Jessie Wu publishes second volume of her Heart magazine
On December 10, Jessie Wu (11B) published the second volume of her Heart magazine, aiming “to provide a platform for artists at SMIC to showcase their artwork” while including works from “professional artists and designers in Shanghai and around the world.” This second volume of the art magazine featured works from Aimee Chang (12C), Angela Dai (11C), Cathelina Xu (11B), Erica Chen(11A), Esther Tak (11C), Irene Shrader, Karen Guan, Katie Liu (12A), Ray Chang (12B), Sophie Chao (12C), Jessie herself, and the Digital Art Club.
Angela Dai’s sculptures utilized wires, fiber, and wood. The magazine depicted specifically the intriguing structure of a decaying carcass and a wavy mass made of wooden popsicles. Angela expressed, “For me, the toughest parts of art are comprised of two things: having to conceive ideas and getting over the first hurdle of everything looking terrible…I haven’t ended up with artwork I’m proud of without creating countless ones I hated first. I want to point out here: no one I know has made a piece and had the final product looking exactly like their original version…It was the process that pushed me to make mistakes and experiment that matters more to me, not the final product.”
Ray Chang and Jessie Wu’s digital photography displayed their unique perspectives. Ray’s featured collection of photographs all portrayed an object lit by golden light in front of a pitch-black backdrop. Three photos each communicated a constituent word of the message “You’ll be fine”portraying burning shapes and forms of paper in the dark. The other two photos showcased a building lit with orange or golden light amidst total blackness. Ray commented on his art stating, “I am inspired by many things around me, but mostly music, pop culture, and other creative people. Recently, I’ve been picking upon photography because it allows me to create and capture images that cannot be replicated through traditional forms of art, like drawing or painting. The things that I like to create reflect who I am and my many different moods, and I don’t plan on stopping anytime soon.” Meanwhile, Jessie took well-angled shots of specific outside-of-school friends in action. One depicted a rebellious teenager climbing over a wall with the city and blue sky in the background, while the other series of two photos captured the way the sunlight highlighted particular facial features. She also included a series of photos involving cloth and a lamp, of which Jessie claimed that its meaning is up to interpretation.
Meanwhile, the works of Aimee Chang, Esther Tak, Sophie Chao, and Erica Shen used more traditional mediums to convey meaningful messages. Aimee’s art utilized photoshop to combine various graphite sketches of distressed-looking faces and pinched cheeks with a color filled background. Esther’s Contradiction used mixed media to portray the conflict that occurs when we preach the golden rule yet sometimes treat others poorly. Esther also described her attitude towards art, “I’ve had many slumps while doing art and have also been very stressed, but because of my goals, I was able to overcome all those slumps….It’s my dream to lead [GUCCI] like [Alessandro Michele]. I always dream of myself at the backstage of the runaway as a director looking at the models wearing my clothes.” On the other hand, Sophie utilized acrylic paint on canvas and balsawood to illustrate a giant hand clutching “the abstraction of the white bridge…together with the light blue background to represent [her] naïve, burden-free childhood in Taiwan [and] depict how [her] journey from Taiwan to Shanghai is connected.” Erica’s works “showcase detailed images of fruits and vegetables” in unusual perspectives, “inspired by artists and food photographers Sarah Illenberger and Julie Lee.”
Cathelina Xu, who performs urban dance, commented,“It’s the best when I spend hours on choreography and finally get the chance to vibe the finished dance with my friends. Dancing alone isn’t fun; it’s so much more meaningful when people are working together and communicating with each other through dance.” In the meantime, Katie Liu’s collection of poems titled Electric Dreams consisted of three sections: “City of Dreams,” “Extrasensory,” and “Dreambreaker.”
Finally, Digital Art Club’s Halloween Art Contest winners were featured, and Irene Shrader’s page on “Artists who Challenged Censorship” was included. She showcased three artists who created works that challenged Chinese censorship. Ai Weiwei, one of the artists, expressed, “The censorshipin China places limits on knowledge and values, which is the key to imposing ideological slavery.”
Support and contribute to Jessie Wu’s Heart magazine because it does indeed “give student artists at SMIC the recognition and attention they deserve.”
Featured Image – Heart 2nd. volume – Courtesy of Gracier Dai
By Gracier Dai