One week before installing the work... I have to try hard to draw as much as I can, knowing it is impossible to achieve "perfection" in my mind... those updates you can see on my Instagram.
So, firstly, I would like to share the whole process from 0 to 0.999999...
This site-specific project responds to the history of South Hill Park, which is literally a crowded haunted house. In order to dig something out from its history, I borrowed the book "Who Owned South Hill Park?" by Diane Collins from my classmate Christine. And before I "arrived at the right page", she reminded me that in the 19th Century, a few owners of the mansion were involved in the East India Company and/or the opium trades. That's it! Hong Kong is/was what it is/was all because of opium! That's the linkage between me and the place.
What's more? One of the owners was the founder of a prominent trading company, Jardine and Matheson, in Hong Kong. Its headquarters, the Jardine House was the tallest building in Hong Kong in 1973.
On the other hand, South Hill Park has some Baroque architectural features, so everything in the past and present can be compared.
South Hill Park & Jardine House (Baroque vs Modern)
Sir James Matheson & I
Opium trades & Hong Kong's status as an international financial hub (once)
cannon & tear gas
clipper & ferry/old fishing boat for tourists
Books (because the artwork situates in a library): "Who owned South Hill Park?" & "A Concise History of Hong Kong".
The planning took a day or two, and I had to get back to the mansion to take measurements, which ended up with some minor mistakes.
The planning took a day or two, and I had to go back to the mansion again to take some measurements, which ended up with a minor mistake. And then I started gathering reference images of the basic elements, like Matheson, things involved in the opium trades, the ships/boats, architectural features of the two buildings and other possible related elements.
The only problem is just the "canvas" (board) is really too big. 134cm x 93.5cm means the diagonals are longer than my own height. Also, within this week, I actually need to figure out the final solution to fit the work onto the shelf.
After talking to my instructor Andrea and Darrell, who is my classmate and a technician at the same time, I finally very quickly came up with this structure:
Attach a frame using 2" by 1" beams to the MDF board, drill from the front and covered with filler and paint.
Make a 3D frame and attach it to the 2" by 1" frame
slot the whole thing in between two shelves so that the 3D frame could stop it from falling.
I couldn't thank Darrel enough for helping me make the frames and showing me how to use the filler, so even if I fail as an artist, I can still help people renovate their houses. :p
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