Miku S | Moreton Bay Boys' College

Task 1: Art as Lens

REFLECTIVE STATEMENT

 The focus for this experimental folio was an Ultraman figurine. The toy is one of the most iconic Tokusatsu superheroes in Japan, shaping the childhood of generations from the Showa to Heisei Period.

The model was investigated through various lenses, focusing on how a culturally iconic character could be manipulated to convey unorthodox meaning. A various range of media was used to convey and develop the importance of memories as valuables, but also its drawbacks. This includes, the physical, the digital, the two-dimensional, the three-dimensional, the monotone and the colourful.

The figurine is explored through a personal context because of its deep connection to my childhood. The toy represents my connection to both the Japanese culture and to both my dad’s and my childhood (the television program premiered in 1966).

My experimental artworks have been inspired by contemporary artists who explore items, feelings, or ideas they consider valuable. In Michael Zavros’s ‘Falling’ series, it portrays these ‘things’ that are of value to them but unlike societal conventions, these valuable ‘things’ are not portrayed to be beautiful or delicate. Value is demonstrable through various lenses.

As a child I once idolized the 40m tall goliaths who fought monsters to protect the Earth. The superheroes on my television screen lit a spark of enjoyment in my childhood.

Within my artworks, the worn-out toy, which is neither beautiful or perfect, is held as something of utmost value, because it is a representation of my childhood, a time of fondness and nostalgia.

Task 2: Art as Code

REFLECTIVE STATEMENT

Our personal identities are defined by social constructs. We conveniently fit within  categorises, such as gender, ethnicity and religion; helping us distinguish complex  organisms between each other. Similarly, artists tend to express their identity in relation to  groups of people, rather then themselves.

Contemporary artists, Brook Andrew’s ‘Ancestral Worship, 2010’ and Xu Bing’s ‘Living  World, 2001’, roots their sense of identity within their Indigenous Australian heritage. Artists  often choose to demonstrate who they are from concepts which have a sense of community  (many people) rather than solely one person.

This made me beckon the question, what makes us, us? With so many people, we do not  have the opportunity to have a in-depth conversation with everyone. With little to no  information, by wider-society, we are often so defined by our relationships with other people  or where we belong e.g. gender, sexuality, spirituality, hobbies, social class etc.

Intersectionality is the idea that different aspects of a person's identity can expose them to  different levels and forms of discrimination or privilege. This idea stems from the  convenience to generalise a person from where they belong or present themselves as.

From the outside looking in, we are barely identified by the little actions we do every day. It  is more often than not, the bigger picture. My experimental artworks focuses on dissecting  my personal identity, into social constructs which I abide by e.g. nationality, religion and  gender. Colours and shape, symbolise each category.

On the contrary, my final artwork focuses on isolating my identity from categories. Leaving  only the eyes of a character on a white canvas. What do we ‘see’ in others when they are  stripped bare?

The boy he is now. The man he will become.

Contact MBBC
Quick links