Jiashi Tang_Artwork #1 Score

by | Oct 15, 2021 | Artwork #1: Score, Projects

Light Painting

Install your camera onto a tripod. 

Set shutter speed to 10 seconds, aperture to f22, and ISO to 100

Turn off all of the lights in the room.

Go in front of the camera.

Hold up any light source and perform a dance.

Artist statement: The purpose of this piece is to create free-flowing and random yet unique art pieces. This is inspired by the avant-garde artists who defy the rules of mainstream notion of art and use pouring paint to create their own form of art works. As I read through Yoko Ono’s Grape Fruit, her score of “painting to be stepped on” interested me. When she uses random footsteps on the street to create paintings and artworks on a canvas, it inspired me to transfer some kind of movement into a still painting. Using a pitch dark room as a black Canvas, and bright neon light as the brush, the performer will be able to move in a 3D space and create a one of a kind 2D light painting.  By transferring a spontaneous dance in a room to a light painting, no one would know how the result is going to come out until the camera finishes processing. I think each result of this piece is an unconfined piece that cannot be replicated ever even with the same performer and photographer. From a personal perspective, I fell in love with photography because through the lens of a camera, I can frame and capture things that human eyes sometimes cannot perceive. The more long exposure photography I take, the more amazed I am by some of the creations I made with just a camera. I am able to pause time and capture some of the most spontaneous moments that happened in my life. Just like these light paintings, these paused memories are unique artworks to me that no one else can replicate.