Casey Ansen

“What is your favorite artwork?”

Curatorial Rationale

The aim of my exhibition is to depict aspects of human lives. My artworks touch upon topics like life, societal expectations, and traditional culture. Each artwork serves to convey my thoughts on human existence in the context of culture and society to my audience. I chose to display these artworks because out of all the artworks I created in IB Art, these 9 communicate the ideas and intent behind them the best. They all express what I wish to share with my audience and provide my perspective effectively.

My artworks explore various issues and ideas, like pretty privilege, bullying, the beauty of traditional culture, and love. Ignore the Reflection in the Mirror, for example, explores pretty privilege in the area of forgiveness. Forgiving attractive people for their misdeeds is seen everywhere. The idea of love is explored within Free Fall, A Full Story?, and Dating in High School, with each artwork communicating different areas and perspectives. Both Free Fall and Dating in High School depict the feeling of trust within a relationship, but they touch upon different aspects of trust. Some of my artworks, like Paper Opera, were created to showcase the positive qualities of traditional culture. Many of us are drawn to modern and minimalistic aesthetics and we ignore or forget about the intricacies of our culture and other people’s culture.

My artworks have largely been influenced by my consumption of media. The C-dramas and short-form video content I consume led me to form my own opinions and ideas I wished to convey. For example, A Full Story? at a superficial level is the story of an asian high school love story, but to me it is about the desire of a viewer to watch their favorite characters after their happily-ever-after. That sometimes the director abruptly ends their stories at marriage despite the fact that their problems were never resolved.

The darker, redder artworks were placed at the edges to draw attention to the lighter colored artworks in the middle about love. I have arranged my artworks in this way because I wanted to convey the idea that human existence is good, but there are negative aspects that lurk at the edges, unmentioned because they are integrated into human cultures and societies. As long as we are unwilling to change, the darker aspects will remain, even if they are to the side. Alongside this, the artworks are grouped together based on their smaller themes. Traditional culture is present within the bottom right, with Paper Opera, Two Heads Are Better Than One, and Modern Traditional Dance. Love is depicted in the middle top two artworks, A Full Story? and Dating in High School, as well as in Free Fall. Dangerous situations are presented in the leftmost three artworks, Ignore the Reflection in the Mirror, Free Fall, and Everyone is Sad. I placed the artworks critiquing parts of culture and society at the top with Ignore the Reflection in the Mirror, A Full Story?, and Paying for the Sins of Something Unseen.

I intend for my audience to consider the topics present in my artworks as they journey through my observations of human culture and society.

Casey’s Art Work

  • Ignore the Reflection in the Mirror

    Digital Art on Medibang Paint
    40.32 cm x 30.48 cm

    This woman meets conventional beauty standards, and that’s why most people’s first reaction would be that it was cool that she had blood on her face and hands. There is a culture around excusing pretty people for the atrocities they commit, and that is not okay. Often in our society, pretty people are forgiven for being bad people because their outer appearance is good.

  • A Full Story?, 2023

    Digital art drawn with Medibang Paint
    55.5 cm x 14 cm

    Gu Kaizhi’s Nymph of the Luo River is based on a love story. I decided that since I was going to include different scenes of a story in one work like Gu Kaizhi’s work, I should also center my piece on a love story. The love story in my artwork ends at the wedding with a “happily ever after”. Society has provided countless pieces of media that end love stories at the weddings and omit the life after marriage. This isn’t necessarily wrong, but sometimes marriage should not be the end goal.

  • Paying for the Sins of Something Unseen

    Digital art on Medibang Paint
    40.64 cm x 30.48 cm

    At some point in time, humans find scapegoats to direct their hatred at because the real problem doesn’t have a face attached to it. That’s why many societies have had scapegoats in the past as well as now. This scene was inspired by the Chinese web drama, The Untamed.

  • Free Fall

    Digital Art using Medibang Paint
    45.72 cm x 29.53 cm

    I was inspired by a video of two Bald Eagles holding each other’s talons and spiralling downwards with a caption that read, “Bald eagles have a courtship ritual of locking talons and spiraling down from a large height”. I believe we, as humans, also experience this feeling of falling when we make our feelings known to another person.

  • Dating in High School: China

    Acrylic Paint on Canvas
    31 cm x 48 cm

    Different human societies have different views on dating in high school. In countries like China, with big standardized tests that determine what college someone goes to, dating early is frowned upon because students are expected to focus on studying. In countries like America with students applying for college, dating is more culturally acceptable because there is less emphasis on test scores. There is less pressure for American students to focus on studying for all of their high school careers and more pressure on a student’s social life and extracurricular activities.

  • Paper Opera

    Acrylic Paint, Sandwich Paper, and Oil Pastel on Paper
    45.2 cm x 30.5 cm

    Contemporary observers are unfamiliar with Chinese opera. Chinese opera has elaborate makeup and costumes, with different designs for different purposes. Today, Chinese opera performances are mocked for the seemingly strange singing and movements. I want to bring attention to the beauty of Chinese opera, so my artwork has elements of the visuals from Beijing Opera, one of the still surviving branches of Chinese opera.

  • Everyone is Sad, 2023

    Air Dry Clay, Hot Glue, Resin, String, Mod Podge
    17 cm x 5 cm x 8 cm

    In human society, students commit acts of school violence against other students. Those who are bullied and those who bully are all unhappy, just in different ways. In recent years, school violence cases have increased, and many Webtoons portray stories of bullying. This sculpture was inspired by a scene in Get Schooled, a Webtoon about school violence.

  • Modern Traditional Dance

    Acrylic Paint on Plastic Sheet
    25.5 cm x 6.2 cm x 25.3 cm

    The Dunhuang Caves in China’s Gansu Province inspired a dance style called “Dunhuang Dance”. This dance combines visuals from the frescoes within the Dunhuang Caves as well as music found within the caves. It is a modern art form with Buddhist culture mixed with Indian and Chinese culture. I wanted to create an artwork that mimics a performance, where the audience can stand in different places to get slightly different perspectives on the dance on stage.

  • Two Heads Are Better Than One

    Fabric, fabric paint on fabric, thread, embroidery thread, wire
    21cm x 12cm x 22cm

    Humans have cultural clothing from different periods of their country’s history, and I decided to do a modern take on traditional Chinese and French clothing. This piece is inspired by hanfu from the Tang and Song dynasties and clothing from the French Rococo period.

    This pair of mannequins represents the collaboration between people from different cultures. People use their perspectives from their culture and experiences while working together to solve problems.