Installation & Sculpture
Vân
Start: September 2nd,2025
End: December 10th,2025
Culture is one of the main values of a person; it influences people’s actions, thoughts, and beliefs without them ever realizing that it is the case. When I started my journey in America, it was quite overwhelming not only because of the different languages but also because of the different cultural elements.
Throughout the years, I learned and adapted and got somewhat comfortable with all the differences, but sometimes, when thinking back about the start of this journey, I still can’t help but smile about all the mistakes and experiences that I happened to come across.
Therefore, I created this installation piece to share with the audience some of those experiences, the emotions that I happened to have when things occurred, and the culture that I came from. Through visuals and touches, this work hopes to tell the story of my 6 years in America, a focal point of my life, and what I learned from it until now.
September 10th, 2025
These are some of my first concept sketch of my project.
There are many forms and symbol ideas that I wanted to play with, however, afrer some though about minimizing new skills that I must learned in this project making process, I decided that the main things I will kept is the materiality of Fabric and Paper, and organized them in a elegant and simplistic formation.
September 18th, 2025
Creative-Work Brief
September 26th, 2025
Bending of steel elements and sewing of fabric to be able to slide over the steel framing.
I were able to bend the steel rod into something that matches my idea of flow for the fabric, and after that I cut and show the fabric into a fold that would allow me to effieciently slide the fabric on and off for experiment flow.
October 1st, 2025
A sketch of the "final" decided form and some sketches of what drawings would be drawn, colored and hung on the outer ring to coverup the fabric piece.
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The fabric in this stage now symbolize the idea of mental images and how I percieve things that happen around me, while the drawings are scenery that I remembered that impacts or stayed in my mind due to emotional values.
October 16th, 2025
Sketches of drawings for scenery happen in the two periods of my journey: "2021-2022" & "2022-2023"
October 25th, 2025
Sketches of drawings for scenery happen in the school year: "2023-202"2024-2025"
November 5th, 2025
These are some of the first final drawings that came out from the "art board" sketches that I drew up in my sketchbook. The color choices and line weights, in general, varied from one drawing to another since I was trying to experience with the medium again after some time not working with physical drawings.
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The drawings show scenery that I remember from my first year in America: the fast mostly car traffic system, the scenery as my host family drove me home from the airport, the living rooms that I often spend my day just sit on the couch and enjoy the quite time of the evening after school, and the school hallway (which even in Covid time, feel bustling with energy as student move around to reach their classes).
In these first pieces, I have had quite an interesting time trying to reinvision what has happened, and these memories come with mixed emotions that both make me happy and somewhat sad, though I can't fully describe why they bring up these types of reactions.
November 14th, 2025
Some more drawings and experimentation with watercolor.
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The medium of watercolor was something that I was somewhat used to from quite a young age. I started my journey of art and using of this medium even before I am sure that I will have a chance to achieve my dream to go study abroad, so the reusage of the coloring technique really bring back some old memories for me, almost giving me a senses of retelling my story with an old friend who have saw me through all of those moments.
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Added to the remeniscent of the material is the fuzzy and almost child like that watercolor can be when you used it, sometimes it just simply difficult and unneccessary to control your coloring when using this medium, so the idea of let loose and enjoy the art process rather than just the details of the project really is highlighted whenever I get the chance to use it.
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The first hang-up of my fabric piece!
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Though not perfect, I really enjoy seeing my effort pay off as I was truly happy with the flow of fabric when it lay on topp of the steel framing element.
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Morover, I do also believe that the fuzzy and not crispt and clean line of watercolor does add to my project, as it is what it felt like to me when I look back at these memories, that now seems so far away and not so clear anymore.
November 29th, 2025
Continuation of finishing off drawings to create a well-built exterior layer that would help shield my "inner" (fabric) piece from immediate viewing.
December 4th, 2025
At this point in time, the time crunch is starting to get to me; my pieces are a little messy now, though I wouldn't say I am too mad at the look of them. I think they still have those soft edges that I had wished to have in all the "memory pieces".
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A good amount of them have a somewhat strange calming effect when I look at them, which I think makes me quite proud, since I think that means I wat least able to create the feeling of capturing "times" in my drawings.
December 9th, 2025
At this point of the project, I tried my best to finish up as much as I can of what I were able to sketch out from the concept art board. Some of the drawings I am 100% happy with, and some I am somewhat neutral about. Maybe in the future, I may visit them and added details as a way to not only revision this project, but also my journey as a whole.
December 10th, 2025
Final Presentation
I wasn't aware of the presentation system and spaces in the Fine Art building, so the concept of asking and inquiring for a "pin-up" or "set-up" space never really came to my mind. Which, in the end, forced me to improvise my pin-up form and pose in a short time given, and the final product is what I was able to come up with in such a short time.
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It really isn't ideal since it does seem less elegant than what I would envision my piece to be. However, I am at least somewhat happy to be able to talk about and show the effort that I have put into this project throughout the semester. This project in itself will be a memory and lesson that I will learn from as I move forward with my design journey
