Figure 1
Figure 2Title: Death or a Newborn?
Material: Strawberry and raspberry
Size: 8 by 8 inches
Figure 1 is a photograph, which is a 5 images stack together.
Figure 2 is a sculpture, which is the fungi from the berries.
What is death? This answer may vary by different regions and beliefs. To observe the death of the berry, by putting them on a clear glass holder for five days and photographing it everyday, I got some non edible berries with fungus around them. Therefore, I put all images together in the photoshop, and lower the opacity and fill, in order to get an image which I can see the changes within these five days. Berries became darker, shrink, crumpled texture on the coat, there were white and black spots that came out through the days, white fungus like spider webs got denser through the days. Moreover, I got some fungus, by collecting them together like Figure 2, it shows a newborn of some materials, does it mean the berry didn’t die? No, it means the berry is already dead, but new materials are living from the fungus. This project contains both death and newborn, brings thoughtful ideas to me to face this ecosystem.
Dear Yifei,
Your submission presents the decay of berries and the growth of fungi. While the overlaid images are mysterious and intriguing, this manner of representing the process ‘infers’ material transformation. This transformation is not actualized in the artwork. One way to accomplish that would be to include the temporal change in a dynamic installation, instead of a static photograph. For example, you might add fresh berries each day within a public gallery. If they were arrayed in a sequence, like a daily calendar, the decay process would become observable, something like a time-lapsed chronology of the decay process.
Then, perhaps you could add the next step in the cycle of material transformation. What follows the death of the fungi?
Also, you might develop your project that “contains both death and newborn” by surrounding the berries in indicators of death (e.g. shroud) and the fungi in indicators of new life (e.g. nursery).