I was looking for some photos, now I don't even remember which one I was looking for. Because while browsing through folders and folders of images, I came across those who I have left abandoned for quite a long time.
Yesterday when we were talking about time and how we memorize our near-past, I told them I think about a period of time based on two things: people and projects. Who I had met, who I had parted, who had influenced me... Projects I've done, projects that is half-way, things that need editing but I never get time to do that...
All these images were taken from around August 2011 to present. Each has got a story to tell, which I will try to write it down. Soon again, they will fall back into a thousands hundreds photos I've stored
in a mess
in a swarm,
which would take me forever to open the chest again.
1. Colors in da house
So I was finding interesting, strange-looking stuff for my Image assignment. I was running in and out, digging here and there and it didn't take me long to realize, there were so so many color paints in my house ( the result of having 5 people who were/are in art school) so I left the brief, took everything colorful I would find, together with Nguyen we arranged them and ...here comes.
Isn't it lovely to live in such a colorful world? Me and Khuyen never have our hands 'clean' in da house. There's always sth that has to do with colors: refill the ink cartridges, sketch with ink-pen, experiment with wax and watercolor, pastel and texture paste... We are so greatful, for we are able to play like a child, this time without a fussy mom to stop us.
2. 16min challenge.
I have a cousin who I really like. One time he showed me one of his project that involves drawing in 1min per piece. I saw the video and said the lines were too clumsy, even for 1min. So he 'challenged' me to do the same to see how it really worked.
Yes, I admit, my drawings are no better than what the artist had done in that project. A minute is really too short to polish anything. But I am proud to say that, I didn't think before drawing those, I just grabbed my pen and move my hands as swiftly as possible. But the result, personally speaking, were no worse. After 1min drafting, I spent another 10mins polishing it up, adding the details, and 5mins to add shades with a brush. The above photo is shot during the process, you can see the drafty lines hehe. The final looks like this:
3. Spring cleaning
2011 was coming to an end, and everywhere around our neighborhood, people were spring-cleaning their houses. There were tons of cool stuff left under the ground floor, so we just carry them home! The red end-table was dragged 400m , at 2AM, we felt like living a thief's life really haha. But nothing fancy really happened until our lovely lady next door gave us this bookcase. We changed and moved everything around, we went to IKEA and I couldn't help buying the handsome square photo frame ( at 12S$ hur hur...) but considering all the free good stuff we were given, a ew clock a photo frame are good investment. Leaves and feather are from my 'collection' ( Yes, I've got a box full of feathers and another full of leaves) Nguyen made the frame and they go perfectly together. Bottle was 'stolen' from a housemate after he finished his drink; the map was torn from a very old encyclopedia ( I had to talk Nguyen into it, she never ever before tears or takes anything out of her books, for her books are to be read and cared in the shelves, erhhh for me books have the potential for a piece of art). I love the reflection of the map on the flat mirror, it seems like a projection of "flat world". Underneath is a poem by E.E.Cummings, one I really love.
For the first few days after this transformation, me and Nguyen spent 10mins before going to sleep, laying in our beds and just looked at it - our little corner. Now this is really Linh's room <3
4. Chasing cars
when I was cleaning my brush, I noticed how drops of color slowly blended in the water, which was quite beautiful. So we just shoot footage of color drops on water, tried out different dropping technique: with a needle, hands, swirl it, straw...It was greatttttt fun and the result looked amazing. And so random, Chasing cars by Snow Patrol was playing on one of the computers, and we thought that was it, this thing and Chasing cars instrumental, no argue. However, it's take a while until we sit down and edit everything...
5. Advertising
Last year I was under Jessica for Advertising module - a very fierce yet amazing lecturer. This is a copy-ad for X-Acto penknife. First I was playing around with typefaces then print it out, but the impact was minimal, noone really liked it. So she suggested me to literally cut everything out! This was done with tremendous help from Nguyen, as always. She is the one who helped me cut all the tiny letters! Anyways, after cutting these I am officially addicted to die-cut...
6. Haircut
Last time, I did not went to fancy baber to fix my hair. My roommates did it - yes they cut my hair. I trusted them wholeheartedly, even sometimes, there were 2 scissors chopping at a time! But this is not about my hair-do, but about the aftermath. After finishing, we were left with hair all over the place. I don't know what has gotten into us, but we started to play around and eventually it became a short stop motion. This is just a snap shoot of the whole thing though.
yes, this is my hair. and we are now collecting hair for art purpose.
I know we are weirdos.
7.
A little girl, about 9 years old, made this watch for me when we were decorating a friend's wedding. Isn't it cute?
8.
And yes, finally, what I have been doing for the past two months.
We went to the village, met the people, talked with them, we had lunch, we ate starfruits from the garden,... People from Xuan La village are the best. Right now I have so many things to execute, analyze, so on and so forth. Thank you everyone for supporting me along the way. I will try my best not to let you down :)
Well, fin.
