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Attachment to Pets — Lee I-Hsuan’ s creative narrative, is a culmination of the works created which began with a fascination for the beauty of oil painting during her university studies. She reveres this medium as being full of colour whilst not being at all tacky. As one adds layer by layer, it looks elegant and dignified. During the fourth year of university, the author without hesitation chose oil paints as her medium of choice for her special graduation topic. During the creative process, she was fully immersed in and had a deep experience of the charm of oil painting. Thus, over time, she was able to refine her initially immature oil painting skills. The seeds of her topic came from childhood memories.
However, there is no end to learning, and one’s artistic practice is no different. The author obtained a place on this department’s Master’s degree course, in order to continue to investigate the areas of knowledge and skill she still lacked as well as her limited world view within the former topic which she so loved, to create a topic of discussion for her body of work. She wanted to ponder over her experience of raising pets during her childhood, supplementing it with theoretical foundations such as the study of semiology, behavioural psychology and surrealism. The purpose of the body of research is threefold, first, to investigate the affection displayed within the interactions between humans and animals and to gather relevant documentary analysis on this relationship. Second, to investigate contemporary artists which use death as a theme in their work, and to select those whose focus is on animals, and to use as reference the analysis of the change in mood of the works. Thirdly, when we revisit being confronted with the death of a pet, by the means of a series of artwork, try to understand the link between the experience of raising a pet and the imagery in the process of creating a piece of artwork, and to record the changes in mood when creating a piece of artwork. Thus began the development of the body of creative research for the thesis, Attachment to Pets.
This thesis tries to include the basic theoretical principles behind the symbols of paper folding, explaining the meanings and significance of the symbols as well as the vocabulary they give rise to. It expounds on Kahenman’s behavioural psychology and combines it with the theoretical viewpoint of humanity facing the question of animal ethics squarely on. Furthermore, these ideas are expressed using the surrealist art techniques. Animals do not possess the vocabulary of humans, yet they get close to humankind. Pets have become loyal companions of humans. Bookshops are filled with information on how to communicate with one’s pets. The author has had the experience of raising a few types of animals. Through this creative thesis she combines her own subjective experience to investigate the behavioural psychology behind humans raising pets. At the same time she chooses a few contemporary artists whose work broach upon the same subject matters in order to conduct a cross examination. The cycle of birth and death is an unavoidable process all living things have to go through. The sense of loss, pain yet vague impression the author experiences towards the death of pets is transformed into visual images. The paper folding symbols presented and harmonised within this series of artwork not only represent modernity and deep meaning, they also provide the scenes with a sense of visual abundance.
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