SAIC Undergraduate Exhibition

 

These two pieces about "Whalefall" are created for the SAIC Undergraduate Exhibition. The idea of Whalefall is the most relevant concept that I have explored during my four-year undergraduate study at SAIC, and I have also created another two pieces based on this idea but in different mediums.

The painting has a gradation from white to dark blue, which visualizes the falling process of a whale body when it starts sinking into the ocean after death. The long and tensional brushstrokes are to depict both the imagery and the emotional expression of the falling event. The top layer of the painting is full of tiny splashes in white and gold colors, and it is to mimic the phenomenon of "marine snow" that a whalefall would create when the soft tissue of the whale body has been removed by other fishes and organisms. 

In comparison with the abstract painting, the poster delivers a different approach by having a combination of serif and sans-serif typography on top of a halftone whale body. The main texts of this poster is a poem that I wrote in second person point of view about how beautiful and grateful a whalefall is to me. By titling the poem as “Whalefall: A Life After Death,” I expressed my feeling about the whalefall as a secondary life that a whale could experience. Phrases in the poem like “gradually collapsing, like a heavy rain, a vast snowfall, and brilliant fireworks” also echoing with the painting on the left. The side texts give information about what a whalefall is and how it is important in balancing the entire marine ecosystem. I use gold, dark blue and white colors for this poster in order to connect the two pieces together.

The reason of choosing this Whalefall idea for the BFA show is because it combines both my philosophical and aesthetic thoughts that I have learned and developed for the past four years in my undergraduate study. I experienced many failures, learned and accepted new ideas, struggled to reach a goal, and learned to deny but also accept myself. From here, I will continue to learn, to accept, to experience and to create.