Project 3 - Finished Piece and Reflection

This is my final piece as I have set it up in the atrium of G-Block, NMIT.
I am very pleased with how the table cloths have turned out, I was worried they would be too strong for the piece, but instead they have merely drawn a better distinction between the two cultures. I would have preferred to have them both of the same fabric, and to have sewn them together to make them more like a table cloth, and less like two flags draped over the table, for actual flags are much more symbolically powerful than a tablecloth that has two flag patterns on it. However, having one table cloth would also strengthen the idea that even

 though the tea rituals from each culture are completely different, they still have common links, like that both are considered important in their culture, and both are based around this one drink that comes from the same basic plant. I searched for a Japanese flag from the same company the produced the Union flag, but could not locate one in Nelson or on any online New Zealand based stores, and did not have time to order one from over seas by the time I had decided to try flags for tablecloths. I also did not have the time nor the skills to screen print both the flags, so for now the flags do not match fabric and print

 technique-wise.
Both the tea sets looked authentic, and over the passed week I have had many comments from other students, tutors and visitors to the building. Many people recognised the tea set on half the table (mainly the British half) as familiar to them, and some even implied they felt a connection to it, whether it was something they grew up with, or something that reminded them of their mother, it was special to them. At least two people hit the concept, or at least part of it, dead on when they commented on how the table looked like it was set up for two people from different cultures to

have a conversation with each other, but since there were no people there it seemed more like the two cultures themselves having a conversation. One person said they found it interesting because it displayed two totally different settings from different cultures that were both kind of the same thing.

If I had had the money or resources I would have liked to have two mats under the table too, also from the corresponding cultures, as a way of creating a space around the piece that was part of the piece, but also gave people an area to avoid if they weren't looking specifically at the piece to reduce risk of breaking anything.

Project 3 - Union Flag Table Cloth

I found a Union Flag, though I have not yet located a Japanese Flag (I may have to make one after all) so I did a set up to see how it looked, and whether I would like it or not, and I have found myself rather fond of how it looks...

It is quite obviously English, but the flag/table cloth is not overpowering the tea set.
It also gives me lines and spaces to place the tea set so that the whole piece looks more deliberately set up, and not just pots and cups placed where ever on the table.

Project 3 - More Development Drawings

These are table cloths and table set ups. I got some feed back from some of my classmates and tutors that they think an unsubtle divide between the Japanese side and English would work the best, so I have tried some ones that show the divide vividly.

 Black one side, while the other. I cannot decide which would be which side though, white is considered a neutral colour in western society, but the tea set is very white based, and may not stand out very well again the table cloth, but black would give it a different read, as it's not a neutral colour.

 I thought maybe if I used English/Japanese flag patterned coasters to place the tea implements on, but the Japanese one, being a red dot on a white flag, would not really be that visible under the tea bowl and pot.

I thought maybe if I had half of each flag sewn together in the centre, but this would require very large flags for them to drape to the floor to cover the legs of the table, and I would rather use readymade objects rather than making flags from scratch.

Project 3 - More Formative Notes

These are the images I used for the formative critique, because of circumstances I could not have the actual table here for the critique, so had to used these images instead. The objects on the table are not the final pieces I intend to use, but as I had to order the pieces I want in from England and America (through amazon.com and amazon.uk) it was not possible for me to have them ready for this. I have ordered an 11 piece English tea set, though I doubt I will use all of the cups and sauces, and a Japanese tea set - with one tea bowl, a bamboo whisk and a spoon.

Project 3 - Trying Table Set Ups

These are lots of set ups I tried with my new tea-ware. I have decided not to use the coffee table they are on however, because I feel that the table is claiming too much attention away from the tea implements. I have decided instead to use a simple table structure made from a solid board and a prostrate plinth, with a table cloth covering it to the ground. No one will know the difference ;P

I feel that the tea pot should be in the centre, as it is so large that it overbalances the set up when it is to one side.

Another reason for trying the tea pot in the centre is that it can also represent the influence the West has had on the contemporary Japanese tea ceremony.
I like the bamboo spoon resting on the tea cup, but I feel it parallels the western side of the table more if it is placed in the same position                as the piece opposite it on the table.

I have been trying to decide if the spoon/sugar pot should go opposite each other and the whisk/milk jug, and if so which side of the table each should be placed on, but so far in my research I haven't come across anything to say if any of them should be on a particular side of the tea cup/bowl. I think I will indeed put the spoon opposite the sugar pot, simply because I feel a spoon, even one from a different culture relates better to a sugar pot (which often has a spoon with, in or next to it for spooning sugar) than to a milk jug. Same with the whisk relating better to a milk jug than a sugar pot, for what would a whisk have to do with a sugar pot at all?

Because most people in the West are right handed, they are most likely to pick up the milk jug with their right hand to pour. Two hands are often used for the sugar pot (lifting lid and spooning sugar) so it is less likely to seem in the wrong place if it is to the left.

I prefer the whisk on the right, and standing up rather than lying down. As with the milk jug, the whisk would more likely be picked up with the right hand, while the teaspoon could be either, or both if one was holding a pot of tea powder too.

Project 2 - Refined Sketches and Ideas

This was a series of badges based off the rose life cycle, like my idea for the charm bracelet, but badges instead.

 These images I glued into a visual diary book to help keep them safe and tidy.

This is my most recent idea, to do a series of three badges, one blank, with nothing confine it, but also unrefined. The second and third are both more developed, to represent the journey from a "blank slate" as such, to a refined artist, or at least a refined student artist.

Project 3 - Formative Critique Notes

Though all our projects were still quite unfinished, we had a formative peer critique last week, and here are the results:



Visuals (Distinctive visual aspects of work)

- Object piece
- Oriental aesthetic, creating exotic
- Product placement
- Deliberate layout
- Interior design
- Victorian teapot, cup - very english
- Japanese tea
- Oriental looking table
- Everything is on one side of the table
- Natural setting - could be mistaken for a real table setting
- Readymade
- Mix of pattern and texture creates interest


Concept (How well is the concept communicated)

- Conversation between east and west via tea?
- common activity from an exotic/foreign perspective
- Japanese tea service
- Oriental tea time
- Tea ritual?
- Tea!
- A mix of cultues
- Exotic gathering
- Tea is a global thing
- Some people didn't get it
- Traditions carry on through cultures


Presentation (and improvements on presentation)

- Would have been good to see actual piece [due to circumstances I couldn't have the table there at the time of the critique]
- Very clean and tidy
- Want items placed on table with more thought (in regards to the markings on the table itself)


Contextual Statement Feedback

- clearer image of tea cups would work better, not sure of font
- very fitting the concept, a conversation between two cultures
- doesn't capture the exotic yet
- doesn't contextualise, just backs up


General (comments and suggestions)

- Have a more natural feel - less deliberate set up
- Recompose
- Work is notably unfinished
- Eloquent, descriptive title to convey ideas
- Great idea
- Will look amazing

Project 3 - Development Sketches

I have done a range of preliminary sketches to try to get a good idea of what my piece could look like. I'm not the best at sketching, so I hope y'all can understand them properly :)

 This one is based off a tiered cake stand, the sort one might expect to see at a fancy afternoon tea, except larger, large enough to place teapots and cups from the two cultures (English and Japanese) on the stand instead of cakes. I would have teapots/kettles on the bottom layer, with cups (and saucers) on the second layer, and samples of tea (e.g. English breakfast tea bags, or matcha powered green tea).
Because the cake stand is English, I feel that this would probably overpower the balance of the two cultures, and send the whole thing spinning violently towards the English culture's side of the table. Maybe another way to do this would be to have just Japanese tea ceremony equipment on the cake stand, but I feel that would not give the meaning I intend, as it would seem more like the English assimilating the Japanese culture, and putting it on show. The Anglo-Saxon culture has been assimilating other cultures throughout history, so this is a very valid point to make in a piece of art like this, it is just not the intention I have for this project. Idea filed for later use :)

 I'm rather fond of this piece - it's a 'tea' tree (Camellia Sinesis) with hot water pouring down from somewhere out of the frame, running down over the leaves and into the two teacups - one English style and one Japanese style. This piece is far more suited to some sort of painting, which I'm not particularly good at, mainly because I don't enjoy it enough to spend the required time practising. The black tea and green tea that is common in the two cultures I am using comes from the same tree, so the same water comes down, and half goes down either side, becoming green tea on the left, flowing into the Japanese style teacup, and black tea on the right, flowing into the English style teacup. This symbolises how similar the two cultures are, even though they developed in completely separate areas. In the image I have drawn a teapot for the pot the plant is in, the idea is that you can put any tea into a teapot to pout into whatever cups (representing cultures) you like. This represents that though we are different cultures, from vastly different areas, we all still come from the same place - we all live on the same earth, and we are all one species. The different teas, the green and black symbolise the differences in our cultures, the small and big things we do differently, even as we do them the same - we all drink tea, all from the same plant, however we have different ways of drinking the tea.

 This is an earlier version of the previous image. It involves a Camellia Sinesis tree planted in a teapot in the centre of a table, with the teacups set up around it as though for a groups of friends to sit down and have some tea, but the teacups are mixed from both the English and Japanese tea cultures. This is meant to show the differences in the two tea cultures, but then have the tree that all the tea comes from in the centre, pulling it all together into one afternoon tea/tea ceremony.

This one is a set up of a cup of tea in english style and a cup of tea in japanese style across the table from each other, as though they are having a cup of tea with each other. Each of the cups represents their own culture, so the set up is symbolic of a conversation between the Japanese Culture and the English Culture. The tea itself represents a common ritual in each culture, one that shows many similarities and differences between the cultures. Tea is important in both cultures, but the circumstances is quite different in each culture, as described in an earlier post Tea and Ceremony - Project 3 Research.
This would be set up as an installation, with a real china English tea set and a proper Japanese tea set placed opposite each other on a short wooden table. At one end I would have a chair, and at the other end I would have a cushion, both fairly traditional methods of seating for each respective cultural ritual.

This one is quite confusing because I draw and noted on the image from one side, then turned it upside down and did the same for the other half of the table. It is basically the same as the table layout with the tea cups and pot and thing, but this would be photos of the implements laid out on the surface of the table in the way they would have been if they were real. This would have probably be more easy (and cheap) than getting ahold of the pieces themselves, however it would make the piece very flat, and that goes against my interests in installation. I want to make pieces that look like real scenes, something where you could actually see someone in there, drinking the tea, talking to someone else across the table...

These were quick doodles I did while thinking about minimalist symbols for tea cups. I did not go far into this because it is not the area I'm interested in, also, neither of them really stood out as anything from a specific culture, unless that culture was coffee -.-
The top one had been intended as an English tea cup, and the bottom as a Japanese. I mainly tried to portray this with the shape of the cups themselves, and with the pouring of the tea into the Japanese cup, as the ceremony itself is just as, if not more important than the actual drinking of the tea in that culture.