Culture is the essence of a nation. The fine art of the culture has profound relation with contemporary design. With different culture background, design has slightly different meaning and means of expression for everyone of us. As a Chinese, the centuries-old culture is undisputed influencing my “design”.
The cultural fine art spread all over China is one of the most important parts of the national culture. With the progressively cultural exchange between China and western world, Chinese national fine art aroused enthusiasm of the art circles with each passing day. Due to the increasingly interchange and mutual learning, various new design styles have been created. These new styles which fused with the cream of the Chinese classical art and western modern elements formed a tide that is unconsciously influenced many people’s especially we international design student’s taste.
However, this kind of infusion, at a certain extent, is just very superficial, like a body without soul. Chinese national art is found on the literae humaniores. Chinese art advocates artistic conceptions of nature and harmonious. Unlike some magnificent and unrestrained design of western, Chinese national art widely uses highly pure colors like red, yellow or blue, spaced with white and black, giving an absolute and united color structure. Such as Dunhuang fresco, it indicates an effect of harmonious of holistic color, which just match the philosophy of Chinese culture – golden mean and harmony.
The way of joining two design styles is to understand the cultures. As an international design student from China, I understand the culture of China and fused it in many of my works. But to create new style of mine which fused with western art concepts, I need to learn not only the exterior, but also the deep meaning of the culture, in that case, maybe in nearly future I can have a clearer understanding of “Who I am” as a designer.
Above image is one of my first year design works.
[reflective and thoughtful in discussion of a complex issue] from Mata Freshwater:
As a designer, I feel that there is no tangible answer for me. My approach strives to be one that is a fluid process of discovering and cultivating passions, from any influence. And perhaps, this in itself is a reflection of my individual ethno-psychology. I am a female ‘Celtic Melanesian’ (a title my family made up to put on census forms), I’m a New Zealander of Solomon Island and English/Irish racial descent – so I have cultural ties to the West and the ‘other’ and I’m an agnostic (leaning towards atheism but agrees with a variety of religious ideals) who likes to play the devil’s advocate. But I don’t think these labels are appropriate reflections as who I am as a designer, but influence my perceptions and understandings of approaches and ideas.
Having and culture from a Pacific Island, ideas distinguishing between art forms aren’t there. Carving, weaving, and even being an orator aren’t separate in Roviana culture. As a result, I have intrinsically believed ideas of western craft distinctions, as forms of art and design. Like the arts and crafts movement, and the original ideas of the Bauhaus, I advocate a discourse that transcends specific realms of art, and combines a variety of influences into the creation process.
I think my interests propel me to learn about design histories, identities of other designers and approaches, in which I can assess and encompass into my ever-changing world view. This approach has me sitting on the fence, grabbing beliefs, ideas and inspiration from an abundance of contrasting viewpoints. It means that I’m constantly critiquing and re-evaluating my understanding of design and thus my approach. I associate myself with minorities, or at least those who oppose the norm, because of a dual background of cultural shifts between gender roles, racial ideas, and religious codes. This is an influence of what I think design should be, something that isn’t lost with the modernistic conformity of Westernisation, Globalisation and Nationalism. Design shouldn’t just be a language that rises above identity, stripping out culture and individualism. But should also be a discourse that allows for individuality and the variety of the human condition to be expressed.
