Knowing the Unknown. Iowa Research Online. University of Iowa. Kwok-Pong Tso University of Iowa. Theses and Dissertations.

Transcription

1 University of Iowa Iowa Research Online Theses and Dissertations Summer 2013 Knowing the Unknown Kwok-Pong Tso University of Iowa Copyright 2013 Kwok-Pong Tso This thesis is available at Iowa Research Online: Recommended Citation Tso, Kwok-Pong. "Knowing the Unknown." MFA (Master of Fine Arts) thesis, University of Iowa, Follow this and additional works at: Part of the Art Practice Commons

2 KNOWING THE UNKNOWN by Kwok Pong Tso A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Master of Fine Arts degree in Art in the Graduate College of The University of Iowa August 2013 Thesis Supervisor: Professor Steve McGuire

3 Copyright by KWOK PONG TSO 2013 All Right Reserved

4 Graduate College The University of Iowa Iowa City, Iowa CERTIFICATE OF APPROVAL MASTER S THESIS This is to certify that the Master s thesis of Kwok Pong Tso has been approved by the Examining Committee for the thesis requirement for the Master of Fine Arts degree in Art at the August 2013 graduation. Thesis Committee: Steve McGuire, Thesis Supervisor Monica Correia Mathew Rude Anita Yung

5 To my grandmother and my aunt. ii

6 When we are no longer able to change a situation. We are challenged to change ourselves. Viktor E. Frankl iii

7 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would like to say thank you to my graduate colleagues: Andy, Heidi, Angela, Amy, Kevin, Justin, and Jim, for their help and support, and especially my advisors, Prof. Steve McGuire and Prof. Kee Ho Yuen, for providing great mentoring guidance that enlightened my academic career and helped me become a better person. Their friendship and professional collaboration has meant a great deal to me. Also thank you to my professor; Prof. Mat Rude from Ceramics, Prof. Benj Upchruch from Ceramics, Prof. Anita Yung from Print making, and Prof. Monica Correia from 3D Design, for their support and mentoring as well as Laura Jorgensen, Graduate secretary, Pat Arkema, Department Administrator, Sarah Cavaunaugh, Administrative Assistant, Regan Yoder, Anthony Sutowski, Adam Krueger, and Ben Anzelc, Lab Specialists. Most of all, I would like to say thank you to my family, especially to my grandmother and aunt, my brothers Josh Van Stippen, Won Jae Lee, my sisters, Christiana Byrne, and Lee Yeon Yoo for their support, care and endless guidance. And Erin Rappleye, for always being my best friend. iv

8 ABSTRACT I grow up in in Hong Kong, a city where reality is more important than imagination, most of us learn to go after something that is practical and look for a job that will lead to a stable life style, without imagining what they could become, and who they could be. I left my country when I was 16 years old and landed to the United States when I was 17 by myself, as a high school senior, where I started a new life and Art. For the first time in my life, I realize what I was created to do and who I really am; I then become an undergraduate to complete a degree in art, focus in ceramics. Four years of college, I spend about 14hours per day in the studio; practicing, learning and studying my art and myself, this constantly left me amazed with who I can be; a workaholic who dislike giving up. This allows me to master the behavior of as long as you try hard and ask a harder question to yourself about what is known, you can always overcome things that are unknown to you. And furthermore allows me to understand we are not constrained by rules and regulations, the process of discovering a question is something that ultimately lead me to understand life which not to define it or describe it, is to feel it. What initiated my pursuit of clay is it helps me feel, clay response to how we treat them in a physical way that no other material will. As a result, I completed a Masters of Art degree in Ceramics and it provided me an understand of the weights of materials, through the characteristics of materials; I am able to feel and express the qualities of balance, weight, and connection. Sure, I am not saying everyone feel the same way, but I am sure we all ask those question sometime, what is the balance in life? The weight of existence? Connection between us? I like my work to be a metaphor of expressing the importance of those complex questions during the pursuit of what is known, what is unknown, and to feel the need of understand and ask harder question. v

9 TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF FIGURES... vii CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION...1 II. KNOWING THE UNKNOWN...2 III. DISTANCE...20 IV. FRIENDS...26 V. MAYBE THIS IS THE END?...29 vi

10 LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1. Knowing The Unknown Series: You Don t See What I See Knowing The Unknown Series: You Don t See What I See Knowing The Unknown Series: What goes up must come down Knowing The Unknown Series: Odd Sequence Knowing The Unknown Series: From the inside out Knowing The Unknown Series: From the inside out - Detail Knowing The Unknown Series: From the inside out - Detail Knowing The Unknown Series: From the inside out - Detail Knowing The Unknown Series: Forward or Backward Knowing The Unknown Series: Pushing Button Knowing The Unknown Series: Myth Knowing The Unknown Series: Almost Fall Knowing The Unknown Series: Balance Knowing The Unknown Series: Edge Knowing The Unknown Series: Inside or outside Knowing The Unknown Series: Rest Knowing The Unknown Series: Roll Knowing The Unknown Series: Escape Knowing The Unknown Series: Embrace Knowing The Unknown Series: Lucid Knowing The Unknown Series: Relentless Knowing The Unknown Series: Solitude Distance: Took a part of me Distance: Took a part of me - Detail...22 vii

11 25. Distance: Broken Distance: Broken - Detail Distance: Connected Pressure Distance: Connected Pressure - Detail Distance: Weight of knowing Distance: Weight of knowing - Detail Knowing The Unknown Series: Things Do Change Knowing The Unknown Series: Nothing is Forever Knowing The Unknown Series: Infinitus...28 viii

12 1 CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION My works enrich the nature and weight of materials. By producing a clear and concise space, I am able to create a connection in the relationship between one object to another. This connection is a metaphor to express the importance of this miscellaneous, compact relationship, with the use of reduction, negation, and clarification to achieve a simplified composition. I embrace this abstracted space, through the characteristics of different materials, and express the qualities of balance, weight, and connection. Each physical and conceptual element of the materials are now able to provide the viewer with a clear direction, through signs that work within my compositions. I hope my work can enrich this perception of spatial relationship, but more importantly, it s my goal to also enrich this relationship during the pursuit of what is known and unknown. My Artist statement. The following couple sheets of paper included my best effort to be as honest as I can be to show how I feel. It is the journey of events and emotions travel back and forth in my head all these years, and how they become essential part of my art work.

13 2 CHAPTER II. KNOWING THE UNKNOWN Very little I know then. I know more, now. I still don t know a lot. Will I ever know all that I don t know? NO. Is it going to be ok? I try and I tried really hard, I am sure you do too. Many years ago, landed on this country, alone. Things, reminded, how I feel? Meaning of life; stand on this landscape, big, empty and alone. Wall build, to protect. Heart. Burn, from the past. No completing. No losing.

14 3 You, my other mother, you, my other brothers and sister. You, my friends. With your warm and welcome heart, melted away this heart, give me all I wanted, something I never had when I was young. Time does fly, strength and faith you had in me is now in me, meaningful, it is the drives to believe, there are good and there are great, even we live in hell. High school, wonderful time. Too short to realize. You pass away, my other mother. So I learned. So I learned about how to believe even when there are no hopes; so I learned action speak louder than words. To you, Janet. know. Unfortunate event, critical, turning point, shaped who I am, and formed what I

15 4 College? Not sure 2years. Here I am. What do I do? I don t know. Remember? When I was a kid, I draw and paint; only time they said something nice, the only time they look at me, eyes, useless? Heart was broken but still hurting. Not doing, but proving. Two year. You, another mother. Taught me, not to give up, what is in your heart? Everything is going to be okay. Clay is reaction to your action, you said and I believed. Everything, alone, with a lonely heart. I replied.

16 5 Clay is clay, is soil, no soil, no life, the smallest thing in life that gives us life. We forget the most important to remember, to remember. Sunny, Cloudy, Rainy, Snowy. They were all the same, different day. Empty studio, so I fill. I am alone, so I make. Is going to be okay, is it? HOPES In this, I felt. Two years, working hard, to prove, who I can be. Once, you two laugh? Remember? Now, I am! Learned to keep in heart, pretend with no intent, it is. It is going to be okay. To you, MO. New place, new beginning, new things, new goal. The fear of unknown, past. The comfort of known, present.

17 6 Sometimes memories, humorous and charming, an innocent children; life is worth living. Other time, memories, fearful and discouraging, a scary monster, get eaten alive. The truth? Feel alone, stand alone. Not willing, but how to? Here, I am who I am, let go, give this up. I am who I am not. You, my mentor in clay, you my mentor in sculpture, you my mentor in painting. All the talk about after school, all the broken saw blade, all the colors on my hands. Marks of existence were there, still there. Now what? Buried, defeated. Walk along. Days after days, years after years.

18 7 With this, a way to keep going, keep moving; keep on doing what I am doing. Sounds simple; no word, all this pains and joys. To you, Laura, Glenn, Armin. I am okay now, am I? Forgive, and give, stand alone, application so I control, to be my own, to be alone. I am who I am, who I wanted to be. What do I know again? Very little? Small, so tiny. What to, how to, make this. Is going to be okay, is it? Teach day after day; drive night after night, fill out Application after application, eat meal after meal. Alone, and alone, so my heart is closed, so I don t get close, so pretend, it is going to be ok. To be, make this, no one, but me. To do? To stay. Where? A little more time so to be safe. Where? Here.

19 8 Where? Nowhere? Hard work pay but alone, trust received but alone, here, now, I see, so I do, keeping it closed. Accept the fear of the unknown, Knowing the unknown. To Me

20 9 Figure 1. Knowing The Unknown Series: You Don t See What I See Figure 2. Knowing The Unknown Series: You Don t See What I See - Detail

21 10 Figure 3. Knowing The Unknown Series: What goes up must come down Figure 4. Knowing The Unknown Series: Odd Sequence

22 11 Figure 5. Knowing The Unknown Series: From the inside out Figure 6. Knowing The Unknown Series: From the inside out - Detail

23 12 Figure 7. Knowing The Unknown Series: From the inside out - Detail Figure 8. Knowing The Unknown Series: From the inside out - Detail

24 13 Figure 9. Knowing The Unknown Series: Forward or Backward Figure 10. Knowing The Unknown Series: Pushing Button

25 14 Figure 11. Knowing The Unknown Series: Myth Figure 12. Knowing The Unknown Series: Almost Fall

26 15 Figure 13. Knowing The Unknown Series: Balance Figure 14. Knowing The Unknown Series: Edge

27 16 Figure 15. Knowing The Unknown Series: Inside or Outside Figure 16. Knowing The Unknown Series: Rest

28 17 Figure 17. Knowing The Unknown Series: Roll Figure 18. Knowing The Unknown Series: Escape

29 18 Figure 19. Knowing The Unknown Series: Embrace Figure 20. Knowing The Unknown Series: Lucid

30 19 Figure 21. Knowing The Unknown Series: Relentless Figure 22. Knowing The Unknown Series: Solitude

31 20 CHAPTER III. DISTANCE The distances disappear, in dream, slip through reality, words weight heavy, you whispers, wish I could hear, but I was not there. Sorry Time and effort connection. Build and destroy intention. Be and not to be decision. Word and silent communication. Two point destination. Space created, distance, lines created, pattern; everything nothing, nothing is everything? Try, understand? Will I ever will? A impute meaning, impression and conclusion. Cause, no, poison. Heart to feel, ears to listen, nose to smell, eyes to see, mouth to speak. Close, but open? You. Wall you climb, hide you seek, chest you open, matter you heal.

32 21 Trying, hard and hardest, is hard, chance, not there. Wear the tear, to be here. Why? So you see. Pains are gone, when I see, Pain are gone! When I see! Peace of mind, so I see, Peace of mind! So I see! Strings that lie, is all I see. Dreams as dream, is real. Words as trust, I believe. Action as speaks, I see. Too short to define, is real, was I? Dream, I believe, did I? Help, I needed, do I? Not fair, beyond repair. With this tie, all that lies, is die to alive, teardrops. Surprise? Is gone, all gone. Is gone, all gone. Surprise? Wall is up and high, to hide. Surprise? Leave it all behind. To cry, to die. Distance.

33 22 Figure 23. Distance Took a part of me Figure 24. Distance Took a part of me - Detail

34 23 Figure 25. Distance Broken Figure 26. Distance Broken - Detail

35 24 Figure 27. Distance Connected Pressure Figure 28. Distance Connected Pressure - Detail

36 25 Figure 29. Distance Weight of knowing Figure 30. Distance Weight of knowing - Detail

37 26 CHAPTER IV. FRIENDS Tonight, The darkest night, I see. Spiral of life, I feel. Different from the past. Good and bad, up and down, around, alone but not. Speak little, without words, miracle. The tides, rise, the other side, to sky, to define. It varies, hours and years, time and space, is present. The path, circular, the other world, to harmonics, to navigate. Through times. To all of you.

38 27 Figure 31. Distance Things Do Change Figure 32. Knowing The Unknown Series: Nothing is Forever

39 Figure 33. Knowing The Unknown Series: Infinitus 28

40 29 CHAPTER V. MAYBE THIS IS THE END? Clear as air, black as night, When it rains, it pours, life is cycle, miracle. Embrace, this truth, possible. The past is painful, it past. Future is now, changes. Concept of change, not under. Childish dreams, unwanted realities, lucid truth. Journey, a river, beginning to an end, answers in between, this path is the end, not. Flow with flow, stumble with stumble, lost with traction, mystery with curiosity, one way but forwards. Remember nothing, but now. Moment, define. Complex is life, simple is nature.

41 30 The weight of knowing is light. The fear of unknowing, is heavy. Supports and refute, Pass and fail, Lost and found. To prepare, My flesh, my bones, my ashes.