Recap
In the first week of studio practice, I remained passionate about exploring the relationship between humans and nature. I chose to capture moments from life, narrating them through romantic-style illustrations to express my love for nature. However, I realized that despite my personal passionate for these narratives, they lacked resonance with the audience.
In the second week of studio practice, I decided to change my research direction, starting to incorporate natural materials into my illustrations, aiming to explore the potential connections between them. However, the results resembled more deliberate artistic effects rather than what I desired.
Therefore, in the third and fourth weeks of studio practice, I abandoned paints, brushes, and tools, opting instead to use natural materials as the medium for creating images, preserving their inherent randomness. As time passed, I witnessed the subtle changes in these natural materials, representing a natural path from birth to death. This process also led me to identify the focal point of my interest, namely the fragility of life.
Through the lens of time, I documented the process of decay of the collected natural materials in my work. Contrasting them with rare natural landscapes I had seen with my own eyes, I deeply felt the coexistence of beauty and regret. So I organized these contents into a publication to catalogue and disseminate.
Line of Enquiry
Week 1: How to utilize illustration as a storytelling device to subvert and translate the idea of compassion for nature?
Week 2: How can the narrative of nature painting be used to interpret the interconnections between nature and humans in a way that evokes empathy for nature?
Week 3 & 4: How can natural materials be used to interpret the fragility and fading of life in a way that inspires empathy for nature?
Week 5 & 6: How can natural materials be used to interpret the cycle of decay and renewal in life, thereby inspiring empathy towards nature?
Further iterations
The Wheel of Nature explores the decay and growth of natural life through the chapters Decay and Renewal, reflecting on the significance of life, time, and change. This experiment aims to evoke empathy towards nature and enhance awareness of the beauty and fragility of ecosystems.
In the Decay chapter, through the lens of time, I document the substantial transformation of common natural materials from life to death. Witnessing this microscopic process of decay firsthand, I deeply realize that it is not merely a simple deterioration but a unique transformation bestowed by life. Decay is an indispensable part of nature, symbolizing not only an end but also the beginning of the cycle of all things.
In the Renewal chapter, through the lens of imagery, I capture rare natural landscapes encountered serendipitously during my journeys. These stunning and unique natural marvels showcase the boundless creativity and vitality of nature. Each image is a work of art, depicting the magnificent variations of nature in different regions and seasons. Renewal represents the continuation of life and the rebirth of hope, embodying the constant evolution and adaptation of nature.
19.02 Feedback
- Experiment with more creative ways of designing publications, e.g. typography, fonts, grid systems, paper materials/thickness/transparency, etc.
- Give publications a more comfortable cover-to-cover organising principle, make more connections between content and think about how to create a narrative in a book or series of books?
- Categorise publications into outputs over time, e.g. half a month/a week/a day/ten minutes, with time changing from page to page, treating page numbers as time, e.g. each page represents a week/a day/minute…!!!!!!
- Spend time in the library or bookstore looking at books and thinking about how images can be used to create this slow unfolding narrative, how images are arranged, what it means to have a small image versus a large image versus multiple images on a page.
- Publications can be developed to the size of the natural material itself, e.g. leaves are larger than tomatoes are larger than ice cubes.
- The work explores time scales.