The 2nd installation project I did. Much more material-usage and ambitious than the 1st one but aesthetics was jankier.

Theme: Thresholds
• Materials: Cardboard, paper, paste, spray paint, glue, matt board paper, 3D-printed resin, toothpicks, tennis balls, clear plastic waste, tape, dyed fiber-processed paper, glitters, newsprint, acrylic paints, etc.

• Statement: My piece involved syncing my ideas and concepts with the use of paper, making for a janky and odd
experience. The papers and construction cardboard to inexpensively craft the overall landscape gave way to an abstract,
almost comic-book and cartoony display. This is supposed to represent the theme of internal destruction, and to interact
with a dystopia that you can walk into and knock things down like a monster if you want to (buildings, forests, etc.). The
umbrella represents the feeling of being watched, as it hangs from above against the lights.

• How it breaks the threshold could be interpreted in multiple ways even simultaneously – real into abstraction, from touchless to touchable, invasive by choice as us foreigners of this city, breaking into it as a way of crossing boundary, into
unwelcome territory in an already downplayed city. It’s a place that pretends to act powerful but is struggling as the eye
beholds. The structure in the center with its unique shapes, is the power plant and zone of city headquarters, and the
further away the buildings are from it, the less bright they are lit (a.k.a less “powered” by it).

• The dissonance and juxtaposition of ideas corresponds metaphorically with the uneven, almost jagged-like structure of the
overall city by shape, equalizing the feeling. Though the colors are vibrant to prevent a gloomy atmosphere, this creates a
sillier look with a foreboding and troubled undertone, rather than an overtone. Thus, this results in a “cruel comedy
cartoon” fashion of the way the piece looks, as if it was making fun of itself for how it’s actually struggling in its own mess.
With spray paint effects giving a graffiti-style vandalism, highlights it.

• Coming up with this concept was not hard, but the ambition behind this one, as well as the intention compared to the previous project was much higher and more material-consumptive. This made the experience of the process significantly more difficult to pull off, especially elegantly, than before, but was worth exercising the amount of effort. As a result, it was nowhere near as
aesthetically pleasing nor sublime, but help compliment the satirical theme to connect to.

• The concept of time is much less emphasized in this one, only to mention the notion that “it’s only a matter of time before this city falls apart unless something comes up well.” Nevertheless, most of the time spent was constructing the buildings, which were both the most articulate and most demanding aspects before “painting” them with white paper to give pigment to a ‘clean theme’ in an otherwise undermined city. For references, see the video game “Mirror’s Edge” (2008) for resemblance. It portrays a dystopian city that is ‘sinisterly clean’ in a bright summer.

• Altogether, the feedback I received during the critique were somewhat
surprisingly interesting. One student said this had a comic-book feel,
thanks to the relatively intense use of spray paint embedded to the large
plastic papers behind the buildings and tree hills of crumpled paper, which
were also pigmented in color by my spray paint cans. The whole thing was
also described as frenetic, which stands true to how I was able to swiftly
manage getting this project done towards the deadline, and cleverly figure
out what to portray based on what materials I could easily and efficiently
use, such as more conglomerations of paper to portray the road, and
special, hand-manufactured red and blue paper to abstractly resemble the
dirt and water, respectively speaking. If more time was spent, I would have
certainly hand-painted everything with more intricate parts.

Artwork set©R.C. March 2019 / O.P. 2k19