YU JI
In my studio work, drawing constitutes the foundation of an effort in seeking eloquent personal expressions. Through utilizing modest materials in dealing with a complex process of image making, I have found in drawing an immediate access to picture space and flexibility of using simple pictorial elements, such as line and shape, to approach the form of representation.
Fascinated by visual textures of the inner city life and contemporary urban cultures of industrialized society, I have been drawing from downtown streets and industrial sites in New York, and recently in Los Angeles. With images recorded on each page of my sketchbooks, I see ideas become concrete and experiences inescapable.
Despite of its expressiveness as an artistic medium, drawing in my work also plays a pivotal role functioning in two technical ways: to obtain the firsthand information from life and to sift pictorial motifs out of raw materials for the development of a composition. In the first way, drawing from life challenges me not only to connect my work to immediate visual experiences, but also to maintain a critical eye discerning to various facets of the human life. Secondly, when I mix images selected from my sketchbooks by redrawing them on a separate paper, the search for a coherent picture space transforms the composition process into a quest of meaning of my studio effort.
Drawing, though laborious, enables me to approach a wide range of problems effectively, especially to avoid formulaic treatments to pictorial forms or common solutions that are driven by preconceived artistic notions. Each time when I draw, experiences accumulate to form a faithful source; and, with images remained truthful to observation, a sketchbook generates endless possibilities in pictorial expression going beyond a mere imitation of the reality. |
