Week7#My final project exhibition curatorial rationale(About 800 words)

#My curatorial rationale

Part I: Why I came up with this theme?

At the beginning of the curatorial class, Dr. JL gave us a concept: small but beautiful. This concept fits very well with the miniature world exhibition that I have always been very interested in. I have always admired an artist from Japan – Tatsuya Tanaka, originally the art director of an advertising company, he has been interested in miniature creations since 2011, and has accumulated a large number of fans by exhibiting his works on his personal website MINI CALENDER. At present, his IG has nearly 3 million subscribers. He is known as Food, life sundries create their own world.

（Above are some of his works）

As I began to gather the relevant materials, I realized that he was making a magnified observation of his surroundings and that the reason why we would consider this work creative is that he has presented some details of the environment that we cannot observe through the form of art. This sparked me to think about what I was interested in. As I had always been very fond of flower arranging in China, I started to think about whether I could link the idea of ‘magnifying my surroundings’ with the concept of ‘flowers’, and this led to my theme was born: One flower is a world.

Part II: Explanation of the theme of One flower is a world.

One flower is a world, in fact, has a special meaning in Chinese, it is from a Chinese Buddhist saying, one flower enlightens the world, and from one flower the whole world can be enlightened, in fact in a poem in England this concept was also once used.

To see a World in a Grain of Sand

And a Heaven in a Wild Flower,

Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand

And Eternity in an hour.

– William Blake [UK]

Therefore, the theme of my exhibition will be to create a world in which flowers have a sense of independence. Generally speaking, artists tend to rely more on the appearance of flowers, how beautiful they look, how badly they fail, and the different morphological characteristics of different flowers that make up their different styles of work, which are to some extent more realistic.

(Florent Stosskopf Where Are You Yves Klein, 2020 Beers London)

(Amber Cowan BRIDESMAID RETURNS TO THE SHORE OF HER FULL MOON, 2019 Heller Gallery)

(Helice Wen On the Nature of Moonlight, 2019 Haven Gallery)

The above are some of the artists’ works related to flowers, they will be more inclined to show the beauty of flowers and their forms in different states by showing them.

Whereas my curatorial perspective would lean more towards the spirit of the flower, the consciousness of the flower. In my exhibition, I try to convey to people the concept of the perception of flowers, the perception of the environment, that outside of our daily work and studies, we should put some attention on our surroundings, on the space in which we live.

Part III: The artists and their artworks’ statement.

Pollen Pixels, from a team of Chinese artists’ studios: Cao Yuxi Studio, uses particle and 3D scanning technology to realise the art of digital flower arranging through digital media technology.

Through digital media technology, the consciousness of the flower is integrated with the human world, and the actual form of the flower in the human senses is used as the basis for artistic creation. The act of being able to present the form of the flower itself in the digital world is, to a certain extent, an expression of the depth of human thinking about the environment, and humans are conscious of integrating the environment into digital media, the digital world.

The heart of flower, this work comes from golden smiths studying installation art MFA artist HWJU, this is a physical interactive installation, by pressing the petals to change the state and beating of the heart, the flower part will also sway naturally, the main purpose of the installation is to explore the relationship between man and the environment, and nature, is to advocate for man to protect and care for the environment.

In my exhibition I will integrate more the concept of the heart coexisting with flowers, flowers just don’t have the means to express themselves, don’t confine their lives, we should live in symbiosis with the environment rather than colonise it. The beautiful plants wield their bodies and by visualising the feeling of flowers, it enables a reverse perception to be formed, a model of warning, exploring the hope and possibility of future biological equality.

Do bionic flowers dream of electronic gardens, from Jingyi, a young artist who has graduated from UAL. With virtual plants at its core, the project uses c4d technology to explore the boundaries between man’s modern technology and the natural environment. Inspired by ‘Do Robots Dream of Electronic Sheep’, the artist gives the electronic plant a human dynamic expression to express the emotions of the virtual plant.

Part IV: My conclusion

I have enriched the inner language of the flowers with the experience of my predecessors, but because of my limited technical skills, much of what I wanted to present was not physically presented, but was basically represented in the video through digital media.
I will leave my contact details on the exhibition so that visitors can give their feedback and suggestions at any time.