TRANSMUTED LANDSCAPE Qinxuan Zhang Electronic

TRANSMUTED LANDSCAPE

Qinxuan Zhang Electronic Integrated Arts MFA Thesis Exhibition 2020 2020 MFA Thesis Exhibition Electronic Intergrated Arts Robert C. Turner Gallery, Harder Hall School of Art and Design NYSCC at Alfred University TABLE OF CONTENTS

3-10 Re-Understanding

13-56 TRANSMUTE LANDSCAPE

58-63 Catelog of thesis work

- screen printing

- polymer plates

- Collages

- Video /Installation /Book 64-65 Bibliography

67 Acknowledgements

69 Technology & Tools

RE-UNDERSTANDING

Guangzhou is the capital of Guangdong province in China, which is often more commonly known as the region of the Cantonese dialect. Can- tonese is also the language from Hong Kong, but it is the language or the people of Guangdong area, as well. Guangzhou is the city that I have been living for more than ten years and is a miniature version of how China has developed her economy and shifts in the culture. It is a city containing both the elements of the old culture and new era. When I was a child, I saw the rapid economic development of Guangzhou. I moved to Guang- zhou around 2000, when it was the golden time for Guangzhou. It had benefited from the effects of the “Reform and Opening” policy that is still transforming the country. In fact, the old culture was

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starting to be lost when I arrived in Guangzhou but my childhood memories were happy but obscured, it was hard for me to find any clue of its past rich history. The only memory I had was of the hot sum- mers, the crowded streets and the arm-long fat rat on the street corner. However, time went fast. In an instant, it was time for me to attend high school and I saw a new world emerge. Yet, as I continued growing up through my high school years, I gradually saw how the old culture of Guangzhou was be replaced by another power living in this city. Due to the location of my high school in the old Guangzhou I could witness another side, the opposite of my part which was old and historic being encroached by the rapid moderniza- tion of the city in the nearby neighborhood. My high Fig. 1 The Old Western House and Street

school was in the center of the original “Guang- zhou”, which might be more like the “Canton” in western definitions. The “old western house”, the traditional market and narrow alley, which appeared in 1980s Hong Kong movies, are all here. People here are energetic living their own life, which is so different from the fast rhythm of city people. If you are not familiar with them, you might feel they are

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too indifferent to others, but they are friendly to their neighborhood. They can quarrel with the vege- table seller in the market just for only few cents, but then meet the seller when Yum Cha, and talk, laugh with them just as nice neighbors would always do. The small shops and restaurants are tightly knitted together, like different boxes placed together on a shelf. They are not fancy or modern, but Cantonese. You still can find the trace of the Republic of China. They followed the old manner of the world. Every- where was noisy, which made me think that how life was made to be just this way. However, this is not all of Guangzhou. Other parts are somewhere between the old and modern Guangzhou. Inspired by the street photographer, Henri Bresson, I started to take photos in the street. I tried going further into the places that I haven’t been before or even to some places that I have been too many times but perhaps miss their rich details that made them unique. Furthermore, I started to study and traveled to different countries, my point of view was changing by the many different city cultures that I experienced. In those years, I have seen the American style of quiet villages such as my undergraduate life in Chestertown, Maryland and the place where I graduate school is, Alfred New York; I have been to Mexico City, whose economy is also considered a developing country like China. I have been to the big city of New York and the small villages in the UK and Japan. These cityscapes con- tributed to enlarge my vision, but more importantly, provide me a chance to a closer look into Guang-

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zhou, the city that I have been living for more than 10 years. At this time, after experiencing more cities, especially Mexico City, what I did not notice at was first was how cities had really influenced me as much as they did. It made me aware of the integral importance of Guangzhou that was always present right in front of me. My point of view is not only of the fancy metropolis coming from fast economic development but the more hidden, or left behind parts that I found new and explorable. I have always known that it is common to think that the center of the city is messy, due to the people traffic, which, comes from people who arrived from all over China and who are doing business and visiting. But the urban village and its people who live there; either the migrate workers who are pushing down the old village and building the modern buildings, or the farmers who stayed, whose land became the modern tall buildings, are parts of Guangzhou as well. I have to say, as long as I see more and more places of Guangzhou, my opinion of her is changing.

Fig. 2 The House That Don’t Know If It Is Habitable or Not

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Thus, the shifts of my perspective while my location has been changing, has given me more cu- riosity of the urban changes upon the culture and its people’s lives. I still discover I may have some mis- understanding on how and why I document the city, however this is the city in my view through how I have experienced it. The changes I make on these images is the world in my eyes and my perceptions.

TRANSMUTE LANDSCAPE

Landsacpe and Cityscape -- Cityscape Is the New Landscape -- What Is the Urban Village? -- Culture Is Making Culture -- Street Views with the Unnoticed Trivia Chance and Randomness -- The Occasional Crush with Chance -- Randomly Collecting the City Fragments -- The Physical Synthesis, the Chance and Randomness with Printing Methods -- Three-Dimensional layers in Real Time and Space Color -- Multicolored Gray Is the City Color

13 14 LANDSCAPE AND CITYSCAPE Cityscape Is the New Landscape

Nowadays, I have noticed a new truth in that it is easier to see the city as the real landscape, especially if the person was born in the city from the time after the development of the economy. I realized it when I went to Mexico. From the perspective of a tourist, like how I looked at Mexico City objectively, all of the landscape is man-made, even the historical landscape. So when I look back Guangzhou, the city that raised me, I understand that the cityscape is the new landscape. Not like the traditional landscape, which has a wide grass field, plants, small villages and animals but instead it is the tall, high modern buildings in Guangzhou that is the main character of the landscape. The plants, the pets and small villages are only decorations of the city landscape. Cityscape taking the place of the landscape started from the rapid economic development of China. According to the “Reform and Open” program put forward in the 1980s, Guangzhou is one of the earliest cities that had the priority to cultivate the economy, including the policy benefiting taxes and subsidies when trad- ing with foreign countries, etc. To build the CBD (Central Business Dis- trict), companies consisted of local big businesses along with foreign companies that began to establish huge buildings for their offices following a mega- lopolis style that is trending throughout the world. The tall, modern buildings began burgeoning and suddenly the center city changed, everywhere now are the tall buildings. Not only the tall office buildings built up but also the large residential buildings

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equally large and tall. A high demand for these residencies was created due to the upsurge of pop- ulation brought about by the jump of the economy in Guangzhou. However, the local villagers are still here. So, embraced by the tall buildings, there are still a large amount of villagers in the center that still live in what we call the urban villages. What Is the Urban Village?

It might be strange that there is still small villages contained in the city, there are still plen- ty that have not been removed or being removed gradually. It is a kind of special architectural settlement in Guangzhou (I believe there are some in other big city in China as well). They can be found everywhere: in rare places or special corners of the city, the place next to a primary school, even in the center of the city. Maybe because the houses are al- ready slated for demolition or the construction com- pany did not have enough time to flatten them, or the land has no attribution yet, but you will see the tall buildings surround them, which makes up this special urban village. Also, you will always find the white with blue trim temporary apartment houses for construction teams that are heavily present in

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these urban villages and communities. So communities are formed from the immigrants, construction workers and the villagers who have not moved out and are still living there in large numbers. They are so familiar that people do not always notice them. Even sometimes I don’t notice they are here. However, it is a part of the Guang- zhou culture, and even a big component of Guang- zhou art, these urban villages are everywhere in Guangzhou and it is what hold this city together.

Fig. 3 The Modern buildings and the urban village This photo was taken from the center of the city, which might be one of the most “invisible”, and typical urban villages gathered with the temporary housing there. All the buildings are shiny grey-blue steel like. The architectural style is so different. The buildings in the back are new, towering, sharp and indeed reflectively silver. The village houses in front are the urban village surrounded by the building cranes. It’s hard to tell if there is still people in the house, although some of the windows on the house are missing, and the paint of many of the houses rubbed off, there are still people living there, since there is still air conditioning mounting on the out- side wall of the building, and especially the trees on the rooftop is still green and vibrant. Although the red flags look like the byproduct of Chinese style, it

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might be just the mark saying that, “these buildings are needed to be flattened” or a form of quiet pro- test of their residents. The paint and roof color, and ceramic tile on the wall, demonstrates that it is more like a 1980s Chinese industrial style. Old villages also looks like this way, because the homogenous architecture style is what the authority is pursuing, the similar grey “artificial bird nest” are displaced tightly together just like the tall building are arrayed together. Culture Is Making Culture

The growth of new modern buildings is actually challenging the old culture, especially when the old buildings are flattened. Although the buildings being removed do not seem like the core culture, they are a part of the document of the city. The cityscape is new buildings plus the old ones. I do not know much about Mexico City’s culture, but from my point of view, the traditional culture of the city is mostly preserved well, even the industrialization and economic development that has emerged there does not completely replace it. The old culture is not removed, and most locals are the original locals. The merge of the culture is in a more smooth way advancing. Comparing to that, the cityscape in Guangzhou it is a more complex settlement, all multiple cultures interweave together creating the

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new culture. The old buildings are still here going through the irreparable collapse from man-made, or natural changes. The new system is evolving here. Subversion is cropping up. All kinds of people who might be from all over China are living here, they bring their culture to this place generating the new culture; the locals are stubbornly staying here, whose forgotten, neglected old culture is imprisoned here; the foreign culture is entering here with the stride of economic development; workers from out of Guangzhou are …here, who bring their home- town culture; the young white-collar professionals are looking for opportunities here, who also create the new culture here. The culture happens in the progress of the ruin, the transition, and the creation. Street Views with the Unnoticed Trivia

When I had the art history class, “Art - Age of Digital Recursion” in Alfred, an interesting word came up -“dérives”. This French word, is defined as departing from one’s direction. When doing research in the street, I always plan a routine and a destination, which usually been seen as a good place with a lot of good resources. It might be a famous historical sightseeing place or a place with abundant artistic atmosphere. I find many things visually exciting; they maybe hovering in the popped up unmanned anonymous path, or found by aimless- ly walking occasionally towards the terminal to go back home. Anything that has been seen in the street is a good scene. These maybe a door of an abandoned house or just a strange wire on the road. At first, I devoted time to take some pictures

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like Henri Bresson’s photos, which gave people a knowing smile when they see the photos. Besides, I believe that the funny moments of daily life is revealing, it’s the representation of people’s energy. So this is the place where some interesting travel photos taken place, like the scary police officer next to the highway. But then I gradually realize what I indeed look for, which might not only be the funny moment, because they are not the only thing that

Fig. 4 The scary police officer next to the highway stands for the potential energy of the situation. If a place that has the trace of human existence, then there is the culture, the energy of the place. The buildings are built by people, the roads are walked by people and the people, all of them are the signifi- cance of that energy, that becomes the real meaning of the city. The streets are miniature representations of the city. Why I mentioned it here, it is because the city’s microcosm is referring to taking a closer look at the city, but not just only the street. All the ordinary things in the city can be itemized in eyes. People, bicycles, and even a tiny worm can be the subject. These unnoticed things are the representation of the energy of the street culture. It can be understood, or over-understood, but the small things

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makes up the entirety.

28 CHANCE AND RANDOMNESS The Occasional Crush with Chancy

I do not know if the chance comes by on me or if I look for it. I am so sloppy that it is sort of an obstacle for me to deal with the precision needed in the work, but due to the influence of an art history class of 1960s artists I took in my undergraduate degree, I accept it. The random and chaos made in the 60s are so normal that almost every avant-garde art genre, to some extent exemplify it or is directed actively or passively by it, due to the importance to the portion found in the artwork. I am fond of its

Fig. 5 The reenactment of the “Pass Through” existence in my work because it enriches my work and eventually, no matter the “happy” or “bad” end it that it causes. Whatever the consequence is, only the incident taken place completes the artwork itself. The process of making art is the most crucial importance in my work. And chance is decisively dwelling in my work. Certainly, I have been unearthing the sig- nificance of chance much more when I started doing printmaking in Alfred. I encountered a mass of problems at the beginning of screen-printing. It seems like all the issues striking a screen print- maker punched me in the face. But I appreciated all the problems that I have met because it declares the rareness of the contingency. Not all at once but for all the tiny mistakes that occur each create new

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opportunities of exploration. Perhaps in the end they were not a mistake at all. Randomly Collecting the City Fragments

Uncertainty is always located somewhere at the start of doing something. I have stopped exploring the experiments on the 60s artists’ art pieces that were the thrust of my first explorations at Alfred. In the meanwhile, I continued my photog- raphy in the streets of Guangzhou over the breaks, and in many places that I have also been to. At this point, I went to Mexico City, the place that gave me many inspirations. I sat in the car of a guide in Mexico City, and ramblingly took photographs from everything that I was seeing: the historical land- marks, the highway, the colorful and the layer upon layer residential buildings that cover the hills, and the people. When I was not sure what my concept was, I just recorded things that i was seeing. But one thing is determined, that is I want to know more

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things about the city, which is the place that raised me, especially after I saw the difference in the city between Guangzhou and Mexico City. The cityscape in Mexico City is disordered, like my process of collecting resources. What I gathered there, I could take advantage of then, like being a part of a piece that inspired me. It firms the way of how I collect things, and I know the way of randomly collecting is what I cannot get rid of. I used to wait for a scene simultaneously happening like Bresson’s decisive moment, but as he said, “you don’t prove anything, it proves by itself”, shoot- ing everything in the city, can prove the city. Not only the architectural structure of the city or the composition in a single frame of the camera is the affiliation with the city. The afterimage of a flash- ing car, dust in the air and people running past are all the city. So I kept arbitrary accumulating things more from the street, city, and daily life in Alfred, Guangzhou, and all my surroundings until now. In this case, I was still on the same stage as the 60s artists, who saw daily life as a significant part of their art. But I am not only documenting the daily life, or defining an action or an object in daily life. I stroke my understanding on the image and let the audience to re-understand them. The unpredictable re-understanding is the actual understanding of the city for each audience. After all the images I captured at my will in Guangzhou and Mexico City, there is the common ground between each other. At a glance, the city planning of Mexico City is more pell-mell than

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Guangzhou, but as far as my understanding to them, somehow the core of them is the same, especially referring to the urban village in Guangzhou and the short buildings in Mexico City. The irregular rules of constructing the buildings are the same. It is regardless of the surroundings, just establishing the buildings for the basic essence of living to the people. Breaking the modern composition of the city is not the aim, but the demand. It is just like my original motivation of the play randomness and chance. I did not see them as my tool to make art, but it reaches to one of my most important method of doing art. So just like the buildings randomly stacked together, I randomly stacking the image together and let them be one piece to see what will happen if I put them randomly together by chance. The Physical Synthesis, the Chance and Ran- domness with Printing Methods

In addition to the alteration of color with intuition, I randomly compose the image by laying down on the paper as another means to display the instinct by chance. As I said, sometimes I have the strong feeling of the fate that the randomness comes to me, rather than I anticipate its arrival. Once when I just came to Alfred, I washed my SD card reader by accident in the laundry. I thought it would be broken, yet it gave my images of other textures and colors, which intensified the image, and even sug- gested another nuance to it. The plain image eventually turns into a fictional, glitchy, and absurd image. In the midst of the event that occurred, I knew the fortuity is one of the most inseparable features tightly connected with me in my future artworks. After that, I attempted to find more things

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of chance happening around me. However, when I am deliberately seeking it, it always slips away from me until the end of last year. The goddess of chance came back to me. I was stuck in editing an image and saved it with the large document format in photoshop at that time. The file was too large to save, so my computer crashed for four or five times, which totally drove me crazy. At that moment, the magic suddenly happened

Fig. 6 The Altered Large Document Format Image Fig. 6.5 The Altered Large Document For- mat Image (Detailed View)

again. The image was fully transformed into another abstract pixelated image without any relation with the original image. I was surprised and saved it immediately. And it becomes one of the main parts of my thesis. In this case, I know I can’t repeat this hazard many times and the incidents are not repeat- able. They probably will arise only once and maybe never a second time. The only way I gain it is to catch it as quickly as possible. Because the potential

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idea it bestowing to me is unmissable, if I lose it, the moment of the incidents would be forever gone. In the process of actual printing, I attempt to combine randomness and chance as well. Not only for the happy incidents taken place, and even more distinctly important, it is a prominent approach for me to run diversely risks achieving more possibilities. The possibilities lead me to the brand new idea and the field that I have never thought about. Before the crashed computer causing the misrepresented image, there was no hint for me to start the route of combining the dye sublimation and screen printing. As I start the new method of printing, it opens up my vision of the way to make art pieces and my path to the new direction. To give another example, from the most basic aspect, after blending the color referring to the preview in photoshop and printing out the “regular” piece, it is entertaining to add another layer of other colors at discretion or completely switching the color of each layer. Despite whatever the outcome is I am satisfied with the ending. I am used to keeping the “residue” as the evidence of the process, or even the further experimental. It is hard to say when it can be utilized, but the unknown timing is a part of the process. Likewise, I am keen on mixing diver- gent materials or methods into one print. For in- stance, except for the usual mixture of printmaking, chine-collé with Xuan paper and heavy art paper, I tried a good deal of ways to diversify the chine- collé, such as using as much as possible different papers, even some I got from delivered packages

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as wrapping materials. Another way of working is applying dyeing sublimation coatings on the paper unevenly before transferring images in the heat press and then either screen printing or heating multiple layers on top of the prints are ways that I have tried. I am still enjoying the adventure and ways of expanding more randomness. (More details of the exploration of randomness will be in the chapter Collage) COLLAGE

Stacking the Exotic Scenery in a Scroll

The subconscious is always mysterious. Although I did not have any experience in traditional Chinese painting, it influences my work anyway. It’s like the gene flowing that flows through my veins culturally. When I am making artworks, the conscious of Chinese painting unexpectedly appears with no clue. As I said above, Mexico City is the place that orientated me towards creating my printmaking practice. At first, when I was uncertain what I was doing with my travel photos taken in Mexico City, I just simply stacked the cityscapes, using four in one image. Ignoring the location, the color, and the perspective, the four photos are tightly put together. There is no relationship between four of them, since some of them were taken in the historical landmark areas, and others are from the street

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or highway. Yet, all locations belong to Mexico City. The logical relationship created among them is because they are all part of the same city and stand for the city, no matter which parts they originated from. So as in the verticality of ancient Chinese scroll painting, the scenes of Mexico City are composed together and this is the started of my interest in collaging. As the concept was determined, with it’s close appearance of Chinese scroll painting and its tall vertical size, the images are collaging as if they could belong in a roll. The experience of experimenting with screen printing with different kinds of paper, especially the thin and crispy Xuan paper, brings it to an even closer relationship to Chinese scroll painting. Similar to the small highlight of empty space often on the top or the bottom in Chinese painting, the most attractive objects are placed in a similar way in the collages of the Mex- ico City Landscape as well. Nevertheless, the style of the image is more western, pop-art, and abstract expressive. So, the contrast between the composition between the image and style is quite interesting. Although I plan on the longer size of “scroll prints”, I turned to another direction, that is playing with duotone, tritone, and randomness and chance. The idea of an actual scroll of the Mexico City scene did not last long.

Fig. 7 The turning point of shifting to the randomness

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How the Layers Interacting with Image

Layers are always cleverly interspersed in my work. Tracing back to my work of experimenting with Murakami’s piece, “Pass through”, I was fascinated with the layers of paper that he transited. So, instead of paper, I used the semitransparent cloth as the layers to reenactment the piece “Pass Through.” Also apparently, the layer by layer of the cityscape is heaped up in the Mexico City collage. Each layer of the landscape image resembles the one-story buildings piled on the hill in Mexico City. In my later artworks, the layers subtly appear in colors within the randomness. The most conspicuous layers are layering colors into duotone and tritone. The new colors put on the city just like the new buildings built on the old buildings, which like the city is besieged by layers of layers building groups. The different layers of color are concretized as the layers of the building. It does not say more layers are better, but from my point of view, randomly the way of overlapping the layers of the cityscape in just one image or staggering them is greatly adding more meanings to the city, no matter the layers of color or shape.

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Three-Dimensional Layers in Real Time and Space Printing is a way of displaying layers, even sometimes it gives people the illusion that layers are three-dimensional, but actually it is not exactly as same as the physically stereoscopic form. As a result, I attempt more ways of transforming the layers by various media, like the artist book and video. Printing on a book might be considered as a way that is also flat and shallow. In this case, to weaken the visual effect of just one layer on the surface, modifying the shape of the book is a visual effect way to execute. Folding each page with different layers of image unevenly as the accordion book is used in my process. Though the images are horizontally tiled on the book, folding the book in different angles and shapes, and standing the book vertically offers the other two dimensions to the image. Thus, it is bizarre and deformed three-dimensional layered performance displayed in this action. Video is changing time as it flows to reach ways of reforming the dimension. Combining the layer of real-time video and the layer of the digitalized and abstracted image into one video, the two tracks are distinguished separately so that the distinction of the sense of space is noticeable. The dislocation shown in the book and video can vary people’s understanding of the original image of the landscape so that it raises the awareness of speculation of how the structure changes.

Fig. 8 Cityscape in Derives 47 48 MULTICOLORED GRAY Is THE CITY COLOR

There are many cloudy days in Guangzhou, which become the backdrop of the gray buildings in the center of Guangzhou. It’s hard to say if the weather should be always like this, or the air pollu- tion made it, or the gray buildings made it so. Even the weather in Guangzhou is industrialized. Around these buildings, people are busy, and they are integrated with the sky and the city. The cityscape is still. But there is the energy in the city: the trees are always green; the colored speeding taxis and the takeaway person with a bicycle… the city is busy, but it has an internal color. After the trip in Mexico City, I know I should look at Guangzhou in a more objective way, and to find the power in the city by itself. Not looking at it by only the eyes, but looking at it spiritually by the imagination. So I’d like to convert the colors of the city from my perspective, to translate it into the true spirit of the city that I conceive. Everyone’s understanding of the color of the city is different, but bringing color into the city is a way to provide other interpretations of the city. En- dowing or even exaggerating the color is only one of the paths. By abstracting the impression of the city, it is easy to break the rectangular shape of the cold buildings bringing to the city. Highly saturated color staining the city into another temperature, regardless of simply cold, or warm, the city has emotion when people looking at the colored city, no matter how the audience read the emotion. The city is flesh and blood. Whether the color can stand for the emotion

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of the city or not, it depends on the point of view of the audiences. Whatever they think when they look at the object, what it means to them. As the city is grayish to me, and the only color makes the city consistent, so why not let the few vivid colors to express it taking the place of gray? Is it still harmoni- ous? To some extent, gray is more neutral according to the color lightness. Neutral means no feelings. But when other colors replacing gray, it is more per- ceivable with emotion, because there is more association between color and emotion in common sense. Only change the hue of gray, it is the emotion that the gray has. Thus, when simple colors added to the image, we can find out if it takes effect on the city. And this might be the real face of the city. Is the emotion of the city like the colors can be perceived? Is the color just surface color, or is it the true tone of the city? Even if it is the monotonous color just like the stereotype from people when seeing these city views, can’t it be the factualness of the scene? Being is real. When you see the city and project your emotions in the city, the city has emotion. History, is another characteristic that Guangzhou has, so it is deeply engraved in every city views. History might be dark, might be bright. But the elapsed time is unknown misty darkness because we cannot see the truth through it, the fact is latent and history is always the history that we have been told. However, the city is there, where the buildings represent the city, no matter the towering buildings or the low houses, are fluorescent, because of the culture they bearing. The colors of the build- 52

ings like the collapsed, faults of history, are cracked. Different parts have their tints. Also, the digitized color on other parts of the image, which is more sharp, crispy, combining with the luminous city and the dim sky offers an uncommon sense to the mood. The mood contains more mysterious endevaors. In the meanwhile, the old buildings and the modern buildings are assimilated into each other, in which the scene eventually attains to harmony. When first playing with color in screen printing, I started from the simple duotone and tritone on the cityscape. Although I have met many technical problems at first on how to split colors into duotone or tritone images so that I can use different screens for the prints, I stuck to utilzing it. I did not think much why I desire the duotone and tritone in the beginning. But now I believe that is because I choose to express the cityscape in another way then with the multiple color composition but it still only one-sided, and arbitrary, like how only gray describe the city. Just like how people usually comprehend an object only from their subjective speculation. When people only see one side of the city, the city is exactly stamped only on this one meaning. It is the duotone and tritone that the only few colors limited to depict the cityscape. No matter what these few colors stand for, or if they misunder- stand or over-understand. Thus, the duotone and the tritone restrict the connotation of the city scene in every single print. At first, I was more likely to pick monochro- matic or analogous colors to transform the image,

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because in this case, the colors are more consonant in the condition of duotone or tritone and it tends to not violate the grayish city. Gathering similar hue colors is pretty, but boring. It might be stun- ning at the first sight for you see it, but it is plain, it is shallow, like tap water, or the immutable daily walk. The complementary color and it’s transforma- tions, like triadic, tetrad color definitely bring a new source of my whole color system in terms of duotone and tritone printing. Also, as I playing with colors more conver- gently, I try to make different colors on the same image as well. The collapse of the old city is what I desire to involve it in the new city site. Under this circumstance, I tear the image into many different pieces. Most of these pieces an irregular rectangle colored differently. It is like a glitch from a distance way of seeing it. Thus, it is a different color composition that the one print finally can perform. On the other hand, I extract some highlight color from the city scene, or just decompose the color from the city scene and reconstruct them together, so that the tone of the city can be changed completely. The deriva- tion of the city is not changed, but the alteration of the color might be conveyed other meanings, but not only limited to the emotions of the city. The meaning can be the shift of the economy, or the development of industrialization, or just the passage of time. It depends on how you understand it. Thereby, the shift of the city in my eye shows under the color. In the meanwhile, how my opinion shifts from time changes upon the color changes presented as well.

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However, most of my color decision is intuitive. I keep trying different color palettes to find the optimum arrangement in pairs or groups. I do not particularly liberate a reason to pick the color that corresponds to my aesthetic, my understanding on a part of the city scene. Sometimes, the color might not be the fanciest one, but the color is in most accordance with the corner of the city from my perspective. With the different color palette, the multi-colored gray is what I have seen from the city.

Fig. 9 Color Experimental

58 THESIS WORK Screen Printing

Untitled Untitled 2019 2019 Screen Printing Digital Printing the Scanned 12 x 20 inch Screen Printings 32 x 48 inch

A Billboard in the Highway A Signboards in the Highway 2019 2019 Screen Printing Screen Printing 24 x 32 inch 24 x 32 inch Untitled Untitled 2020 2020 Screen Printing Screen Printing 18 x 22 inch 18 x 22 inch

Untitled 2020 Screen Printing 18 x 22 inch 59 60

Photo Polymer plate intaglio

The Bicycle The Tricycle 2019 2019 Photo Polymer plate Photo Polymer plate intaglio intaglio 18 x 22 inch 18 x 22 inch

The Sanitation Worker The Thrown Away Coach 2019 2019 Photo Polymer plate Photo Polymer plate intaglio intaglio 18 x 22 inch 14 x 18 inch The Sanitation Worker The Fake Policeman 2020 2020 Photo Polymer plate Photo Polymer plate intaglio intaglio 18 x 22 inch 18 x 22 inch

The Bicycles with the “Fuwa” 2020 Photo Polymer plate intaglio 18 x 22 inch 61 62

Collage, Book and Video

Untitled Untitled 2020 2020 Screen Printings, Video Photo Polymer plate 1920 x 1080 intaglio and Collage 32 x 48 inch

Untitled 2019 Digital prints and, Accordion Book Digital Sublimation Image Transfer + Other printing Method

Untitled Untitled 2020 2020 Screen Printings and Screen Printings and Digital sublimation Digital sublimation image transfer image transfer 32 x 48 inch 32 x 48 inch

Untitled Untitled 2020 2020 Screen Printings and Screen Printings and Digital sublimation Digital sublimation image transfer image transfer 32 x 48 inch 32 x 48 inch 63 64 Bibliography

Iwabuchi, Takuro. “MURAKAMI,SABURO ‘PAS SAGE’(1994).” Youtube, 14 May. 2006. Web. 3 March. 2020 Wikipedia contributors. “Landscape.” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 20 Apr. 2020. Web. 15 Mar. 2020 Wikipedia contributors. “Urban village (Chi na).” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wiki- pedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 26 Nov. 2019. Web. 15 Mar. 2020 Bt465. “HENRI CARTIER BRESSON - The De cisive Moment 1973_2007.” Youtube. 6 Jan. 2016. Web. 3 Apr. 2020 Viola, Bill. Reasons for Knocking at an Empty House. 1995. The MIT Press in association with the Anthony d’Offay Gallery. London. Web. 15 Apr. 2020 Wikipedia contributors. “Chine-collé.” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 6 Jan. 2020. Web. 29 Apr. 2020. Wikipedia contributors. “Chinese painting.” Wiki pedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 18 Apr. 2020. Web. 3 May. 2020. Wikipedia contributors. “Duotone.” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 5 Apr. 2020. Web. 3 May. 2020.

ADVISING COMMITTEE

Chair Joseph Sheer Advisor William Contino Andrew W. Deutsch

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Joseph Sheer William Contino Andrew W Deutsch Barbara Lattanzi Xiaowen Chen Peer Bode Kathryn Vajda Devin Henry Eric Souther Laura McGough Donald Weinhert Mark Klingensmith Sam Wiechart Tim McKee

Special Thanks To Aodi Liang Gongzhuo Wang

Equipments Nikon D610 Canon 5D mark II Epson V700 Photo Scanner HD 40” LCD Moniter W1000(BenQ)HD Projector WD Midea Player Apple Mac Mini

Tools Adobe Photoshop CC 2019 Adobe Illustrator CC 2019 Adobe Premiere CC 2019 Adobe Aftereffect CC 2019

69 2020 MFA Thesis Exhibition Electronic Intergrated Arts Robert C. Turner Gallery, Harder Hall School of Art and Design NYSCC at Alfred University IG qinxuan_zhang Email [email protected]