Cyberpunk

1. 

Cyberpunk is widely identified as a combination of "low life, high technology, advanced technological and scientific achievements such as Artificial Intelligence and Cybernetics, with a degree of breakdown or radical change in the social order".

With the release of the famous and classic in 1982 and its original features, a cyberpunk city has always been based on a modern city but more digital and futuristic with high-rise buildings, crowded streets, neon lights in a creepy way.

I would like to use the modern city with highly developed technology as the background in my work or create some patterns out of it.

scenes from Blade Runner, 1982 

The movie is a famous and classic one about the cyberpunk talking about a world where people use cyborgs, who are not allowed to have emotions, for work.

This reminds me of other classic movies like Cube, 1997 and Tron, 1982 with its revised version Tron : Legacy, 2010 which all set in a unreal world or space.

Cube, 1997

The settings remind me of the digital world consists of lines, shapes ---- mainly squares ---- and LED lights.

Tron : Legacy, 2010

The story actually happened in a digital world.

The works about cyberpunk always feature the following elements :

• technology
• cyberspace
• virtual reality
• ...

 I could use more materials that reflect the light. Meanwhile , I would like to use more lines form up the outlines of the objects.

other inspiring art pieces 

Sarah Morris, Pools – Nassau Suite [Miami], 2003, Household Gloss Paint on Canvas, 214 x 214 cm

Sarah Morris, National Archives [Capital], 2002, Household Gloss Paint on Canvas, 214 x 214 cm

I love the way she used simple lines and colors to create a sense of  surrealistic space.

Mega Structures, atelier olschinsky, illustration

Cities, atelier olschinsky, illustration

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In The Reality

Hong Kong and Tokyo are always seen as two typical examples of Cyberpunk city in the reality with high technology, urban construction and large population.

Tokyo, Elsa Bleda, photograph

HongKong, Zaki Abdelmounim, photograph

Kowloon Walled City (Hong Kong) is even more typical with a period of history when different governing power tried to take over it but eventually gave up, leaving a designed city and a huge mess without government.

Kowloon Walled City, Hong Kong

The Urban Planning of Kowloon Walled City

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I got inspiration from some art pieces like those from David Schnell – who mainly use squares of some certain colors trying to build up a space like digital and informative world. The colors combination gives a feeling of mixed signals for that those patterns are just like the screen when signals got mixed or lost.

Licht, David Schnell, 2017, Oil on linen / Folge, David Schnell, 2012

Pakt, David Schnell, 2016

I really like and plan to use daily stuff like doors, floor, desk and books in small scale with squares of the similar colors covering the rest of the image, indicating the twisting space, blurring the boundary between reality and unreality just like David Schnell did.

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Inspiration :

• dots 
• lines
• color shapes
• circuit board
• ...

• digital
• modern cities like Hong Kong and Tokyo
• neon lights 
• digital
• futuristic
• ...

2. 

Cyberpunk is set up as a highly-technological version of dystopia world, usually digital. And it's based on the imagination and worries that extreme power and out-of-control techniques threaten the human beings and cause global crisis.

According to those who first defined the cyberpunk like Bruce Sterling, it is also featured with people's daily life impacted by rapid technological change, which will soon lead to an ubiquitous datasphere of computerized information invasive modification of the human body.

Under such circumstance, people living in such worlds can easily have a faith collapse ---- it happened every time in history there appeared a huge rise in productivity.

Buddha

Sea of Buddha 002, Hiroshi Sugimoto, 1995

The serried images of Buddha ----> The God is not sacred any more. They are not the only one. and can be easily copied and. 

The structure on head ----> mechanical and religious elements combined together 

 I'd like try to create a mixed feeling of technology and religions by using different materials and colors or patterns to cover the image of traditional figures of gods.

the day will come, Richard Stone, 2012, antique parian, porcelain, wax

Cover the a god-like sculpture ----> people don't praise the gods any more and dare to play with the holy statue of a god.

White Orchid ( With Party and Splint ), Nigel Cooke, 2013, Oil on linen backed with sailcloth, 220x230cm

Storm with Shattered Tree, Nigel Cooke, 2012, Oil on linen backed with sailcloth, 320x230cm

The images are messy but full of details 

The way Nigel Cooke connects the figures shows a sense of chaos of human and gods

golden colors ----> sign of god

They will destroy the old god ---- for that they can't get enough security from him or her any more and set up a new one ---- after all they still need something to rely on and mentally comfort them. -------->a new god

Some people turn to something they used to have ---- old culture, tradition, religion.

(In < Ghost In The Shell 2.0 >, director Mamoru Oshii created a world based on Hong Kong featured with traditional east asian style ---- mainly Chinese and Japanese along with super techniques.)

Based on the Hong Kong city, the director Mamoru Oshii created a future world where cybernetic technology is highly advanced, allowing human body to be 'augmented' or completely replaced with cybernetic parts.

It is seen as a masterpiece in Cyberpunk and Dystopia.

Some people embrace the new generation and may be part of it for shelter and protection ---- just like the cyborgs, who have both organic and biomechatronic body parts (coined in 1960, Manfred Clynes and Nathan S Kline).

Ghost In The Shell 2.0, 2008 / Ex Machina, 2014

That's why I come up with the idea of the gods falling down and people losing mind for a faith collapse and depression when seeking salvation, as well as the cyborgs and the way people hide behind fake masks and shells ---- or they are already fake (also triggers the questions below). 

In the painting, I may us the elements of puppets.

Also, cyberpunk world is full of technology, cyberspace, virtual reality and other technological things making everything unreal. This triggers a series of questions about Ontology.

• Are people real?
• How to define ourselves as human beings?
• What if everything is fake?
• Why not replace human parts with cybernetic parts for improvements?
• Are we still human in that way (partly cybernetic) ?
• ...

other inspiration :

'Family Silot', Justin Mortimer, 2007

'Donor VI', Justin Mortimer, 2014, oil on canvas, 50 x 40 cm

colors/twisted and blurred image ----> people losing faith and lost