is a distance between language and our thoughts. It is possible to regurgitate constantly towards ourselves inwardly.
e. Future Plan
Throughout my practice, I've discovered that the outcome seems less significant. The relationship between the artist as a person, and the medium, to be maximised and released, is more important to me. This subject-subject relationship unleashes the intertextuality that appeals to me more. The ability to release this relationship is the expertise of the artist today.This quality also explains why painting still has value as a model for visually illustrating the process of releasing the relationship directly in today's multi-media, multi-material context.
In my future practice and research, I will continue diving into this topic as an entry point for my practice that lies between painting and other media. I plan to look into theories such as commodity fetishism, new materialism theory, and theatre theory and use the object's narrative as a thread to identify multiple ways of returning to the object.
Reference
1.Antony Hudel, 2014. The Object： Induction. London: Whitechapel Gallery.
2.Hito Steyerl, 2012. The Object. A Thing Like You and Me, p. 45-51.
3.きょうひ, 2018. Post-post-modern thought: discursive materialism - the ontological turn from anthropology. [Online]
Available at: https://lorenzomodica.eu/
4. Houyi Zhou, 2022. Anti-"corporeal formula" --Deleuze on the reconstruction of "sensation" in Cézanne's painting. The Contemporary Artist(5)
5. Roger Fry, The Painting Style of Cézanne and its Development, translated by Shen Yubing, Guilin: Guangxi Normal University Press, 2009, p. 89.
6 . Isabelle Graw, 2015. The Value of Liveliness: Painting as an Index of Agency in the New Economy. [Online]Available at: https://static1.squarespace.com/static/574dd51d62cd942085f12091/t/5f67c706d45f307089bbdb46/1600636679256/Isabelle+Graw_The+value+of+liveliness_painting+as+an+index+of+agency+in+the+new+economy.pdf
Image Recourse
1.2022. Kira Freije at The Approach. [Online]
Available at: https://artviewer.org/kira-freije-at-the-approach/
2. Dan Scott, 2022. A Closer Look at Basket of Fruit by Michelangelo Caravaggio. [Online]
Available at: https://drawpaintacademy.com/basket-of-fruit/
3. Wikimedia, 2022. File: Raphaelle Peale − Venus Rising From the Sea - A Deception.jpg[Online] https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Raphaelle_Peale_%E2%88%92_Venus_Rising_From_the_Sea_-_A_Deception.jpg
4., 2015. Daily Art Fair: David Musgrave. [Online]
Available at: https://dailyartfair.com/exhibition/3768/david-musgrave-marc-foxx-closed-the_Sea_-_A_Deception.jpg