In Georgette Chen’s paintings, she uses her husband’s last name – “Chen” – to sign her artworks instead of her Chinese name – “Zhang Liying”. NAFA said that a lot of artists in South East Asia have known Georgette by her Chinese name, and it could have attracted more tourists to the gallery if the advertisement uses her Chinese name. However, I think the reason why Georgette uses “Chen” to sign her artworks, even after her divorce from Eugene Chen, maybe due to her signature’s influence on the Western audience then. She already established an audience in Paris using Chen, and perhaps she doesn’t want to “give up” her fame by changing her signature on newer artworks. Or perhaps, the reason why she uses “Chen” is because of Eugene Chen’s influence on her philosophy and artistic expression.
Category: English Language & Literature-IB
Georgette Chen – brochure
The “retrospective” brochure is not only promotional but also informational and reveals a lot about Singapore culture and how Singapore wants to frame itself not only as the financial capital of South East Asia but also as the cultural capital, using this significant figure in contemporary art history – Georgette Chen.
The sample artworks on the front and back pages subtly find its target audience – Singaporeans and foreigners who are interested in this Nanyang painting style.
The brochure provides context for audience to better understand the artist and the exhibition.
“Free” admissions for children younger than 6 may signal the National Gallery “planting seeds” for future young artists. In the future, these young artists can be cultivated and present Singapore more as a global cultural and art center. “Free” admissions for Singaporeans may reveal National Gallery’s nudge for Singaporeans to explore about their national artistic culture – as citizens of a country not often visit its own museums.
This brochure/artist reveals a lot about the “Singaporean Identity” – in which Georgette Chen is a very good representative. It has the sense of presenting Georgette Chen as a “national hero”.
As Singapore is known for its multiculturality, this brochure blends Georgette’s works depicting different races, traditions, dishes, and scenaries – further enhancing the idea of Singapore being a cultural capital; given more foriengers visit museums than locals, this image can change foreigners’ perception of viewing this country, improving its global image further.
Georgette Chen – Eulogy or Obituary?
https://nus.edu.sg/newshub/news/2020/2020-12/2020-12-27/ARTIST-st-27dec-pA25.pdf
I believe this article discussing Georgette Chen’s “life-story” and artworks is effective at spreading awareness of this Singaporean “national figure” to the public, in preparation for her exhibition at The National Gallery. It is a publicity release.
The article was published in 2020 – 27 years after Georgette Chen’s death – showcased her accomplishments, developed the idea of her journey as a painter, and expanded on her personal friendship links around the globe.
I would personally say that this article classifies more into a eulogy than an obituary. Although it was published 27 years after her death, it included all the things a eulogy expects – providing context and her importance/relevance to the audience. However, what is different between this article and a typical eulogy is that a eulogy is often hosted for people who are directly related to the person who passed away, whereas the audience of this eulogy/publicity release is the public who are interested in Georgette Chen’s artworks/painting style (Nanyang Style)/life & history.
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If you had to do an IO next week (you don’t), what texts would you choose and what global issue would you explore? What is the weak spot you need to think deeply about before we do this?
I would pick “Aunt Julia and The Scriptwriter” & Chuck Close – both works focus on the global issue of “Art, creativity and imagination”, as both show the effect of development in their creators (Vargas Llosa & Chuck Close) on their works (AJATS & Self-Portrait) and styles/text type (bildungsroman & portrait paintings).
Specifically, I would choose perhaps the page about Marito finally getting married to Aunt Julia in church, and Chuck Close’s old self-portrait.
One weak spot that I think I should focus on if I am planning for this IO is that perhaps digging deeper into the layers of why the author/artist create the style of work that they do – their intentions and their progression (development from earlier stages to current styles).
Perhaps there’s some sort of intertextuality between Llosa creating the character of Camacho – arguably Llosa’s young self-portrait – to “make fun” of his youth, and Close changing styles as he aged, in a sense “making fun” at his younger self, too.
“He posed as a heroic war photographer – and the news industry believed him” – The Washington Post
“He posed as a heroic war photographer – and the news industry believed him”
This news article is about a war photographer – “Eduardo Martins” – and how he “faked” his war photos by taking them from other photographers without permission. His publishing name is not even real, and he used other people’s photos to show his personal life. This text’s purpose is to expose and criticize the news industry. The intended audience of this article is the journalists, especially other war journalists who might relate to this situation.
The author’s subtle word choices can be seen throughout this article. In the title, it says “The News Industry Believed Him” – the irony between the news industry, an industry of supposed real events broadcasted, and “believed him” – the sentence almost seems like the news industry is a young child who believes what it wants to believe.
This article creates a contrast between “Eduardo Martins” and his scandal as the first few paragraphs introduced this person as if he is a real war photographer. Until it states: “All of this, it turns out, was false”. In which afterwards are the stories of the people he used images from. By creating the contrast, the article can connect to the audience and hook the audience into the desire of wanting to know why this scandal was caused.
This article itself is an irony to the message it is trying to convey. As The Washington Post is a news website, it is posting an article describing how the news industry believed fake news. This article was posted in 2017, the same period when the idea of “fake news” was popular. The Washington Post used the popularity of the idea “fake news”, and connected it to the criticism of war photography, it efficiently conveys the message across, as well as attracting the audience to read this article.
“You May Want to Marry My Husband” – Modern Love
When they consider all the Modern Love essays you’ve read, written by different people, how do the essays seem to converge (come together, share similarities —in STYLE, not subject matter) or diverge (go different directions from similar starting points)?
After reading several modern love personal essays and watching several adapted television episodes, I figured the series of Modern Love seems to converge as stories always convey certain meaning to the audience and the stories all resonate with the audience to some extent. For example, When Cupid Was a Prying Journalist conveys the message of not giving up your love even if you missed it (open to different interpretations), whereas You May Want to Marry My Husband conveys a sense of the author’s perseverance to love, it also creates a sense of sympathy.
On the other hand, this series diverges as each personal essay describes a different life scenario. It is what’s different between each story in Modern Love but this characteristic also defines the series, because different experiences can cause authors to express different emotions.
(Image source: https://www.amazon.com/Modern-Love-Season-1/dp/B07VKRJNQH)
Modern Love – When Cupid Is a Prying Journalist, By Deborah Copaken, Nov. 26, 2015
This text is not organized AT ALL like any fiction or non-fiction you have been taught to do for the IGCSE or other school tasks. Mark it into three sections (Beginning, Middle, & End). Does it have a thesis —a guiding idea— that the anecdotes and details support or prove or give nuance for? If it has a thesis, what is that idea?
- I think the beginning is the interview, the middle is the Journalist Deborah’s memory of her life in Paris, as well as Justin’s attempt to engage with Kate, and the ending will be the discussion in the restaurant.
- This is a narrative essay, it has a thesis that one has to fight for love before it’s too late. The anecdotes and details all support this guiding idea/thesis.
Every time I read non-fiction, I ask how much I believe it. Even the best of us, in recounting a memory, is tempted to flatter ourselves or justify our actions. What details enhance the credibility of the author? Where do you think it might be “soft” in authenticity?
- There are many quotes in this narrative essay, which means that to an extent the story must be fictional.
- However, it has to be a real story that happened because the story progression is very natural and sounds real to the audience.
If you were to make a 30-minute movie of this, what scenes would you want to include?
- If this is transformed into a movie, I would include the interview scene, the journalist’s memory of her life in Paris and how she got together with his husband, Justin’s fight for love with Kate, and the restaurant scene when they are together sharing their anecdotes.
Full Text: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1P7XiVHZxaQnXmYnzmhXcJI84qGlG12aL/edit
Aunt Julia and The Scriptwriter – Mario Vargas Llosa, Idea and Quotes
Explain an idea that Vargas Llosa seems to be exploring and show how the two quotes you’ve chosen relate to this. You can use OTHER examples or ideas, too, if you like.
Idea: Reality and imagination are in conflict
Quote 1: “I couldn’t have been more upset, and broke off my reading to inform her that what she was listening to was not a faithful, word-for-word recounting of the incident she’d told me about, but a story, a story, and that all the things that I’d either added or left out were ways of achieving certain effects: “Comic effects,” I emphasized, hoping she’d see what I was getting at. She smiled at me, if only out of pity for my misery. “But that’s precisely the point,” she protested vehemently, not giving an inch. “With all the changes you’ve made, it’s not a funny story at all any more. ” (Page 123)
Quote 2: “What is realism, ladies and gentlemen—that famous realism we hear so much about? What better way is there of creating realistic art than by materially identifying oneself with reality? And doesn’t the day’s work thereby become more tolerable, more pleasant, more varied, more dynamic?” (Page 135)
From the above two quotes, we can see the problem that reality and imagination are in conflict. In Quote 1, Mario used one of Aunt Julia’s past experience to create his story which Aunt Julia believes is too fictional. She argues it changed a lot of the facts which happened. However, Mario explained to Aunt Julia that often arts are created to achieve “Comic effects” and they are not the same as news reports which always have to be factual. In Quote 2, the Bolivian Scriptwriter Pedro Camacho questioned “what is realism?” He believes that the realist arts that we know are merely fictional arts decorated with elements of reality. The audience knows from Mario’s depiction that Pedro Camacho pretends to be the character he writes in his soap operas – by dressing up and physically adapt himself into his character – in order to “get inspired”. This acknowledges the argument that reality and imagination are in conflict. It’s because if reality and imaginary soap operas are similar and familiar, Pedro Camacho wouldn’t use any effort to try to “be” the person in his own soap operas. They both have a vision that the nature of arts runs counter to reality and that “unreality” is a signature of the arts. This idea also links to the plot progression of the novel. The life of the narrator Mario is itself a series contrast between imagination and reality – he desperately wants to get married and want to live on the streets of romantic Paris. However, he realized he is underaged and must need his parents to approve his marriage; Pedro Camacho is thought to be a great person since the beginning of the novel, but we soon discover that his personality is not that great after all – to an extent where he has to be taken care of in a mental asylum.
Transformation – Chuck Close
Chuck Close is an American painter. He makes massive-scale photorealist portraits. He often paints abstract portraits of himself and others. At the age of 28, he painted a self-portrait that is 9-feet tall. The paintings seemed like photographs. As he grew older, his style transformed with his life journey. As we can see in the picture below, the two paintings differ a lot. When he was young, the painting seems a lot more in detail than that when he grew older, as a lot of details fade away and are pixelated.
Common Assessment Task: Singapore Kindness Movement
What have you learned YOU need to do? How might you rewrite some of your work now, in hindsight? Add some before/after to a portfolio post about analysis. Think of some DO/DON’T items you want to remember the next time you do this.
I have learned from this CAT assessment that when structuring my response, it is better to add one transitional phrase between body paragraphs to improve the cohesiveness of the essay. Additionally, when two or more elements in the text allude to the same area of argument (e.g. both the HDB setting and the hawkers’ food establish a connection to the Singaporean audience), it is better to include both evidence in the same argument instead of mentioning the two pieces separately.