Jessica Yang

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To create the vibrancy of the scene, I looked to the work I saw in NYC’s “Beyond the Streets” exhibition in June. The exhibition showcases how New York City specifically shaped the nature and discourse of street art and graffiti, emphasizing the “collective urgency of using the street as a canvas for expression.”[1]

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I was particularly inspired by the colourful urban scenes created by Jane Dickson, Chris “DAZE” Ellis, and Lady Pink in the past fifteen years. Dickson’s 2005 trio of works, Hot Shot, Shoot the Stars, and Check Your Speed, depict different scenes at a night carnival. Created with oil stick and linen, I was drawn towards her depiction of artificial light illuminating the stands. Creating a harsh chiaroscuro over the subjects, the lighting emphasises the commercial essence of the scenes, as if the workers were luring the carnival attendees to come to their stands. I appreciated Lady Pink’s surrealist depiction of her urban surroundings, utilising bright and unnatural colours to highlight manmade aspects—reminiscent of the German expressionist works—particularly zooming in on graffiti, as depicted in her 2018 works TC5 Teamwork and Death of Graffiti. In his 2018 subway scene titled and 2009 collaged urban work titled Daily Commute and The Four Seasons, respectively,DAZE also incorporates graffiti and a surrealist tone that resonates like a large-scale street mural.

[1]“About,” Beyond The Streets (Beyond The Streets) <https://beyondthestreets.com/pages/about&gt; [accessed 22 September 2019].

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After sketching out the perspective and scale (I never draft out what to paint nor use underpaintings because I’m always impatient to start, but here I did because perspective is one of my weak spots), I worked on the subjects first. I knew I wanted to depict the figures as organic, and so I painted with multiple layered colours mixed directly on the canvas. Painting with a palette knife allowed my colours to add texture and build on each other without losing one fully to another.

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Brainstorming how to formulate paintings from images on what it means to transitions mediums, I looked to Gerhard Richter and his photo paintings depicting everyday life in a blurred manner. I agree with his beliefs of the expressive limits of photography but diverge from his painting intention. Comparing photographs depicting snapshots without creative pretenses to painted pictures, Richter calls a photograph “absolute, and therefore autonomous, unconditional, devoid of style” because it lacks a creative filter: “the photograph reproduces objects in a different way from the painted picture, because the camera does not apprehehend objects: it sees them. In ‘freehand drawing,’ the object is apprehended in all its parts.”[1]

Similarily, as he has stated that he incorporated photography “not to use it as a means to painting but use paintings as a means to photography,” my intention of painting pictures was not undertaken as a photo-realistic feat.[2] Yet while Richter also endeavors for his paintings to be as impersonal as photographs with his blurred technique because he is against the “violent” nature of adding “style” to something existing as it is in that instant, I want to paint because I wanted to create subjectivity.[3]

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[1] Robert Storr and Gerhard Richter, Gerhard Richter: Forty Years of Painting (New York: Museum of Modern Art, 2004), p. 35.

[2] Storr and Richter, p. 36.

[3] Storr and Richter, p. 35.

photos taken from Gerhard Richter’s website.

Deciding which scene I wanted to paint, I was drawn to this image for two reasons.

First, I liked the contrast between the embracing couple and the background. In these mundane, routine, crowded moments where all anybody wants to be is out of the underground and on with their lives, the tender act of affection humanises the scene. They are lost within each others eyes, as if surrounding themselves within a bubble, engaged in only their partner.

Second, I liked the circular motions of the tube tunnel and how that represents the way I see city life to function. It symbolises the cyclicality my partner and I felt while we travelled, an influence I drew from the 1927 film Metropolis. The science-fiction dystopian film depicts a growing metropolis as a metaphorical human body, equipped with different systems functioning like organs, with a central machine “heart” that maintains the power for the city. I view cities like London systematically functioning like a human body, repeating certain processes to sustain and characterise the city, the way the tubes and buses and routines of people continue on despite of me, an inhabitant and observer.

To look for inspiration, I re-watched the footage we took on our navigator day and screenshotted scenes that resonated with me. I noticed that the scenes I were drawn to were ones expressing human emotion and character, which I also fixated on during my journey.

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I became interested in the concept of a “screenshot.” To paint a screenshot would be to create subjectivity out of a concept intrinsically devoid of style. As I believe the source’s nature is as fleeting as an image can represent, I would transform a split-second human moment into something more lasting and personal, to stylistically incorporate how I experienced it as an onlooker.

Our second project is to take on a role of a “navigator” with a partner and explore London, identify an aspect of the city to further investigate, and create a project relating to our chosen topic.

My partner, Elodie Carrel, and I spent a day exploring different parts of the city we felt contrasted each other in demographic, gentrification, culture and wealth. Utilising buses and tubes, we started in Kensington to Battersea and Brixton. We felt different vibrancies and energies.

The quaint, homogenous-looking parts of Kensington that had a combination of workers renovating and replenishing the residences of the wealthiest and the bystanders walking along, mostly alone and with earphones on.

As we walked towards Battersea we felt a more neighborhood-y yet less developed aura. Outside a nearby corner store, we sat with two elderly men who described the same daily routine of lounging outside of the store, drinking coffee, and saying hi to most people crossing through. We then spoke with a man in a striking lavender suit who worked with an NGO and described the beauty of the area. Despite the less bustling and “pristineness” of the area, I felt the people were much more open and friendly and willing to talk to unfamiliar faces. Everybody was willing to let us film us with good spirit.

As we approached Brixton, we came across an outdoor skate park covered in graffiti. As we tried to film the talented skateboarders, we were given the finger by some while others completely ignored our presence. We went more into town and witnessed a huge array of diverse people, crowding through Brixton Market. We sat in front of a wall, as a way the homeless did, and filmed from above. When we did this in Kensington, not a single person looked our way. When we did it in Brixton, people heckled us and a woman threatened, “you better not film me.” I appreciated the opinionated people unafraid to speak their minds.

We used a film camera that we have yet to develop and also a camcorder to document our experience. A short compilation created by Elo can be found here.

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