Inspiration &Theme devlopment by Shi Ying Anthea

PROPOSAL 1

A TASTE OF HELL About Exploring two of the five senses of what makes the living alive. We have always seen imagery and sounds of what hell could possibly look and sound like. But rarely do we think of what it could taste and smell like. Salty? Briny? Bitter? Alluring? Defining in my own terms what hell could possibly taste and sound like through the use of my own imagination and keen sense of taste and smell, incorporating art with food is my first theme of interest. The motifs, based on abstracted food imagery, will be focused on the ‘18 levels of hell’ in Chinese mythology. In each level of hell the sinners go through a different kind of punishment according to the sins they made in their living life. Translating the idea of ‘hell, punishment and redemption’ onto prints through food and art fusion.

Medium

food, photo manipulation & watercolour

Artist Inspiration Tony Le Duc (conceptual food photographer)

Style Direction

Vibrant, abstract colours, lightbox photography and layering

PROPOSAL 2

SUPERSTITIONS About Many at times we Chinese are warned about the activities one should avoid (especially late at night) during the Hungry Ghost Festival. ‘Do not turn your neck around when someone calls you from behind.’, ‘Do not comb your hair in front of a mirror at 3am in the morning.’, ‘Do not sit at the front row at a Chinese Opera’. Superstitions and old traditional beliefs are very much real to the Chinese, especially the older generation whom have celebrated the Hungry Ghost Festical for generations. It stems from both fear and respect of the dead, and the subject matter is simultaneously delicate, eerie and psycologically disturbing all at the same time, which makes for a very interesting translation into imagery.

Medium

collage, photo manipulation & hand drawn illustration

Artist Inspiration Beth Hockel (collage artist) Eugenia Loli (collage artist)

Style Direction

eerie, surreal, alot of depth

PROPOSAL 3

UNSPOKEN SILENCE About Who is the Hungry Ghost Festival truly for? ‘The Hungry Ghost Festival is one entire month in the year where the gates of Hell open and spirits from the Underworld are free to roam the earth.’ We pay our respects to the dead and give food offerings, joss sticks, incense, paper money. We serve them at the strike of midnight, or even days prior to the night itself. Do we serve the dead for dead themslves, or serve the dead to satisfy ourselves? Our own doubts and insecurities? The Hungry Ghost Festival is the only time when the living meets dead and vice versa. This theme looks at the possible interaction between the living and dead and fine line of division that separates the two. Motifs will be based on the unspoken questions of the festival and these silent interactions Medium

collage, calligraphy, watercolour

Artist Inspiration Toru Ishii (japanese print artist) Yoshikazu Utagawa

Style Direction

Flowing movement, figurative, white outlines, receding background