Talking Pattern-ZEJING YAN

All my inspiration starts with things from real life—exhibits in natural history museums, combined with my recent subterranean exploration at the Horniman Museum, gave rise to these fantastical worlds. Covering fossils of marine life and ocean species, extending to terrestrial creatures such as birds and insects, this journey from sea to land embodies the infinite potential for life’s continuity within nature. Throughout my discourse, I express a sense of inspiration— This inspiration stems from living fossils and the evidence they provide of life’s existence, demonstrating the innate drive for biological evolution. I have integrated this evolutionary mechanism with my own vision of the world, using this instinctive drive to transport them into an alternate, fantastical realm. One can also observe the altered colouration of certain species, This is as I contrast their original forms with the imagined reconstructions I have created for them. During the creative process, I tried every means to incorporate more visual elements into the illustrations themselves. Thus, after completing each piece on paper—merely as a drawing on paper—I further edited them in Photoshop to imbue the textures with greater visual depth. Many of these effects were achieved through Photoshop filters.All the chromatic patterns are based on biological species, their appearance, form, body structure, internal anatomy, and the anatomical illustrations displayed in museums. My outlining of the lines and forms of living creatures draws from this source.As for why I chose them, it is because I wish to undertake a secondary construction of life, to rebuild a space existing beyond the three-dimensional world. The contradictions within it can, to some extent, be understood as an alien space, though not entirely one populated by monstrous and mutated creatures.