The artworks in the exhibition display the theme of pop art. Reflecting the modern popular culture and mass media, some works are comprised of various characters and logos that can be found in people’s daily lives. Such elements are expertly blended into one whole piece with simple and distinct colours. One painting combines about ten characters and logos into an interesting display. With the MLB logo set as the background, the M&M chocolates climb down the ladder to meet the Maxim Coffee logo. Next to the logo is a huge and eye-catchy Minion with a Superman logo on its cheek. A Mickey Mouse peaks behind the Minion and Super Mario steps on the Minion’s head to get ready to jump on a block. Likewise, the works integrate each element into strikingly eye-catchy layouts, which gives the effect of showing the characters as active and hyper.
Jongwon Shin explained his intention to associate the characters and logos. “I tried to make them somehow relate to each other. For example, I excluded Donald Duck’s eyes and replaced them with the Steam logo. Also, the Donald Duck is breaking through the Window logo, so the pieces of the window are stuck on the duck’s beak. I wanted the audience to see and recognise the logos and the characters.”
In fact, not all the works exhibit the lively atmosphere. Some pieces profoundly connote social issues, such as cyber-bullying, environmental impact, and Paris Terror Attack. Their surfaces are generally covered with numerous excerpts from articles that are related to the topic, stuck together like a collage of newspapers. The excerpts allow us to realise the seriousness of the issues and awaken our sense of duty to solve the problems. Also, the works are cut into the shapes of certain images that represent the topic. For example, one with the topic of global warming has the shape of a polar bear, on which articles are glued on it. The CDS artists’ creativity can be seen in their choices of using different materials that create certain effects. Back to the global warming example, the polar bear is attached with cottons and red strips to illustrate smoke and extreme heat. They explicitly indicate the reality of global warming and engraves it in people’s heads by making them feel like they are being choked by the smoke and the heat.
Julie Kim described how she designed her work in order to convey the message she wanted to deliver. “It is about illegal drugs. I wanted to show how dangerous they are. So, I put some violent stuff in, like blood, because drugs really kill people. If you look at the angle of the person, she is begging for one little piece of drug, and the chain around the legs represents the addictiveness of drugs.”
The Pop-Remix works created by the CDS artists amuse and give moral lessons to people with their impressive skills and choices of characters and logos, layouts, and materials. The charm of pop art is that it reflects our world in an unusual perspective that gives us a moment to appreciate the world, and the works by the artists indeed give us the same effect.
- Grace Lee
Artist Interview: Jiwoo Suh
Q: Can you briefly introduce yourself? My name is Jiwoo Suh and I’m in 10th grade. I’ve been living in Australia for the past 5 years. I like to watch animations and movies, especially those from Japan. Q) What made you come up with this art? Basically, I had to do a pop art project, which had the idea of combining famous or "well known" logos and characters to make one creative piece. I was instructed to choose 5 logos or characters.W hen it came to choosing the logos and characters, I had a lot of things in my mind that I wanted to include since I enjoy watching animations. At the end, I ended up choosin g those characters and symbols that I liked the most. Q) Have you enjoyed making this artwork? I enjoyed making this artwork because originally, I was interested in doing art. I really liked the topic because it was about what I was most interested in. Q) Would you like to make this kind of art in the future? Yes, if I have a chance. Q) Have you enjoyed using the materials? Would you have rather used a different material if you could? I would rather use water based paints, but I really enjoyed using acrylic paint since it was my first time using it. At first, I found using acrylic paint to be uncomfortable since it was difficult for me to do the shading. However, later on I was able to enjoy it. |