Project 1 Zine

Artist Statement:

My zine follows a humanoid fish character who is dressed in a business suit. The setting is a cityscape and most of this is inspired from an installation project I had done in which handmade fish hung from strings under an umbrella. During the critique a student mentioned how the piece was paradoxical because an umbrella is used as a cover from water and yet the fish are under the umbrella. Following that idea, a fishman with an umbrella in a city would be quite bizarre yet interesting. The first 13 pages of the zine had the fish in grayscale while the surrounding figures and setting had color. The last 3 pages show a change in color with the surrounding turning gray and the fish now having color. The main focal point was color which in this case was a metaphor for interest and belonging. I always had trouble figuring out what I wanted to invest myself in and grew up conditioned to think that grades and academics defined my worth. My expectations and responsibilities grew exceedingly heavy and eventually reached a point where checking emails gave me anxiety. Being defined by results is really crippling, even more so when the results aren’t poor. Perhaps this zine was just a projection of what I had experienced, a fish out of water. But of course when you make that jump to let loose and leave behind expectations, you would be able to find an ocean that can fill you up with color, an ocean for you to experience and paint. Just as a fish must live in water, the right environment can truly bring out the life in a person.