The curled obssesion ---- Robbie Rowlands

The 'wow' factor of Robbie Rowlands' work is the unusual twist he created of daily objects or scenes people are very familiar with, or the routine order of people's daily life.

A very simple idea, but it somehow scratches the viewers' sensation. His work is site specific and almost spontaneous. I do not know what he really wants to say through his work; It seems to me that he just want to have fun and create an unusual visual sensation.

I personally like this one better. It's called 'white elephant', and it is what it's called, very cute and alive. The artist seems to have the desire to give cold, still, lifeless objects a bit sign of living by giving them curling 'arms' from out of their own bodies.

Or giving 'life' to a sign by making it fall in a cartoonish way; thought it's lying on the ground, but it's alive, not dead.

I think his work is very soft and relaxing, I mean it never feels harsh although there is some destruction.

The silky road ---- Akiko Ikeuchi

I did not know that silk is part of Japanese culture too, I guess it makes sense since it's right next to China and the culture must be greatly influenced. It is not surprising to see a Japanese artist's obsession with silk, but it will be a bit surprising if it is an American artist.

'Knotted Thread', 2009. Akiko's work to me is not extremely strong, but definitely breath-taking. The quiet and unique simplicity is due to the restrained Asian culture and personality (Japan, China and Korea especially).

I am very amazed that the artist had such enduring patience to work with extremely delicate silk threads to form these complex geometric forms. I have seen original silk threads myself, they are extremely soft and thin that one can barely see each single thread with human eyes. I probably will go crazy if I have to work on a installation like this.

I definitely think that every artist is culturally characterized just like every single nation. It is very easy for me to see the similarities between Japanese and Chinese artists. The 'romantic serenity or quietness in a very organized way' is the shared trait I see from Akiko's art.

You don't see a lot of crazy explosive emotional expressions from art works done by Asian artists even if they are trying to show emotions. It is always quiet and a slow development like creeping vines.

The attachment ---- Tadashi Kawamata

Somehow as I was browsing through pictures of Tadashi's work, the word 'attachment' came into my mind. Going through the pictures again, I had an even stronger confirmation of my initial perception.

First of all, I do like the scenes he created with natural wood, wooden chairs and crates. The massive natural scenes are very pleasant to look at. The artist is very attached to ancient or classical western style buildings. And the attachment is shown in his art: thousands of wooden objects are always tightly constructed in between, on top of or inside one of those buildings, attached to the aged wall or floor, eager to make a connection with or merge into the mother constructions (the buildings).

I like the combination of the western classical and the irregular arrangement of the nature (the wood) very much, probably because I am a big fan of ancient western architecture, and also because I am very obsessed with natural things.

I find comfort and warmth in this piece, maybe a little bit too much protection.

The beauty of his art is not just from the installation he made, the ancient buildings take a major part.

This piece is built connecting to a more recent building, I don't think it's as nearly as strong as the other pieces. It is lacking a 'majestic' feeling, like the heavy classical music from a gigantic pipe organ in a church.

Art in our Brain ---- Laurie Frick

Art and science: two seemly unrelated subjects. I don't see a lot of artists using such a straightforward scientific method to present their art; or should I say using artistic means to show scientific studies. Especially when they are emotionally involved. This is why Laurie's work is very interesting to me.

'Everything you forgot yesterday', like all her other similar works, this piece imitates a neuroscience chart of a human brain activity. It is highly abstract, although it contains both emotions and probably scientific data of real life activities.

'January', It would be more exciting if I could read this kind of scientific chart. Then I would understand more of what's in this person's brain concerning January.

'Man Men', The artist has a very good sense of color matching, also a good sense of the use of colors to present different emotions.

'White white white', I appreciate how the artist mostly used found postcards to make these art pieces. Recycled found objects can make beautiful things, why must we spend so much money and new resources to make a not so practical art piece? Actually, art can be totally 'practical' if every artist starts to use found or recycled materials to make marvelous things just like Laurie does.

'Wyoming'

Scars ---- Baptiste Debombourg

Baptiste's work is very interesting to me. The ideas are very simple, but somehow he can make them into very powerful and emotional works.

'Turbo', Even if I'm not standing in the scene I can feel the strong impact brought by the gigantic form and huge wall cracks. Yet it's still holding, it may crash any second. Viewers must feel the same intensity I feel too. But mostly, viewers will appreciate the stability that's held by the cracks since the artist's focus is not to show the oncoming fall.

It creates such a new and interesting experience to the viewers, at least to myself, it will be very easily for me to be emotionally connected with the scene if I was sitting there and drinking my coffee (imagining it's in a coffee shop).

'Crystal palace', the artist really likes rifts, harmless rifts, that won't cause any collapse. That's why he really likes to use windshields or similar kind of glass or materials.

'Volte face', On the other hand, every single piece of glass is broken with holes and cracks on them. There is a lot of emotions going on with the piece.

There is a lot of hurt, but not destruction.

Scars on his body, heart and soul, tolerance, life.

In to the wild ---- Emily Nachison

I don't know how much I like Emily's work. Her work always reminds me of filthy and dangerous swamps residing in the wild. The other reason I don't like her work is that I am not into sculptured animals at all.

'Rabbit hill'

I don't know why artists like to make sculptured animals so much. Isn't it much more fun to look at a real animal? Especially in Emily's work, she basically just copied a wild scene that can appear anywhere in the nature, altered a little bit. I just don't like any art that's way too representational.

'White Grotto'

I guess the reason why I don't like representational art is that I see no point of copying scenes, figures or anything of our vivid living life unless the artist can do it in a very creative way. To me Emily's work is not interesting enough.

'White Room'

This is probably my favorite of her works, just because of the hanging abstract forms. The artist is very attached to the wild and the nature. Maybe I would like her much more if I was attached the same way.

I'm thinking if she can just go ahead and make the whole house an artificial cave full of sculptured rocks and animals and hanging stuff using man made materials, that would be much more interesting and attractive to the viewers.

Art and Fashion ---- Li Xiaofeng

I definitely think fashion is part of art, only more practical and well understood. Who can resist a dress with a unique design? Especially something as beautiful as Li Xiaofeng's creations.

I would wear this myself no matter how heavy it is. The artist or fashion designer wanted to make dresses out of porcelain, but it would be impossible to put a whole piece of porcelain dress on a human body. Breaking individual porcelain pots and dishes apart and sewing them together like that creates the flexibility of movement the material didn't have. It is a smart way to work it out.

I am in love with the blue and white color, also the very oriental style.

This piece is not really that oriental to me except the blue and white china itself. I don't ever see a Chinese girl dressing like this, so I'm not sure where the artist got his inspiration. The whole piece is so stunning, absolutely well made and designed.

His dresses are actually wearable, though I'm not sure about this one, it looks more like an art piece.

I know for Americans or most of Westerners, they wouldn't tell if these are Japanese style, Korean style, or Chinese style. Well, these are definitely Chinese, because I can see a trace of the Qi pao, a traditional Chinese dress with its unique elegance.

The quiet and the mild ---- Beili Liu

Beili's work is very pretty in my opinion, at least to my Chinese taste. But I didn't immediately write about her the first time I saw her art because I couldn't find anything very interesting to write about. And I still feel the same way: that something is missing.

Red Thread Series — Lure/Rise Installed at the San Francisco Chinese Culture Center Gallery. This is the first art installation of hers I saw. The beautiful red color really caught my eye, but when I tried to feel the inner emotion and the story of the piece, I couldn't feel a lot. It feels more like a professional art decoration than an installation? Or perhaps it's just me who is searching too much; maybe art can just be a beautiful form, and that's it, nothing else.

I really love the form of this piece called 'Miasma', the name of the piece is exactly what the piece is showing. So I guess she just wanted to create something beautiful, and that's the only purpose.

She is telling more of a story in this one. But emotionally it's still pretty weak to me. I do not know why; maybe I will feel it when the time is right.

About memories and pain ---- Chiharu Shiota

I am very fond of art that's exclusively personal and usually filled with memories and emotions. Somehow only this kind of art can truly touch my heart and therefore I consider only this kind of art soulful.

This is what I found: 'in memory' by Chiharu Shiota. I kind of don't want to admit that I am always attracted to a kind of 'silent darkness'. And this slight addiction is the reason why I like Chiharu's interlacing web series. I especially like this one because of the simplicity of the black and white; another important reason is that the scene of a grand piano and audience chairs reminds me of the strong heaviness of live classical music, which added a lot of the weight to the darkness in this piece.

Comparing with this one, you will understand what I'm talking about. A lot of her works have this particular kind of beds in them. They seem like hospital beds for patients, this makes me feel that her past pain must be strongly connected to illness or disease.

Sometimes a white wedding dress will show with the same theme. I'm not too comfortable with the scene because an old long gown hanging there gives me such a cold and strong ghostly death feeling, which I am very frightened of. But I do think the artist is very talented and gifted in showing and expressing her inner emotions and feelings.

This one is called 'matsukaze', an opera show she did in Europe. It is very interesting that I don't see many Asian traits in her art, they are very western to me.

She also has other works with slightly different themes. If you want to feel her loneliness, here is her website http://www.chiharu-shiota.com/

Dots obsession ---- Yayoi Kusama

I am not a big fun of dots, though I find them cute sometimes. I guess it's because they somehow reflect a little girl's dream land or wonder land: full of perfect round colorful bubbles.

And that is Yayoi Kusama's world. 'Dots obsession' she calls them. She said she's been making dots art since she was ten. I was very surprised because as a little girl I never even paid any attention to these colorful dreamy creatures. Maybe it's just that we are from different backgrounds.

It kind of reminds me of 'Alice in wonderland'. Bright, happy, soft, magical and a little mysterious. I definitely see a bit Japanese culture in it. Somehow Japanese people are very much into cute things, you can tell from many Japanese cartoons: Cute facial expressions, cute little animals, girls' cute tones of voice.

A bit childlike, but pleasant to see.

Some of her older works have herself in it. It adds a deeper meaning with her I think. It's more personal and more specific, it's like she's saying: this is my world, my only world and only my own.

The world is her and she is the world.

It's not always beautiful ---- Mowry Baden

When I though about art before I entered BSU and started to study about it I always thought about beautiful forms, colors, landscapes, figures, or any kind of abstract objects. I paid more attention to the appearance and ignored or was not aware of the further purpose of art. It is definitely more interesting and meaningful when an art piece speaks to the viewers and evokes some deep thoughts. But it is still important to me that the appearance of the art piece should also be eye-catching in a beautiful way.

That's way I don't really see the 'art' part in Mowry's work when I see his mattress series. This one is called 'ever pronating'.

And this one 'I can see the whole room'. The artist likes to create unusual spaces in his work, inviting the viewers to enter in in order to learn a weird psychological experience with his art.

He may be trying to communicate with the viewers through his art. But to me, it's more like experimentation; A psychological experiment.

The reason I say this is that he doesn't pay a lot of attention to the appearance or the object itself, he is more interested in the viewers reaction. Can an experimentation be art? Apparently! The definition of art is getting more and more broad that I doubt if art really has a definition or limit at all. That also makes it harder and harder to judge any art works.

This last piece is called 'Kinhin', I like this one just because it looks so much fun to walk on, and actually I am curious to try out a lot of his art pieces just because I want to experience some different psychological activities I never had before. It has nothing to do with 'the art'; or maybe the process itself is actually 'the art'?