Status of my current projects

Right now I'm working on two projects. The first project is inspired by the famous Chinese "Yin-Yang" symbol and Chinese ancient chessgame "Go". I made one white and one black baby size shoes by using the real ceramic chessmen of Go. The chess board is made from some crossed shoelaces fastened on a rectangular wooden board. The shadow of the chess board is projected from the top of the shoes so that they can "walk" freely through those boundaries. Another idea I am thinking about the board is to place shoes on a circular wooden board where I will connect some dashed shoelaces to make a classic Yin-Yang fish pattern. This pattern can be understood as either an endless motion or an elapsing time or both.

Another project I am working in the foundry is a pushed pillow made of human hair. The wax mold of the pillow is done today. I will attempt to use the regular hair gel to keep a fixed contour of the hair as designed. I enjoy trying different materials and seeking to understand their interesting representations of common items we are using everyday.

My early figurative works

My early paintings

My early sketches

Won Ju Lim's work

Kiss 7, 2005, plexiglass sculpture, 18" x 24" x 6 1/2"

"Elysian Field," plexiglas, foam core board, DVD and
still image projections and lamps, variable dimensions, 2001.

Artist Biography:
An MFA graduate of Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, Won Ju Lim currently lives and works in Los Angeles as a sculptor and installation artist. Lim’s work focuses on the tensions between perception, space, and subjectivity in the post-modern age. In order to reflect on and represent the shifting relationship between these three elements, she usually takes architectural reconstructions whose "realism"she questions, critically and poetically, through the judicious use of light, slide projection and video installation.

"I approach my work with specific formal concerns. I think about materials that create activities when they interact with light. The materials I am attracted to absorb, reflect and transmit direct light, light filtered by film, and video projection. Through these activities, I am interested in producing excess, and thus eventually, creating a fantastical space. Another important formal component of my work is repetition. I often take models of a banal space and repeat them, sometimes hundreds of times, to erase the point of origin. Again through excess, the relationship between the “thing” and mimicry of the “thing” becomes complex."

Fabric Sculpture

Through large fabric sculptures and participatory environments, Neto's work often probes the spatial and sensory relations between the viewer's body and the environment in which the work is situated. In his own words, his artworks exist as “a place of sensations, a place of exchange and continuity between people, a skin of existence and relationships.”

Some interesting works by Gottfried Helnwein, Maya Lin, Rene Veenhuizen and Tejo Remy

Thoughts from the exhibition on Tuesday, 03/04/2008:
I don't really like Gottfried Helnwein's work until I saw this picture. The artist wants to express the two co-existing aspects of our society: the beauty and the violence. The comparison of the innocent girl and the fearful blood exhibits the stunning conflict.

I remember in Gottfried Helnwein’s speech he said he liked trying different materials in his work since there would be more possibilities. I believe the material is an interesting language, which makes art more creative and thoughtful.

This is one of Maya Lin's work that I liked. It is interesting to use the fragile glass to make different shapes of the rock. These rocks look so beautiful.

I happened to see this design work by Rene Veenhuizen and Tejo Remy in a magazine which inspired me a lot. There are some benches inspired by the process of cell division (ex. deep-sea Chandelier). Each seating unit is unique; each shape represents a different stage of growth. It's interesting to transfer the tennis ball to comfortable benches.