Statement
This exhibition includes a selection of final projects from the 2020 English for Art & Design (EAD): Bridge to First Year program at OCAD University. Building on Joseph Cornell's "box" works and the exploration of alternate realms inside small spaces, students in this exhibition were encouraged to both reflect on Cornell’s works and challenge artistic conventions. They have produced an array of responses that reflect the pulse of our time. The cover image is an illustration from a GIF by Hyeri Jeong titled Iterations (2018).
Creative Process
In their Art & Design Studio class, students worked iteratively over three weeks: moving from observations and mind-mapping to brainstorming ideas on a specific theme, culminating in a final project based on a topic of their own choosing. They practiced writing and speaking about their creative practice using discipline-specific vocabulary and visual analysis in both their Discussions in Visual Culture and Art & Design Studio classes. Below is a sampling of some of the fabulous student work and writing from our EAD students.
About English for Art & Design: Bridge to First Year
EAD: Bridge to First year is a 6 week non-credit intensive bridging program for students who have met all admissions criteria for entry to OCAD University with the exception of language requirements. This year, the program comprised: 98 students spread over five sections; 79 students entering programs in the Faculty of Design; 19 in the Faculty of Art; 52 students in Canada; 46 overseas. You can click on a student's name to take you to their artwork.
Students
Qiqi Chen, Rachel Doan, Yi-Ting (Etty) Huang, Hyeri Jeong, Siyan Jin, Xinzhu Li, Wanxuan (Paris) Lin, Yuxi (Celia) Liu, Derya Ozparlak, Dong Sik Shin, Xinyan (Cindy) Song, Yinxuan (Oscar) Wu, Liwei Ye
The EAD Team
This program would not be possible without the hard work and dedication of those listed here: James Ashby, Instructor, Discussions in Visual Culture; Claire Bartleman, Instructor, Discussions in Visual Culture and Course Lead, Visual Culture; Emilie Brancato, Manager, English Language Learning; Rebecca Diederichs, Instructor, Art & Design Studio; Shauna Doherty, Program Coordinator, ELL; Megan Farnel, Instructor, Discussions in Visual Culture; Erin Finley, Instructor, Art & Design Studio; Shannon Hayter, ELL Consultant; Xiangying Huo, Instructor, Discussions in Visual Culture; Jonathan Luke, Instructor, Discussions in Visual Culture; Michelle Majeed, Instructional Designer, EAD; Shahriar Mirshahidi, ELL Consultant; Kate Schneider, Instructor, Art & Design Studio; Adrienne Reynolds, Program Lead and Instructor, Art & Design Studio; Craig Rodmore, Instructor, Art & Design Studio; Andrea Valente, ELL Consultant; We also wish to thank Kiana Romero, WLC, Student Monitor and Monica Mu, WLC, Student Monitor for their assistance working on this site.
The Work
Qiqi Chen
My theme is that when international students go to a new country and encounter hardships, friends are the people who always give you the best support in addition to the family. One of the visual elements I used is warm color. I used a large area of warm colors to give people a positive and lively feeling to highlight friendship brings happiness to people and helps people face difficulties better.
Rachel Doan
This artwork is all about taking care of our planet. The Earth here is created with a combination of things that are not in use anymore. Encouraging taking small steps towards a clean planet is the message behind the material choice, focusing on recycling and reusing which is a great starting point for this journey.
Yi-Ting (Etty) Huang
The visual concept is "Don’t let the media control your mind." The idea came from my lack of introspection when receiving information from the internet. The fact is that most sources from the internet are biased and misconducted. In this artwork, the deep blue background represents the entire technology of the internet. The orange square symbolizes the windows that the media controls what they want the viewers to see, so netizens need a flashlight to look deeply at the sources being fed to us by the internet.
Hyeri Jeong
The Reversed Position (2020), clip studio paint, 26.4 x 22.5cm
This artwork is about the reversed position between human and wild animals as coronavirus has led us to be indoors for so long and allowed the wild animals to move freely on the street. I used black-white colours inside including two people who are inspired by Agrippa and The thinker by Auguste Rodin and used natural colours outside to contrast the situation. Before showing inside, we can see two deers through a reflecting window, which means two deers are looking at inside as if we went to a museum or zoo or galleries.
Siyan Jin
My idea is to support anti-racism in basically two parts, the two people with black shadow and the flowers and coloured balloons, which means all people are the same and all the colours are beautiful. I used various colours like, black, white, purple, brown, yellow and green for both the main objects (people, flowers and balloons) and the background lines for the balloons, the people and composition for the main subjects and the blank space. For the background, I chose mainly green to show an energetic atmosphere; for the foreground, those two little people with black shadows means even though humans have various colours, shadows are all in one colour-black, which implicitly shows that all people are the same and the balloons and flowers represent that “ All colours are beautiful”.
Xinzhu Li
This work I created for a choreography which was performed by three Chinese dancers. The theme of the choreography is about nature and life. It was created to reflect a scene where everything is reborn after the pandemic, to demonstrate a sense of peace and hope. In this work, I imagined that the three dancers wore clothes of different colours of the koi fish, lotus flower and wild goose respectively. These three things all represent luck and hope in Chinese culture, which to some extent, demonstrates the topic of this work.
Wanxuan (Paris) Lin
The title of the artwork is called Give Them What They Deserve. It is a topic about children in poverty which was made for August 10th, 2020. The artwork is three-dimensional, in a 22x32 cm big paper box. I chose to do this work because they had hard lives and I wish to encourage more people to pay attention to this issue and lend a helping hand to those children in need. In the project, I focused on colour and texture to show the hardness of children’s lives. I used brown and grey palette, wrapping paper, and raffia to show the poor circumstance that children are having in the present.
Anqi Liu
I chose my constellation “Cancer” to be the topic, the idea for which comes from my Timeline assignment. Cancers, like their sign, have a hard shell but a soft, maternal heart, so they are very protective. But cancer is also the darkest sign of the zodiac, so I use the texture of ink to express this.
Yuxi (Celia) Liu
I was inspired to make this work by news about people around the world coming together in the fight against COVID-19. I changed the original way of making an Instagram Box and turned the decoration in the box into a three-dimensional poster, which makes this work into a box with both decoration and toy appearance. Through this work, I hope to document the global impact of this severe epidemic.
Derya Ozparlak
I was inspired by the satellite pollution issue, and I used a sarcastic manner to introduce the design by displaying junk satellites being cleaned from space with a plastic fly swatter. The visual elements I used include a stylized shiny satellite sculpture, made by stainless steel and metal mesh, being struck by a ready-made, smooth textured plastic red coloured flyswatter. The juxtaposed sculpture's texture, colours, and composition connect to my idea that I used the flyswatter as a metaphor for the lack of regulations.
Dongsik Shin
My topic is 'Teamwork' which was chosen from what I learnt from my military life. I knew the word ‘tangled’ could have negative meanings, so I thought this would be the perfect word to imply both the good and the bad aspects of human relationships. I’m more likely to express the good side of relationships tangled together with each other like the puzzle pieces that cannot be lost to make a perfect image.
Cindy Song
While nature has brought many conveniences and possibilities to our lives, it also needs us to protect it. One of the products of cooperation between man and nature is fire. We cannot live without fire in daily lives. It can bring light to us, help us cook, and even celebrate with fireworks on festivals. But while fire brings us convenience, it may be a crisis to the natural world. If we do not choose to make good use of fire and do not protect nature, forest fires are likely to come. By that time, we will not only lose trees, but many animals will lose their homes and even their lives. So I want to use this "Box" to show you a comparison chart, let everyone understand that protecting the environment is everyone's responsibility, and let everyone know that nature has given us a lot, we should use our way to make it better, not worse.
Oscar Wu
The theme of this work is flow and break the changeless that inspired by the things have the flowing effect like waves, flowers, leaves, falling petals, etc. it gives the dynamic feeling to the object and be flexible.This work is a three-dimensional modelling work which provides the form to the work, there are lots of geometric and organic shapes involved in it, the material tinfoil used for the organic shapes create the texture to work that is hard metal feeling and make the colour contrast with sliver and white.
Liwei Ye
My theme is "which one is more brutal, humans or wild animals.” I used colour, lines and shadow in my work. The idea is to show people the damage that humanity has caused to nature through the contrast of colour and lines and the shadow expresses the nature of humans.