Sculpture
Inspiration
light installation on plastic materials，2024
My deepest impression of the funeral is the fire, where people throw all offerings into the flames and express their thoughts for the deceased. The ritual begins with the lighting of the fire and concludes when it burns out. Through the burning process, a spiritual communication between the living and the dead is completed. Fire becomes the medium of communication between the two realms. Hence, I decided to create a sculpture with fire as the main motif.
Materials
Colony Symbiosis, Zhang Ziwei, mixed materials, variable dimensions, 2021
I have been focusing on studying the refraction of light in transparent materials. In the first unit, I tried the refraction effect of transparent materials such as plastic and glass. I have had so many incredible and wonderful effects. Referring to the work of artist Zhang Ziwei, she used acrylic materials of different colors and heated them to deform them. Irregular surfaces and uneven colors maximize light reflection. This is very attractive to me.
Due to my vision of combining sculpture with projection to create unique light and shadow effects, I chose materials with transparent properties. Initially, I experimented with glass, heat-shrink film, and PVC solid-state gel. I found that the unpredictability of heat-shrink film could create more natural forms, which better resembled the shape of fire. PVC gel provided a more reliable base for securing the heat-shrink film. During the process of sculpting with colored pigments, I discovered that fully coloring the sculpture would affect the play of light and shadow and diminish the texture of the sculpture. Therefore, I opted to color only certain parts of the sculpture, preserving the transparent quality of the majority of the sculpture.
Production Process
Sketches，2024
The biggest difficulty in production is how to combine the heat-shrink sheets into the shape of fire. I did a lot of tweaking and experimenting. At first, I found a lot of popular pictures to imitate. And I asked my classmates for their guesses about the sculpture. The most common response received is that it resembles a plant. I'm definitely mimicking the radial shape of fire but this seems more similar to the structure of a plant. So I began to adjust the placement of the "flames" so that they no longer revolved around a central point. It seems to have some effect.