2025.8
Residency at Taleamor Park, LaPorte, Indiana, USA
I. Space Turtle
So... there is a door stop in the residency house that is a bronze turtle. I walked in the fields and thought why not make a turtle and put it in the field?
MAIDEN VOYAGE of the Space Turtle
***amazing video below***
***amazing video below***
At the local history museum, I saw many cars (which was why the museum was built in the first place). One of them had trays serving root beers (first picture below), which is a feature I definitely wanted in this car that I was building (also this is my first car), although I don't have my Ohioan license yet.
Video with drone footage:
Process photos (which are more interesting than the thing):
II. Drawings
Also at the history museum, I saw many room displays:
Looking at our own residency house which was built in 1854, I thought I should make museum drawings of the house, too. First, this big old house was indeed a museum to me (who is used to living in rooms smaller than 15 square meters for all my life). Second, after I arrived at the residency, I learned that we were the last residents of this program which had hosted 150 residents in the past 10 years.
Works below are listed in chronological order:
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Bedroom
1 wardrobe with fake wooden acorns 2 lamp far away from any power outlet 3 very round mirror 4 Clifford’s colorful abstract painting 5 bed for singles 6 lamp that’s actually connected to outlet 7 window with shades and curtains 8 same as above 9 for this one, the strings of the shade are on the right 10 sofa for singles 11 round desk with paws on the legs 12 lamp with a Roman column 13 lamp with a vase with goose necks 14 jar of corn with scissors, pen, and two feathers 15 secretary bookcase with a glass ball 16 Clifford’s print called “Mexican Road” 17 porcelain switch plate with cardinal and pine cones 18 magical cold air coming from below |
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Studio
1 black board with white scratches 2 wooden box with words “Clementines” 3 Clifford’s abstract silkscreen panel 4 Farmhouse Studio paper in sheet protector 5 a bunch of dangerous chemicals in rusted cans 6 loose canvas on panel 7 six wooden panels/paintings covered by cloth 8 wooden shelf with a lot of compartments 9 Botticelli puzzle “Primavera” 10 mysterious black boxes 11 looks like vent, not sure if it’s working 12 Clifford’s colorful abstract painting 13 pastels à l’écu 14 laser-cut sheet with Clifford’s iconic shapes in sheet protector 15 pillow with a fancily dressed man riding bicycle 16 ball-shaped cushion with world map 17 white iMac 18 Clifford’s abstract painting with five or six-sided figures 19 Google speaker that looks like oil diffuser 20 entrance to the underworld |
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Scaffold
1 coffee table for whoever needs to pull an all-nighter 2 projector with broken bulb 3 Kodak carousel 4600 projector 4 transparent plastic container with lens, hard drive, and CDs 5 paper box with painted slides 6 mysterious black box with letter “I” 7 cloth with thin red stripes 8 cord with the shape of a chicken’s heart 9 black strip of metal for short people 10 sticker with the word “ScaffoldMart” 11 remote control that seems unrelated to the tangling cords |
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Collection
1 tree bark or bodice? 2 wood with trilobite-looking prints 3 feather with tiger pattern 4 beeswax-looking things (actually wasp nests) 5 head bone of some animal (deer?) 6 leaf or fruit of a plant (fig-shaped) 7 nest built by hardworking birds 8 a longer branch of item no.6 9 wood with fish-bone-looking prints 10 poetry (Chinese and English) engraved on night-blue glass panels: left: Black wild cat Always lying in the haystack of the warehouse In the fields that fade into the sky She looks like a black sesame seed right: On the rainy nights after the autumn The land that the harvester has run over Petals trampled out by foraging deer |
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Desk
1 letter that says “give me your poor and huddled masses send away our” 2 colors that look like candy but they are poison 3 inkstone 4 matte gel 5 mysterious wood staring at you 6 paper towel with unknown chemicals 7 plastic box that says “CLINIQUE” 8 tissues with color 9 Sumi ink with magical nozzle 10 glass pen that’s likely from the last century 11 Doordash advertisement that says “WHAT YOU NEED, WHEN YOU WANT IT.” 12 Derwent fine art pencils 13 some monuments that don’t look real 14 linen cloth with colorful paint splatter 15 ink drawings with statues and animals on good paper 16 hospital-green rubber glove with dots of red 17 just another paper towel 18 possibly bell to remind the owner to stop working 19 an elegant nozzle |
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Gouache
1 G804 Vermilion 2 G812 Pale Coral 3 G821 Kerria Japonica Yellow 4 G823 Lemon 5 Another G823 Lemon ?! 6 G827 Light Ochre 7 G841 Pale Patina 8 G842 Seedling 9 G861 Myosotis Blue 10 G863 Dayflower Blue 11 G871 Bellflower 12 G881 Silver Grey 13 G893 Antique Silver 14 G803 Scarlet 15 G813 Orange Yellow 16 G822 Canola Yellow 17 Another G822 Canola Yellow (not canoli) 18 G831 Taisha Brown 19 G843 Spring Green 20 G845 Evergreen 21 from another series, 019 Antique Turquoise 22 from another series, 007 Antique Green 23 G846 Bamboo Green 24 G864 Oriental Blue 25 Daniel Smith Extra FineTM Watercolors French Ultramarine 26 G873 Edo Violet 27 G884 Black 28 Daniel Smith Extra Fine TM Watercolors Titanium White 29 G892 Antique Rich Gold 30 G866 Indigo 31 G849 Elm Green 32 G848 Pine Tree Green 33 G844 Leek Green 34 G836 Smoked Bamboo 35 G835 Bark Brown 36 G832 Iron Oxide Red 37 G825 Amur Cork Yellow 38 G824 Gardenia Yellow 39 A newer tube of G824 Gardenia Yellow 40 G811 Orange 41 G802 Safflower Red 42 G891 Antique Gold 43 G833 Russet Brown 44 G882 Rikyu Grey 45 G872 Peony 46 G865 Hummingbird Blue 47 G862 Geisha Blue 48 G850 Russet Green 49 G847 Patina 50 G834 Dark Brown 51 G883 Blue Black 52 G826 Amber (tail was cut off) 53 G801 Crimson 54 Box with design/icons of winter 55 Not enough space to number all the boxes, but you can guess what’s on them |
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Closet
1 painted slides from 1983 2 box with instructions on how to fold this box 3 SWEET, EASY TO PEEL, KIDS LOVE THEM 4 nice shape 5 not a McDonald’s burger box 6 wooden container with painted 3.5” floppy disks 7 semi-transparent container with too much stuff 8 Rolodex that can apparently roll 9 Strathmore Writing Text Recy Soft White Wove 10 address book (typewritten) 11 20K people expected for Red Power Round Up 12 label saying “Empty” 13 Swatches 14 GROWN & PACKED BY PRODUCT OF U.S.A. 15 huge roll of painted paper 16 very old computer 17 plastic black box that looks like a pavilion 18 Gulf map with a lot of gulfs 19 not map but a line drawing of a smiling woman 20 bridge of friendship between abandoned things |
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Cabinet
1 “NOT MY PROBLEM” 2 two chatty guys in blue overalls 3 paper flower ball 4 cock on a bell 5 more bell-looking things 6 apparently some kind of machine 7 fancy plate with hollow rims that you will never use 8 weird rock with white dots 9 rock that looks like a mountain or pork 10 black rock 11 UFO models with patterns (Mexican?) 12 white rock with pores 13 brown polished rock 14 big bronze bowl with diamond patterns 15 blue plate 16 glass plate with leaves (well, not real leaves, fake leaves) 17 sun carved into a ceramic platter 18 a bunch of glassware perfect for two scoops of ice cream 19 a jar that looks like the one that Vermeer painted |
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Paper studio
1 Linotype-Hell (?) machine from Germany 2 Samsung monitor 3 cupping-glass-looking things 4 Workable Fixatif 5 armchair with floral patterns that nobody would sit on 6 linen with kaleidoscope patterns 7 canvas stenciled with letters B, G, H, R 8 pink cloth with tie-dye colors 9 beige cloth with something unimportant on the back 10 cuter version of iMac 11 plastic container with white gloves 12 acrylic or glass panel that has nothing inside but the beauty and honesty that most artworks lack 13 tape dispenser 14 dark blue cloth that’s apparently torn from a shirt 15 a blue star hanging on a zipline |
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As I look into more and more unimportant corners of the residency, I have realized that this work is about my understanding of what I see - I go to an unfamiliar place and draw. I number objects in the drawing and write down what I think they are.
As I move closer, I start to discover that what I see might not be what I think I see. A third layer unveils when I converse with the owner of the place after drawing. For example, I drew a letter with the text “give me your poor and huddled masses send away our” without knowing it was from the poem inside the Statue of Liberty.
But as I learn more, do I want to continue to learn more? Isn’t what I think I see enough for me to understand the world?
As I move closer, I start to discover that what I see might not be what I think I see. A third layer unveils when I converse with the owner of the place after drawing. For example, I drew a letter with the text “give me your poor and huddled masses send away our” without knowing it was from the poem inside the Statue of Liberty.
But as I learn more, do I want to continue to learn more? Isn’t what I think I see enough for me to understand the world?