ART CONNECTION 15

INTRODUCTION

 

In many years of my experience as an artist, I have always painted on canvas to produce my abstract expressionist style paintings. I have painted in layers of thick acrylic paint, oil paint, gesso, collages and burnt canvas to produce textures on my artworks. For this project, I have decided to explore the potential property of petroleum based material that is polyurethane as my new medium of artwork. I believe that by exploration of new material, it will challenge and enhance the creative process of work as well as the creative mind of the artist.

 

Therefore the use of different techniques on the polyurethane may have given satisfactory or non satisfactory results due to how I may want it look on the artwork. The need to change material also is effected by the need of new look to my usual 2 dimensional artwork, which I have had produced for many years. Thus I decided that I should make that change to challenge my creative mind on exploration of material as an alternative to canvas.

 

Why Polyurethane? Not canvas?

 

Generally, we understand that canvas serves us on one plane of surface; that is the use of canvas is one sided within a stretched area or frame. As a conventional medium, the surface of canvas is painted with oil and acrylic colors, ink and charcoal. Canvas can be folded, rolled and used as collage by layering pieces of it to create texture. Canvas also has soft structure, which is not suitable to stand as relief work on its own. Without combination of media, canvas is unable to perform as relief and three dimensional works. Burnt canvas left fragile marks that may deteriorate with time if not treated properly. Due to these factors, I feel that canvas limits my creative mind and process of producing new artworks.

 

Thus, through this project, I am searching for new material, which I have not tried in my works before that is potentially be used as relief artwork and durable to time and condition.

 

 

Artist’s Statement

 

I always contributed my journeys to other countries or new places in my paintings. The journeys are my inspirations. The colors and textures express my feelings that I have experienced; my awe, happy thoughts, despair, anger and sometimes frustration. I placed these feelings in visual through colors and textures; from sketches to large paintings.

 

Through the long years of my experience as an artist, canvas has been my main medium that I have worked on to produce abstract expressionist style paintings. My paintings are in layers of thick acrylic paint, oil paint, gesso, collages and burnt canvas. There were times, I wanted to do more than textures and canvas limits my action. This has made me decided to explore polyurethane as my new medium of artwork.

 

I used fire to heat up and burn polyurethane to get accidental effects based on its character and behavior. Polyurethane is flexible under heat and melt under strong fire. The results of heat or fire applied onto various thickness of polyurethane may be different from my visual expectation. Thus, the process of work enabled me to evaluate, compare and assess the results and effectiveness of the material for relief artworks to interpret my art expressions.

 

In Fossil (2013) I poured wood varnish onto the surface of textured polyurethane and created a series of tonal effect from light to very dark brown depending on the surface of the textured polyurethane. Positive-negative grounds were achieved by leaving holes in some part of the work. The aggressiveness of my emotions was portrayed as textural quality on the surface of the work, which were made by applying strong fire onto the polyurethane.

The techniques applied on polyurethane created new style of artworks that explores on relief and surface. This becomes the aesthetics of my works, which no longer rely on form and shapes. The transparent character of polyurethane becomes more interesting when it is supported by light. The transparent material also allows me to work on both sides of its surface and enables me to work on the artwork layer by layer. From a piece of industrial material, Polyurethane became a medium to my artwork, creating a new body of relief work.

 

I believe that polyurethane is able to become my major medium in producing relief artworks. It works well with the techniques applied and satisfies my expectations. Although there may be accidental effects produced in the process, I am happy with the results, which has taken me away from my regular style. Fire plays an important role in this process. Different degree of fire produces different heat level and this produces different effect to the material. The effects may alter the form, shape and texture of the material. Heated polyurethane can be combined layer by layer to help create relief and thickness to the artwork. The works are finished with oil color and varnish.

 

 

Quotation:

“…because of changes in industry conditions the artist has been pushed to one side from the main streams of active interest.” - Albert Hosftadter and Richard Kuhns (1976). Philosophies of Art & Beauty (The University of Chicago Press, Ltd. London).

 

“You begin with the possibilities of the material”

-Robert Rauschenberg (1925-2008)