Sundial Garden

Sundial Garden

The Dilapidated House

The Dilapidated House

Monday, July 18, 2011

sin X Carl Andre




Like Eva Hesse, Carl Andre uses the language of repetition.

My drawings of walls were inspired by Tapies's works. These walls reveal the beauty in "poor objects" and weathered surfaces, and they are about the passage of time.

I was also exploring the visual language of repetition within each drawing -- the bricks of a wall, the wooden boards of an old house, the patterns on a sewage cover etc.

One of Christopher Alexander's fifteen fundamental properties is alternating repetition. Personally, I think banal repetition without alternation can be interesting too.

When I did my drawings, I was looking at art of the sixties such as works by Carl Andre, Eva Hesse, Tapies, and a few others. I chose my subject matter carefully -- it must have a certain appearance or aesthetic to it. The similarities between my works and art of the sixties have not occurred by chance.

sin X Joseph Beuys




I could not find the beautiful drawings of the stag skeletons online. I am not sure what Beuys had intended his drawings to express; my drawing is about mortality and the impermanence of life.

Sunday, July 17, 2011

sin X Eva Hesse





The truth is, I know nothing about Eva Hesse's works. I only know she uses the language of repetition. The above is a comparison of my drawing Sewage Cover with her work Schema (1967-8) and an untitled drawing (1967).

When I was working on the drawings of the walls and sewage covers, I was also looking at quite a bit of Minimalist Art and Conceptual Art. I guess that is why I can see Eva Hesse's influence in my own work.

Monday, July 11, 2011

Thursday, July 7, 2011

Notes July 2011

1.
Question: What is so Japanese about the circle?
Answer: Zen.

2.
I drew my headless Buddha before I saw the photo of the headless Christ by a Japanese photographer.

3.
Seeing is everything.
The truth is, my drawings do not heal.
My drawings are about seeing.

4.
I imagine myself falling in love with a beautiful lady, and she says to me, "You are dull, just like your drawings." (I took this line from Toni Takitani, the film based on Haruki Murakami's short story of the same title.)