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Processes
This work is a continuation rather than a departure from my previous explorations (as discussed in Chapter II of the Critical Reflection). In the first two units, I experimented with a variety of materials but eventually returned to the medium I am most familiar with — paper and wood panel. During my drawing practice, I often questioned whether I should keep changing my methods or instead continue to deepen one approach. A tutorial with Mujeeb had a significant influence on me; he suggested that after a period of exploration, it becomes more important to maintain methodological consistency. Only through long-term accumulation and repetition can breakthroughs emerge in a more natural and profound way. Based on this understanding, in this unit I chose to continue working within the familiar form of drawing while seeking new possibilities and breakthroughs from within it.
At the beginning, I conducted several small-scale drawing experiments, freely rubbing pastel pigments onto wooden boards. After completing a few pieces, I realized that this intuitive process perfectly reflected the sensation I wanted to express in my work.
Part of Was If It Was, summer show, 2025
Part of Was If It Was, summer show, 2025
Part of Was If It Was, summer show, 2025
Part of Was If It Was, summer show, 2025
Sketches
Then I wanted to create a larger-scale work. Since entering the college, I had always wanted to make a large drawing. Previously, I worked on regular rectangular wooden boards, but this time I didn’t want the shape to be too orderly. I decided to base it on the structure of “half a house” — a form composed of a square and a triangle. I built this large frame myself in the wood workshop. It looks like both an unfinished house and a fragment preserved in memory. After that, I spent a long time mounting paper onto the wooden frame. I like to draw on xuan paper attached to wood panels because its surface is not smooth but slightly rough, allowing me to feel the texture of the paper while rubbing in pastel pigment.
Process of Was If It Was, summer show, 2025
I chose soft pastel as my medium because it resembles memory itself—light, fleeting, and uncontrollable. During the process, the powder constantly drifted, accumulated, and fell away from the surface. I did not use any fixative, as I wanted the work to gradually fade over time, like fragments in the mind that reappear again and again, only to become increasingly blurred.
Process of Was If It Was, summer show, 2025
I kept rubbing pastel dust onto the large frame, my body moving rhythmically with the surface, as if merging with the work itself. During the process, I constantly adjusted the shapes and relationships of the color areas, trying to bring them to an ideal state. Yet something always felt slightly off, and I could never be satisfied.
Process of Was If It Was, summer show, 2025
At the center of the drawing, I added a small wooden frame. It functions as a drawing within the drawing, enclosing a fragment of a blurred landscape.
Process of Was If It Was, summer show, 2025
During the installation, I shared the exhibition space with Hannah. We decided to paint the walls a light pink, as this tone resonated with the atmosphere of our works and carried a sense of calmness, like that of a quiet corner. Through this color, we aimed to create a soft and tranquil environment where our works could subtly echo each other within the space.
Process of Was If It Was, summer show, 2025
During the days when I was considering the placement of the frame, a new idea came to me. I quickly made a wooden structure in the workshop and placed it in front of the large drawing. It is an irregular pink form, reminiscent of a house, yet deliberately avoiding a complete house shape, serving more as a metaphor for “space.” The frame stands lightly in the space, creating a layered relationship with the drawing behind it. Its size allows viewers to pass through the frame, entering the space of the work. They are not merely observers but become part of what is “seen” by the work itself.
Process of Was If It Was, summer show, 2025
I arranged the leftover pastel dust into a spiral, placing it in the corner of the wooden frame structure. This form represents a continuously curling spatial structure that leads inward; it is not a closed circle but an ever-deepening path. Beside the spiral stands a small wooden house.
Part of Was If It Was, summer show, 2025
At the final stage of installation, I struggled to decide how to place the smallest drawing. Pete suggested an interesting idea: positioning the fragment of the blurred landscape in the upper corner of the composition. In this way, it forms a triangular spatial relationship with the overall structure, resembling an attic within a house. The drawing is placed high and is quite small, so viewers may not see it clearly—but this was precisely the effect I intended. Its incompleteness encourages the imagination to unfold within the blur.
Process of Was If It Was, summer show, 2025
We finally completed the construction of this tranquil corner. It is neither complex nor complete, leaving only silence and imagination.
Was If It Was, summer show, 2025
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