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Print (MA)

KONG SHURUI

First tone
First tone
Second tone
Second tone
Third tone
Third tone
Fourth tone
Fourth tone
Fifth tone
Fifth tone
Sixth tone
Sixth tone
Publication of Cantonese rhymes
Publication of Cantonese rhymes There is a collection of the singing voices of some participants, as well as a publication of cartoon images carved from the stories behind these nursery rhymes.
Rainy days
Rainy days
Rainy days
Rainy days
Rainy days
Rainy days
Rainy days
Rainy days
Rainy days
Boating festival
Boating festival
Boating festival
Boating festival
Boating festival
Boating festival
Boating festival
Boating festival
Boating festival
Moon light
Moon light
Moon light
Moon light
Moon light
Moon light
Moon light
Moon light
Moon light
Moon light
Moon light
  • Because of the globalisation of language, many people who from other places are facing the situation of gradually forgetting their first language, they have to use the common language which is not their first language in order to communicate on a daily basis.
  • The consequences of this situation are reflected in the new generation of children in some countries. They live in a new language environment, learning common language, causes them to lose the emotional bond with the culture of their first language.
  • This work is about the artist's first native language, Cantonese as an example. It uses Cantonese’s unique six tones and the culture behind the nursery rhymes to seek emotional resonance with Cantonese native speakers in a foreign land, it also hopes to help non-Cantonese speakers to know this language through music and texts. In both cases, it might arouse people's attention to and psychological resonance with their own first language through the emotional transmission.


Medium:

wood

Size:

variable
ANOTHER UUsing body language to start from the dream and release yourself.
ANOTHER U, digital print, colour woodcut, animation
ANOTHER U, digital print, colour woodcut, animation
  • In the essay ,<Essay on the Uniformity of All> Zhuangzi write about becoming a butterfly in his dream, but that he found he was still Zhuangzi when he woke up. He did not know whether he was a butterfly that dreamed as Zhuangzi or Zhuangzi who dreamed as a butterflies.
  • So Zhuangzi put forward a philosophical question about how people know the truth. In the age of the pandemic, we are trapped between dreams and reality, wandering between the real and the unreal. Dreams are like our shadows, and reflect our subconscious mind. Our psychological changes can also affect our dreams.
  • How can we use our senses to feed back dreams and reality through other media? Do you have the same sensory resonance when you see these dream symbols and body language from the “U”?


Medium:

digital print, colour woodcut, animation

Size:

variable

SHURUI KONG, graduated from South China Normal University in 2019, and she is studying printmaking at the Royal College of Art in London.

Her main research direction is the combination of sound and printmaking to explore more issues of human sensory resonance.



Show Location: Battersea campus: Dyson & Woo Buildings, First floor and mezzanine

KONG SHURUI-statement

My work ranges from unconscious behaviour in daily life, to dreams, to presentations of combination of sound and printmaking through language. I focus on the psychological and emotional resonance that people's physical senses bring to their own different environments, hoping to arouse people's attention to the essence in the rushed and complex era, or demonstrate the power of language through sound and culture.

My subject matter in each body of work determines the materials and the forms of the work. Although there may not always be material similarities between the different projects they are linked by recurring formal concerns and through the subject matter. Each of my projects is composed of a different series of media, but I always start with my own essence, during research and production new areas of interest arise and lead to the next body of work.

My current work Six Tones is a mixed-media installation that use my first language Cantonese as an example, engraving Cantonese song lyrics as audio lines on to tree trunks. There is a collection of the singing voices of some participants, as well as a publication of cartoon images carved from the stories behind these nursery rhymes. The work takes on various forms intended to draw in the viewer as co-author and witness, create emotional transmission through hearing, sight, and touch, and increasing the attention of all viewers to their own language and culture.