Yaoyuan Dong

BA Art and Design

The expressionist work depicted the inner understanding and retelling of mythology. Concepts of nature and transformation mainly guide the creative process. By using both animation and abstract ink drawings, the work wishes to convey the feeling in different dimensions. As the shapes are drawn extremely theatrically and unnaturally, it does not contribute to a myth scene like what artists will commonly do but creates a form of distorted reality and connects to a self-created tale about ‘greed, incursion, and punishment’.

Visually, the drawings are demonstrating the movement of transformation, which is one of the most prevalent groupings of animal and plant legends found in folklore and religious literature. And any combination and permutation are possible in myth. Different elements, therefore, like wild animals, bizarre plants, flowers, and even armour and skulls, can be seen in the drawings. Although they seem to be fanciful and unrealistic, the change of form does have a certain connection with societies and cultures, which also contains some realistic significance. In this story, the concept is similar but as the character is transformed by an external force, the result is more like a negative expression of revealing the inner ‘evil self’.

For the strokes themselves, the work is inspired by the artist, Fons Heijnsbroek, as he said, “Images move freely like birds – they roll on without any borders.” Just move the brush freely and follow the impression of myth during the experiment, interesting strokes and marks will appear at the end. Especially the shapes of curling feathers bring a sense of calligraphy and illusion. Artist Elizabeth Hobbs also influences the animation, the running horse that is drawn in the mass of lines enhances the sense of movement..