 |
| [N. Han. Bi-Cultural Series, 2014.] |
Creativity hiked during lockdown when people had more time for themselves. There were also a lot of resources that helped people to be more creative. I had a lot of fun with my pre-schooler at home navigating through some of the resources such as
this one, especially useful when having an iPad around.
So I went for a photo walk with my four-year-old who took photos of the flowers she saw, then we put them together using
Pic Collage - that was fun and productive, and
probably would have been enough for most people. Getting out of the daily mundane to engage in a task such as this one brings forward the quest for purpose. Our human desire to make sense of the living does not stop there.
 |
| [VK, 2020] |
One of my A-Level Photography students produced a body of work that expressed her living experience as a Chinese immigrant to New Zealand. The similarity of her starting point to my photo walk is visually apparent: did we really know what we wanted to do? We simply made a decision and committed to it.
"See what happens."
Art happens, and here's how to art.
Explore and define
Han spent a couple weeks taking photos of all the flowers she could find - on the sidewalks, in the wintergreen, in the flower shops, and at home. She then organised and curated these photos using the composition in the work of
Karl Blossfeldt. Having made this reference, the interest in the beauty of flowers was established, as well as the dedication to a scientific portrayal of them that was front on, objective, recording features, and showing details.
 |
| [N. Han. Workbook Page, 2014. Visual Research (Artist Model).] |
Han then produced a series of photographs as portraits of a flower, using digital format and composition. High resolution with vibrant colours, photos such as this one below immortalised the beauty of the subject. As a high school student, this probably would have been enough for most people.
 |
| [N. Han, Digital Photograph, 2014.] |
Experiment and redefine
 |
| [N. Han. Workbook Page, 2014. Visual Research (Artist Model).] |
How could we establish a personal connection
beyond taking great photos of flowers? Han also found the work of
Amy Melious appealing, and a good opportunity to referencing contemporary artists. After some healthy discussions on contemporary practices, Han felt okay about stepping out of her comfort zones and included some painterly approaches to her digital manipulation which included playing with paint and practising the wash technique. She focussed on flowers that are representative of the Chinese identity, and layered Chinese calligraphy scripts found from home. These
By-Cultural Series conveyed layered meanings, and helped the audience to connect on a more personal level.
This probably would have been enough for most people.
 |
| [N. Han. Bi-Cultural Series, 2014.] |
Synthesise and enjoy
Now that the digital manipulation was successful, taking a leap forward was the
only way to freedom - and defining your uniqueness. During the process Han had compiled a library of original imagery of local flowers and cultural motifs. We discussed that the living experience couldn't be defined as one or the other - that being a hybrid was one way of responding to duality. What else?
Going back to
Karl Blossfeldt's manner of presentation, could we construct portraits of flowers that represent the
and-also stages of the cultural adaptations necessary for an immigrant to blossom and flourish? These beautiful creatures in Han's
Mutation Series are the perfect manifests of these stages. They were sophisticated and intricate -
and probably would have been enough for most people.
Selected Images from Han's Mutation Series, 2014. Digital Photography.
 |
| [N. Han. Mutation Series, 2014] |
 |
| [N. Han. Mutation Series, 2014] |
Obscure and subvert
Then was the time to introduce another vessel for layered meaning. The next series was inspired by NZ artist
Megan Jenkinson whose
photographic collage at the
Auckland Art Gallery used classical Greek vases to represent contained cultural practices - at least that was how I read them. It was awesome to study local contemporary artists and this helped Han to further pinpoint the uniqueness of her journey. It also enabled Han to include even more cultural motifs into her images. The juxtaposition of a contained cultural artefact and the absence of it obscured Han's earlier work, for that what was presented was no longer the self, but the masking of it. The subversion of perspective put the focus back onto the audience. The basis of our perceived reality and cultural stereotypes. What am I looking at? What do I make of this? You think this
probably would have been enough for most people.
Selected images from Han's Displacement Series, 2014. Digital Collage.
 |
| [N. Han. Displacement Series, 2014.] |
 |
| [N. Han. Displacement Series, 2014.] |
I am extremely proud of Han's photographic inquiry and feeling so blessed to have been part of this journey. The processes and methods employed to help further pictorial development were varied yet central to the idea. Still finding this relevant and full of potential looking at it many years later.. and that probably is enough.
Love it. Do it!
