Line of enquiry
How can natural materials be used to interpret the fragility and fading of life in a way that inspires empathy for nature?
The audience
People do not care about nature (or it is open to everyone)
Specific plans for engaging with them
1. Engage in dialogue with the audience through the publication Beautiful Regrets and the imagery crafted from natural materials.
In Beautiful Regrets, exploration with raw natural materials delves into the fragility and transience of life, aiming to evoke empathy for nature among the public and raise awareness of the beauty and vulnerability of ecosystems.
During my journey to Iceland, I unexpectedly encountered shimmering ice blocks on the beach, magnificent glaciers, and fleeting auroras resembling miracles. The coexistence of these natural landscapes’ presence and disappearance left me with a profound sense of beauty and regret.
As a result, in Beautiful Regrets, I gradually collected various natural mediums such as leaves, flowers, and branches, using their rawness to create images. Through the lens and information visualisation, I documented the process of these natural materials from blooming to withering. Over time, I captured the subtle changes they underwent, including colour, texture, and material characteristics.
Through the changes in these natural materials, we can see the fragility and impermanence of life, as well as the endless beauty and sorrow contained within nature. This profound experience prompted me to reflect on the relationship between humans and nature, and our impact on ecosystems.
2. Through natural material installations, harnessing the power of time, allow the audience to personally experience the fragility of life.
12.02 Feedback & References
The work shows more about natural cycles of growth and death. ( Thinking about decomposition of organic matter in nature that produces nutrients for new plant growth, or the life cycle of a plant being eaten by an animal.)
The work demonstrates that change and cycles of decay and rebirth in life can be explored through natural materials.
I made random observations from small parts to large parts of the ecosystem, and the small parts play a huge role in the ecosystem.
I may be working on different publications that could be divided into a series to tell their respective stories, e.g. one where natural materials are shown to grow over time, one where natural materials are shown to decay over time, one where natural materials (glaciers, aurora borealis) change over a short period of time, etc.
There are other ways I can explore new materials and the forms things take over time, and it can also be through growth not than just decay. (The leaves I collect are already dry so they don’t change as quickly).
There‘s a bit too much texture I created underneath the image, and I need to think about visual focus, more in terms of the texture and marks on the paper.
Susanna Anker’s 2019 work Afterlife of the Particles conjugates specimens from the natural world and items from the industrialized domain, in which an in vitro cityscape embraces a myriad of objects, orchestrating an assemblage of air-dried foods, traditional Chinese medicinal herbs, medical pills, rubber bands, pastel crayons, screws, metal clips and numerous other live or immobile objects encased in petri-dishes as if a laboratory re-engineering may forge a new meaning of symbiosis for the organic and the artifact.
Migrant Journal is a six-part exploration of migration in all its forms. Indeed, it covers the very current and pressing political and socio-cultural implications of the migration of people fleeing from persecution, seeking better economic opportunities or under pressure from shifting environmental conditions, yet it also touches upon the more abstract movement of objects and ideas around the globe. Migrant Journal, in its breadth but continuity of theme, intends to reclaim the word migration, to make a break from the prejudices and clichés of migrants and migration.