Sculpture — Andrew Liang

The Epic Level By JCVD, Mix media, 2022.

The Epic Level By JCVD is a parody of an advertisement video by Volvo trucks, The Epic Split featuring Jean Claude Van Dame seen on Youtube. This video soothes, simmers and alleviates my mood whenever I am inflamed. Late to class and stuck in a traffic jam, I need The Epic Level. Quarrel with wife without a resolution, I need The Epic Level. Got to the beach and it stormed, I need The Epic Level. Drank a mouth full of milk and found out it had turned into cheese, I need The Epic Level. Expensive natural wool clothing got tossed into the washer dryer and shrunk to the size for a spider, I need The Epic Level. After reading the daily news, I need The Epic Level. Boss threw me under the bus, I need The Epic Level. Didn't get the lottery pick of a better school for the kid, I need The Epic Level. Biting into pieces of egg shell when enjoying the scramble egg breakfast, I need The Epic Level. Missing the game winning shot in a pick-up basketball game, I need The Epic Level. Behind on mortgage payment and found out I owe IRS money, I need The Epic Level. Purchased an Amazon product but the instructions are in simplified Chinese, I need The Epic Level. Bought a pack of beer wondering why I feel no buzz and found out they are non-alcoholic, I need The Epic Level. You may need The Epic Level as well. You may need it now while reading this jam. The Epic Level by JCVD is the intersection of practicality and art, if I do say so myself.

Self Pong Experience, Mix media, 2022.

“Self Pong Experience” is an interactive piece bringing the painting “Self Pong” into reality.

“Self Pong” was a painting portraying my mood during lonesome studio hours. “Self Pong Experience” was created aimed to explore the sentiment of loneliness and confrontation of self. As the player plays a game of ping pong by themself with their mirror reflection, the speech of affirmation is generated by the ball striking against the mirror. The affirmations of my voice are intended to be self-encouraging and entertaining to cajole the player to keep playing as well as what I said to myself while standing in front of a mirror. The dialogue of self-comforting in the moment of self-confrontation could be genuine, delusional, or both. Since the affirmation speech is the voice of the artist (myself), the work is a self-portrait intended to draw the viewer or player into my headspace.

“Self Pong Experience”, an interactive experience for myself and by myself.

“Self Pong Experience”, documentation of players other than myself interacting with the piece.

A Walk In Progress. Papier-Mache, painted with Ink and Watercolor, 2022.

A Walk In Progress is my response to the civil instability and political unrest in the United States from 2016 to 2021. I chose Bigfoot because it is American mythology and their habitat is the forest. Walk in Progress is a group of sculptures set up like a diorama depicting a narrative of a family of Bigfoot covering their noses as they travel through a forest consisting of trees with exaggerated butts. The humanoid figures resemble Bigfoot and are meant to represent an American family. As the Bigfoots move on about their daily business, they are confronted with incongruous sights and smells, their habitat is made up of trees with butts. These trees look similar to one another in design similar to the kumoso, but the various shape and sizes of their butts and trunks personify them as unique individuals. The viewers may easily relate to the Bigfoot due to its humanoid shape however the meaning of the trees changes depending on the viewer’s political stance.

A Mirage of Positivity. Papier-Mache, painted with Ink and Watercolor, 2022.

The piece is intended to comment on extreme optimism generated by denial and avoidance. The piece is inspired by situations of avoidance. For example, avoiding certain topics of conversation with family, avoiding reading the news, believing things will magically work themselves out such as sickness, disregarding the bad weather warning and resuming outdoor activities, etc. Here, my work is exploring when denial and avoidance are coping mechanisms that one commonly utilizes to protect oneself by refusing to accept and confront the reality in events of distress due to changes in one’s life. Ultimately, I am confronting myself, am I just like the ostrich illustrated in my work who dwells in its own optimism?

Genealogy of the Worm. Papier-Mache, Ink and Watercolor, 2021.

“Genealogy of the worm” is an experiment of realizing an idea as a painting and as a sculpture. I am curious which version holds more conviction. I utilize the worm as a metaphor for humans drawing inspiration from a Chinese folk saying which compares ordinary people to worms and the rich and successful to dragons. However, I imagine the ancestor of the worm must be colorful and dragon-like, as it broke itself down to give birth to its offspring, they de-evolved to become the poop-colored worms commonly found today. I am commenting on the limitation of human knowledge with today’s technological advancement, drawing a comparison between our ancestors’ accomplishments and ours. At the same time, noting the importance of collaboration as a bunch of poop-colored worms is the equivalent of a single colorful, dragon-like worm.

Larry Bird, a commissioned work, 2020. Papier-Mache, painted with Ink and Watercolor.

A Stroll Down The North Avenue. Papier-Mache painted with Ink and Watercolor, 2019.

This is an image triggered by my daily commute to and from my day job. The headless over-weight man is a symbolism for the society I am living in. The companion painting suggests context and environment for the sculptural subject. The post apocalyptic scene is mirrored from real life, recorded from an experience of a stroll down the North Avenue.