Collage and 100 Words (Final)

The Pond

For the rich families in China, ponds are the essential elements in their gardens, which water is the sign of wealth. Rocks on the edge of the pond always got a hanging end so that it looks like the water (wealth) keeps running into the family’s pocket. This collage gives a brief view of the traditional ponds of rich Chinese gardens. Around the ponds, there are always some buildings, trees, walls, entries, fake mountains and bridges. Also, I’m trying to express the activities of the visitors within the pond area. Some of the visitors chat with their friends. Some of them enjoy taking photos of the pond while some enjoying taking photos of themselves. Some even enjoy gazing at the beauties inside the garden!




The Mountain

The format of the collage was organised in order to make it look similar to a Chinese painting. The narrow longitudinal layout expressed the idea of “height”. The layout of the collage guides your sight from the bottom to the top of the painting. Moreover, there is a contrast between the bottom and the top, which the building at the bottom was shown clearly without any barriers, and the tower at the top was covered with layers of trees. Additionally, this also indicated that it was located far away on the mountain which brings a feeling of mystery to the tower. Moreover, two lines were added as an indicator to the layout of the collage and made the white space became the sky of the collage.




Corridors

Corridor is one of the most important elements in Chinese gardens. Corridors are paths that link the whole garden together. Besides, it also functioned as some kind of layering that separated the lake inside the garden, which brings different sights and feelings while you stroll along the corridors. In this collage, it gives a strong expression of the sense of layering in Chinese gardens. Since layering is always not about form, the corridors do not comes to an end and the complete form of the garden was not shown in the collage.




Behind the Mountains, Behind the Frame

In Chinese gardens, there are always lots of fake mountains. Besides of its function of decoration, it acts like a frame of a beautiful painting while you look through the holes. This collage is trying to express what I saw behind the “rocks” – corridors and the wonderful garden. By looking through the frame of rocks, I could always see a harmonious image of corridors and the plants inside the garden. It seems that corridors and garden could not be separated in Chinese gardens.




Doors (Light and Spaces)

In this collage, I am trying to bring out the relationships of lighting and spaces of Chinese gardens. You are look at the entrance form an interior space. A dark interior space was created and the main source of lights penetrates in through the windows and the main door case. This makes a big contrast between the lightings of the interior and exterior space. Moreover, the space behind the entrance was layered with numerous doors, bringing the idea of how the space of Chinese gardens was separated with entries and walls. To reinforce such idea, the technique of one point perspective was used. This gives a vacuum effect that leads other elements and concentration to the centre of the collage.



The Four Seasons

Although the buildings, fake mountains and rivers have similar outlook throughout the whole year, the plants aren’t. Plants and trees got different colours of leaves in different seasons. Therefore, in the Chinese garden, different types of trees brings different types of feeling to the visitor in different seasons. This collage is trying to express how the colours of leave changes in different seasons. The pattern of the collage goes from left to right, from spring to winter. A technique of stripes cutting was used, so that an abstract and incomplete image of trees is created, leaving some space of imagination for the viewers.



Exterior/ Transaction/ Interior

For Chinese gardens, there are usually three element spaces, namely exterior, transaction and interior. This collage shows the idea of these three spaces by joining uncut photos of the background with small elements within these spaces. For the space outside the garden, it is more open and bright. Inside the garden, a corridor was placed in line with the walls. However, a transaction space was usually made between the wall and the corridors, acting as a small garden or picture that decorates garden. Moreover, three different floors were used, indicating the three different spaces within the garden.



The Moat, Buildings and Pond

In some of the Chinese gardens, there will be a moat wrapping around it. This collage is trying to express the relationship of the moat wrapping around the buildings, while the buildings wrap around the fake mountains and the mountains wrap around the pond. This kind of relationship is like a circulation of protection layers. However, there is a little connection between the inside and the outside of the garden – water. So I decided to join the pond and the moat together to communicate this small connection. Moreover, the collage was tilted to the left which reinforces the contrast of the heaviness of the rocks inside the garden and the tress outside the garden. Besides, it also states the difference of importance between the garden and the moat. However, this tilted technique somehow destroyed the orientation of the collage and may weaken the appearance of the images.



The Floor

In Chinese gardens, most of the floors are layered with rocks. However, there is a great variation of the patterns and shapes of such rocks. Some of them are smooth and flat, some are rough and large, some are slippery with lichen on it, some are with pattern some are not and some are even like a picture on the ground. As the floors are the essential elements in anyplace, it is also very important in Chinese gardens, it leads you to anywhere you wanna go to. In this collage, floors with similar colour are cut into squares and placed neatly with an order. This gives a flat image which express what the floors should really look like. Moreover, if you look carefully into the collage, a psychological technique was used. Between each of the squares, you may see a black spot right at the centre of the white crosses. So, if you look really carefully, you could see six black dots linking all the rock floors together, forming a new piece of ground.