Final Online Portfolio HPD Sharon Lee

Conan Doyle solidified the murder mystery genre with his narrative works following the detective Sherlock Holmes. In any murder mystery case, fictional or not, there is always a trail of evidence, a perpetrator, and of course, a victim. My pieces are illustrated scenes following the case of a tragic death: the mysterious death of the culture. My portfolio follows the various ways a culture has been neglected or annihilated throughout history and is being silenced in modern society. I explored the different victims, modes of death, and killers and how this case has even leaked into my own life and personal experiences, shaping my moral cognition and ideology. The illustrations were drawn digitally and one was interpreted into a mixed media piece. For that one, I printed my primal layer containing the linework of a woman’s face constructed by Korean maps onto a clear acetate sheet. I then painted deeper lines of key roads on top. The piece was suspended above a red background in a light box to highlight the lines as the shadow laid on the red background. As for the digital, I highly valued the overpowering, saturated colors as a means to highlight the intensity of my theme on the “murder” at hand. Now I have never found myself in a Sherlock Holmes or Agatha Christie novel like most people but like most people, I have found myself in a stance against the culture of yesterday and today. I found the true killers as I looked inward then soon afterwards at our world. People think it’s an abstract idea, a mystery, but for each death, each loss of culture, the trail of evidence always leads to a suspect. It can be a rigged game set against those who it was meant to protect. Behind the scenes foul play. I strive to call to action a recognition and sober wake from the daze that is the weak columns that are supposedly the foundation of our society when they are actually a curtain to shield us from the unnerving truth: our environment has cultivated the people to no longer have an identity of culture. Each piece I have created stands as the audience’s personal introspective interpretation of a story I have merely set according to what I wish to see in it even though it may not be fully seen as the difficulties of this issue cannot be defined either.

This piece was my first attempt at trying to create a design concept layout for an architectural structure. I was inspired by the structures inspired by objects and decided to utilize the function, details, shape, and history of the gayageum. The gayageum is a traditional Korean stringed instrument and I wanted to integrate the auditory function of the instrument to create an intimate space that hopefully the audience can feel the intricacy of. I learned how to show my design process and ideas behind the structure for a more realistic piece that differed from what I usually draw. I achieved my goal of creating something entirely of my own that can be a part of a real place.

This piece was my second in the portfolio and was meant to tell the story of the mistreated. This played on the death of a culture through when the innocent of a society are betrayed by the very ones that are supposed to protect them. I wanted to portray this visual by showing the hierarchy of this uneven power dynamic through a chessboard where the white pawn has its own ally stabbing it in the back. I wanted there to be a distinct sense of conflict and tension in the diagonal progression from the kneeled man, to the pawn, to the high figure in the back. This was also meant to be a parallel to the same experience of the Korean comfort women during WWII which connects to the references made such as the kneeled figure and the 1945 date.

I created a simple combination of structures and buildings that represent the similarities and differences in a culture. This piece is meant to represent the death of a culture when it is divided which is inspired by the division of the Korean people. Although they are forever separated, the parallel similarities show they are still the same people. I tried to reflect what I drew on the top half with the bottom half for this purpose. I hope the audience can feel the tension in seeing how far yet close that dilemma can be.

This piece is the perspective of someone looking through a keyhole to witness an eerie play of events. I wanted to create a sense of false peace or normalness to show the double sided aspect of a scene. I wanted to create a scene where it looks normal but the ripples show that it almost seems as if the figure and scene is drowning. There is always a scene in murder mystery movies or books where the character dine and wine together and someone always dies. I wanted to use this iconic idea to be the setting for my first piece.

This piece represents the death of a culture through how an institution is built on principles that supposedly are there to allow a culture to grow but ends up being twisted to restrict the oppressed. I reference the historical context of the U.S. Constitution and how it has been hypocritically manipulated to ostracize those who did not fit the standards of what was "deserving" in society. I played on the opening words of "We the people" in order to question who "we" actually stood for. I wanted to portray this passionate sentiment and drew a burst of fiery explosion as slips of the paper surround the figure.

This is my favorite piece of this semester because the pure humanity and passion through the figure's facial expressions really represented the emotions I wanted to send. I took inspiration from the roads and city layouts of Korean cities and overlayed them to create a face. I also took this piece into a multimedia direction by having it printed out on a clear acetate sheet. I then painted deeper lines with acrylic paint. I used a light source to project the lines onto a surface and it magnified the details of each turn and curve of the roads.