Chinese woodcut from the 1930's and 40's

Some woodcuts from the 40's, China was very poor and the world war was even more anguish. I think this linocuts show such a beautiful and compelling look at life in china that many people aren't used to seeing. Especially after looking at the Communist posters that gloss over the hardships of living in China. These images come from the book 'A Century in Crisis, Modernity and Tradition in the Art of Twentieth-Century China.'

linocut research

These Linocuts come from a book I bought in China, unfortunately I don't know who the artists are since I don't read chinese. These Linocuts communicate a beautifully lonely and isolated atmosphere that I would like to emulate. Woodcut techniques are a big part of Chinese art history, especially during the Tang Dynasty and more recently in 1930's and 40's. It is a highly emotive and striking tool used to communicate the most powerful feelings of discontent and despair. I'm going to explore this through linocut (because of time restraints)

My chinese family shrine in Hujian

When my chinese family had their reunion in Xiamen this year, we visited the house where my grandparents raised the family. In this house there were 4 closed rooms on each corner of the quad, an entire family lived in each room. The big open room housed the family shrine, before which, everyone prayed for past family members by burning prayer sheets (sometimes with the family member's name on), so that they may be released into the afterlife.

Chinese shrine mood board

Here is a look at images for potential ideas in the first project in third year. My Project will be about my chinese family and trying to make sense of a history in different cultures. A very important experience for me when revisiting china was honoring our ancestors memory in font of a shine by burning incense and pray sheets, so I would like to incorporate those customs somewhere in my project.

.

Gerhard Richter

I went to the Tate Modern exhibition this week to see Gerhard Richter's paintings it was very inspiring to see his Baader-Meinhof paintings especially.

linocut for the blues

here are the final linocuts for the posters without type.

Posters

Here are what they look like a bit photoshoped, made the type a bit different and textured in some colour. not sure if it really looks that me, might be a bit over fussy for something meant to be raw and thrown together. jam night has anyone come in off the street and if they want to play with the band thats fine so i might use something more basic, bit more rough looking since its meant to be a night thats improvised and none professional. i think these look quite good though, quite bluesy.

little girl blue

Here are a couple of the drawings for the blues poster project. I will be making these into linocuts to centre the poster around. I'm thinking of having this set of linos in three circles so i can just interchange the three linos on photoshop without changing the type etc. going to draw out an old work boot as well but i think these two images are working quite well. The cotton plant looks good in the circle and the rocking chair looks nicely bluesy.

Cut

Here are my pieces for the Cuts exhibition. They each have quotes from three different famous authors; John Fletcher, Charlotte Bronte and Norman Ralf Augustine. They each illustrate the effects of cutting education and the government's broken promises. How the cuts are choking any hope of growth out of our country. The government politicians never look to the future, only at how they can beat one another in the mean time.

Cut it up

Here are photos from our Cuts exhibition which i have neglected to put up before now.