“What is the relationship between the part and the whole?”

During this exhibition I found the relationship between the original part and the art work as a whole creates an assortment of meanings in the sense that the original part is an important significance in connection to the artist. The original parts leave a sense of interpretation by the viewer while correlating with what the artist conveyed. A few artists shared similar meanings of expression within the same levels even though their artworks were completely different. There were similar themes of transforming and resurrecting plain items and manifesting them into a new concept of ideas while stirring emotions from the viewers. A majority of the artwork posed some identifiable ideas in which viewers can relate to. Two art works that stood out the most to me was the “Portrait of textile worker” by Terese Agnes and an untitled series of clever sculpting of trees using original designer bags by Yuken Teruya.
Terese Agnes harnesses the idea of transformation by compiled a collection of clothing tags from various designer clothing’s and painted a portrait of a factory worker sewing fabric which ultimately becomes the designer clothes. There is a couple of themes I felt from the large canvas of tags, first of which is the irony in using clothing tags and the distinction of identity between the worker and name brands. In a general sense, the clothing tags alone only represent the name of the designer and company. There isn’t much thought put into the tags besides the size and washing directions. There is no representation of the workers who sweat and bleed for disparaging low wages. However, in connection to the portrait as a whole, the worker lives among the mass of clothing tags in which the artist successfully accomplished in putting together the portrait. While one piece of art work can do so much, it is extraordinary on the artist’s part to demonstrate such an affecting topic with an original idea.
The factor that attracted me most to Yuken Teruya’s work is his attention to detail. He uses the idea of resurrecting ordinary paper shopping bags into sculptures of trees with fine details of shapes and colors. According to the description, Teruya is returning the bags into its original appearance before it became a bag. The tiny models within the bags function as a resurrection of its former life as a tree in addition to giving the models an independent identity from the bags. While the bags may never become actual trees again, the concept gives viewers something to think about. There may be a strong connection to viewers who support recycling or against cutting down rain forests. The artwork doesn’t strongly support these ideas but it leaves an open end for viewers to decide. Others can just appreciate the contemporary beauty of the art.
Terese Agnes and Yuken Teruya successfully transformed simple objects into incarnations of ideas and meaning.  Both artists gave back identity to the parts and repurposed the lost ideas of their subject. Viewers are able to have open ended feelings towards each work. Our perceptions of ordinary things are changed to stimulate our thoughts correlating with the artist’s own thoughts and feelings.