Collective Creatives from MAD Students and Staff

“….From the camera obscura in the era dominated by painters to the photography in the 19th century, people have been trying to capture the chemical reactions of different “lights”.….. Such fission process has not only greatly extended the boundaries of photography concept, but has also gradually infiltrated the construction of other media forms and modern life and turned into an aesthetic experience for sharing and exchange.”

(Guangzhou Image Triennial 2017, From Photo to Image)

MAD-ON From-Picture-To-Image Exhibition was officiated by Prof. Briel (Dean of DCC) on 5 May 2021 at Creative Cultural Clusters and Other DCC Open Spaces. The exhibition was also received visits and feedbacks from Prof. Huang (VP of UIC), Prof. Baily (AVP of UIC/ Dean of DHSS), Prof. Chao (Associate Dean of DHSS), Prof. Shi (CCM).  

The exhibition represents the work-in-progress art about 300 pieces of drawings/ photos/ mixeds) from some students of “MAD1003 Studio Art Practices: Drawing Fundamentals” & “MAD3003 Photography” in UIC DCC MAD. Students of the above courses experienced various kinds of artistic representation from Pencil-Charcoal-Pastel-AcrylicPhotograph-Collage-Mix-media-Digital-media to create their artworks on questioning classics “Rhetoric of the Image” (Bathes, 1964) of the “Image as a Sign” to “Images as Institutional Theory” (Dickie, 1974). Thus, both drawing and photography students can eventually portray the internal or the imagination at the first glance to the philosophical thoughts.          

The MAD-ON From Picture-To-Image exhibition has well illustrated the participating students’ enthusiasm and dynamism on art and design via mutually expressing/ visualizing/ contextualizing their creative-conceptual-artistic presentations. During their artistic process, they need to discover/ document/ develop/ review one artistic style in their art work.

The Opening Performance and visual dialogues was created by the artist Franky Wong, choreographer from Hong Kong, that “From Picture-To-Image-To-Moves” is conception in devising a transformational-transitional process to contribute the body as aesthetic potency (Carvalho et al, 2018). The body moves also allows possible relations in-between a field of sensitive potentialities and contemporary art. Eventually congruences/ similarities/ thematics (as Poetics of the Body) will initiate any open discussions in the field of aesthetic experiences.

The exhibition also focuses on that drawing is artistic endeavor and almost as the oldest forms of human expression as humankind. It is well demonstrated by the cave and rock art around 30,000 years ago (Around Upper Paleolithic). Thus, drawings could be recognized as pictograms to stylize and simplify symbol systems (proto-writing) that depicted objects, abstract concepts, and mostly their living from our ancestors. “Wall being as cave” concept that well demonstrates the in-born intuition of human artistic expression from their visual experiences. The final 12-meter-long mural drawing is a subconscious and collective act how artists formulate a human-being image via gestural expressive lines. This archetypal and cathartic drawing may echo with CY Twombly’s Blackboard drawing. He once said: "My line is childlike but not childish. It is very difficult to fake…... to get that quality you need to project yourself into the child’s line. It has to be felt. (1994)".

Last but not least, the exhibition is organized and supported by MAD staff and students.

Reporter: Mr. Andy TAM
Editors: Ms. Rita XU