The inspiration of creating this piece is from the article “Doing the Mixed Race Dance: A Multiracial Vietnamese American Class Typology.” by Kieu Linh Valverde, and Cindy Nakashima’s talk about the allowance of mixing in Japan. Although I am not mixed race, I understand how there is a typology among every culture upon mixing of culture, and how I can identify different part of myself as different part of a certain culture.
First I wanted to use a mirror to hide myself in order to show how the real me is covered while the mirror reflects who the people around me want me to pass as. The crack in the mirror represents that it is starting to break down by my strong will of showing my true self. I wanted to show all the different cultures that shaped me, thus I used traditional clothing and masks to represent each of them. They represent all the different stereotypes applied to each culture. The mask, or no face is holding the mirror to show that I do not belong to any of the specific ones, or no one in any of the culture. The red color represents the part of the culture that is still within me when I represent myself to the public, and how each culture includes myself as well. Thus I belong everywhere, and I am a traitor to all of them.
To create the piece, first I looked for examples online to see tutorials on how to draw different structures. Then I used pencils to sketched out all the characters and clothing. In the end, I colored some parts with red color pencils with different strengths to create different levels of red.
For me, being an artist means to express myself and my thoughts through nonverbal methods. I believe that it needs to be authentic and easy to understand at the same time, yet retain a deeper meaning beneath. It is a way for myself to express and scream without sound.
I like how your portrait contains so many things because knowing you on a personal level, I understood right away that you belong to every culture - thus, a traitor to all (which is explained in your artist statement). The artist statement also explained a few other things, which is great. However, I felt like your statement was more like a process journal than a statement itself. Perhaps, also add why you chose to only color specific things in red and decided to keep everything else white? Other than that, great job Jingyi!
ReplyDeleteYour piece is so interesting, because the mirror could represent how the categorization of people reflects the values of the person doing the categorizing just by looking at the subject's physical features. I would like to read more about your sociocultural experiences as a Chinese woman living in Japan with reflections on your connection to China and subsequent analysis on your complex position as a Chinese-Japanese student living in the US. For instance, how can the matrix of race traitor in the context of US-Japan-China relationships and higher education circulation of international students evolve race traitor studies?
ReplyDeleteI loved the concept behind your piece! I think all the details you added were well thought out, especially the addition of the cracks in the mirror as a representation of your true self breaking through. I like that you state despite you not being mixed race, you can look into it and relate to mixed race people in your own way. The drawings itself were beautiful, but I think you can go further into the choice of colors perhaps. Otherwise, great piece!
ReplyDeleteI think the idea behind your self portrait is good. I enjoy seeing all the different elements that contribute to your image. I love the idea behind the mirror. I think that in your artist statement you should further explain the reasoning behind the coloring. What does it represent?
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