ARTIST STATEMENT
The bowl-shape was inspired after seeing ‘Singaporean Fried Noodles’ on a ‘Chinese Takeaway’ menu. I use its form to reference exoticism, a western cultural phenomenon where constructed perspectives of the East are entrenched in conventions and belief systems of Western civilisation. Its repetition signifies the commodification of cultures without truly understanding the traditions behind them, which I sense living in Australia as a Chinese immigrant. A satirical commentary on generalisations of Asian culture is conveyed through appropriated Asian pop images such as by Takashi Murakami and Hokusai, who reflect ‘old and new’ traditions of hybrid exchanges between east and west.
ARTWORK PROCESS
Asian-N Bowl began unknowingly, by creating my own Mr DOB character in a conversation with Murakami. However, this evolved to appropriations of other cultural media such as Kano Sansetsu’s “Old Plum” and the Calabash brothers. My own scanned abstract gouache paintings were digitally collaged with selected pop-cultural images as a pastiche of Eastern and Western aesthetics. Each image was layered and transformed in Photoshop (scaling, filtering and blend modes) to finally become façade segments that examine hybridity. The work was refined by cutting the shape of the iconic noodle bowl from paper to frame and unify the imagery.