Bloblette Doodles
9 August – 14 November 2006
My cross-disciplinary approach confronts the spectator with a powerfully playful and scatological reassessment of identity as constructed by cultural institutions. Propelled by my own displacement as BBC (British Born Chinese), a racial insult from a student as an English teacher in China, 2002, led me to remark my own ethnic divide from my motherland. Unable to speak Mandarin, a student’s bemusing ‘banana’ accusation “Yellow on the Outside white on the inside” has spurred me to reconsider my own identity and how I function within particular cultures, feeding into a conceptual process that seeks to eradicate rigid systems of logic and categorization.
My video pieces, installations and sculptures move action beyond the canvas, radically opening up new orders and ways of looking. In glorious techni-colour, highly laboured, they are all manifestations of an obsession with my “blob” aesthetic; a congealing of all matter into the order-chaos of life itself. I lure the viewer beyond the crass hi-glossy living of surface logic to the mutative underbelly of the congealing of all matter. Each work expulses and exposes the making process.
With my series titled ‘Doodles’, I incorporate images from Chinese newspapers, lottery tickets, quotes from Buddha to Beckham, exchanges overheard on bus journeys and food wrappers, these assemblages follow a Surreal automatism that connect all aspects of the universe on one plane. Usually the activity builds up on the inside surface of envelopes or wall length paper rolled to the ground; their pattern, function, worn condition and accessibility is part of my fascination to accumulate, collect and recycle envelopes for this purpose.
I use everyday biro, acrylic, crayon and neon pencil to render the objects and figures, which generally ooze a primordial chemistry. All erupt, splatter and frenzily spew out abstract shapes that express the politics of subconscious scatological. Akin to my video, text is used to hint at plot direction. Fascinated, just when you think you have correlated cause with affect, meaning slips away and splinters into a multitude of possibilities. Like a choose-your-own-adventure riddle; it cannot be pinned down. Sometimes it is the simplicity of the doodle and its message that exudes a fixating beauty. Or, it may be such a complex relay of exchange between the viscous lines and colour that you want to lick the surface.
Also, complements to the doodles are the ‘Bloblettes’ and ‘Doodlettes’. Each page of these artists booklets is a gentetic biomorphing that, interspersed amongst the larger pieces, add contrast and another dimension to any 2D flatness. For the ‘Doodlettes’ the pages remain empty and suggests a personal account for the viewer to mark his/her identity. Included are trinkets such as stickers and day glo Japanese confectionary, 100 % synthetic in taste.
BIOGRAPHY
Graduating in 2006 from Dundee University, Jay has been recognised for her outstanding contribution to the course with nomination for the The Wimberley Medal. Clive Gilman, FACT designer, Liverpool and director, Dundee Contemporary Arts nominated her for Chinese Arts Centre’s Professional Artist Development (PAD) Scheme, for which she was recently selected. Jay has also achieved The William Armstong Davidson Prize and Alan Woods Memorial Award. With forthcoming exhibitions in Ganghut, Melbourne and The Whitechapel Gallery, Jay is about to embark on the prestigious artist residency at Cove Park, invited by artist Graham Fagen. Recently commissioned to write a webblog for established UK arts publication, A-N Magazine, she also featured as their June’s cover Future Forecast. Jay will take part in the Liverpool Biennial 2006 as well as an invitation to Florence Biennial, 2007.
