Yutong Li,
Artisit Educator
When Success is a Failed and Meaningless Artwork
Artisit Educator
When Success is a Failed and Meaningless Artwork
‘If perfection and idealism are satisfying, failure and doubt are engaging, driving us into the unknown’.
(Lisa Le Feuvre, 2010)
(Lisa Le Feuvre, 2010)
One area in which we can identify the endemic presence of failure in art-making activity, is the gap between intention and realization. In my previous education in China, my artistic creations served the purpose of a perfect, complete, and meaningful painting. This bound me like a cage, and following the rules made me feel unpleasant. I therefore tried to find ways to make myself happy: collecting failures that were rolled up into paper balls (paintings that did not meet traditional aesthetic standards), painting with paper balls, and exploring other possibilities of the three-dimensional plane of papers.
In my practice as an artist I have begun to enjoy disorientation and the indeterminacy of outcomes. I'm conscious of how this ambiguity affects the learning process and challenges many of the values and orthodoxies with which I am familiar.
In my practice as an artist I have begun to enjoy disorientation and the indeterminacy of outcomes. I'm conscious of how this ambiguity affects the learning process and challenges many of the values and orthodoxies with which I am familiar.