Annie Chen | 2023 | Industrial Design & Biology/Behavioral Decision Sciences

Collateral Contradiction

Colored Pencil on Bristol Paper

This piece explores the parallels between three works from different time periods: Translated Vase by Yeesookyung, Christmas Tree by Hyman Bloom, and Still Life with Flowers by Rachel Ruysch. These works find similarity through the concept of contradiction. For instance, Translated Vase was created through recycling broken ceramic vases, but this act of repair rendered the individual vases useless, as there is no opening to the sculpture. Christmas Tree can be investigated through the lens of the contrast between an artist's background and their work: Bloom was an Orthodox Jew who utilized Christian symbols within his work. Lastly, Dutch flower paintings, including the work by Ruysch, portray an impossible reality with intensely detailed realism: since the flowers within the painting are grown in different seasons, these arrangements could never exist naturally in the real world. This piece is a conversation between the three pieces, merging them in a fragmented, contradictory, yet naturally unified existence.

from Parallels, Granoff Center for the Creative Arts, January 11 - February 16, 2019