Week 9: Materiality of Ink
‘Colour Inklings’ first iteration of research into teaching course. Colour mixing in the printmaking workshop and colour measuring in the media lab through intergenerational knowledge transfer.
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Circuit (Semi), 2025-26, oil on linen and collaged canvas, 30 x 30cm | 13.02.26
© Andrew Seto, 2026
dm for info or buymeacoffee.com/andrewseto
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Want to take a peak at your pocket pocket pocket
Want to take a lick on you socket socket socket
Can’t fine me in my house
I will lock it it it it
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Circuit (Bask), 2023-25, oil on canvas, 20 x 25cm
© Andrew Seto, 2025
dm for info or buymeacoffee.com/andrewseto
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When we see birds, we usually look at them from below. They, most often indifferent to our gaze, keep theirs fixed on the horizon. This attitude may be the best way to remain in balance within the reality that surrounds us: not to focus on trivialities, but to try to maintain a ‘bird’s-eye view’ of the world we inhabit.
The Mouth of Krishna - #928 2024, Pigments gampi paper and gold leaf
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CTS B | Week 12: Materiality and the Evolving Vision
To grow, one must garner the time and space for patience, reaching within one’s conscience for clearer paths forward. The essential act of reflection, often found in moments of intense focus like David K. Lewis’s train rides or the creative’s state of “flow,” is crucial for refining the creative self and generating visual sustenance (Csikszentmihalyi 123). After completing the CTS B module, I recognise that growth necessitates synthesizing both intellectual understanding and a deep engagement with material practice, establishing a robust framework for professional ambition.
Processing the feedback from my Week 10 visioning exercise (Figures 2–4) reinforced the need to balance ambition with pragmatism. My core strengths are conceptual thinking and visual storytelling. My primary five-year goal is to become a well-rounded designer capable of executing precise projects for visual identity. This involves adapting to industry trends, mastering efficient copywriting, and ultimately establishing a home-based freelance illustration studio with international reach (Figure 3). To achieve this, I will study motion graphics (After Effects and Figma) and participate in design competitions to diversify my portfolio.
My commitment is anchored in a critical lineage that uses materiality and craft as a tool for personal documentation - a theme explored significantly in Week 4. The significance of handmade expression, where meaning is embedded through physical effort, establishes the theoretical ground for my work (Adamson 3). This tradition is practically exemplified by works like the Rubbish FAMZine No. 9 (Figure 1), which uses a tactile, layered structure to archive personal and familial memory. This intentional synthesis of experience into a tangible artifact directly informs my own craft work, the zine “Gauge” (Figures 5 - 9).
“Gauge” serves as a physical metaphor for my internal and external struggles. The hand-sewn, cowhide leather sleeve, secured by grommets and a carabiner, represents the confident, often unapproachable “exterior me” that many perceive. This protective covering is contrasted with the zine’s interior, which is raw, analog, and unsettling, using found imagery and piercing jewellery to express the struggle with anxiety, depression, and trauma - the overlooked “interior me.” The binding, intentionally unstable, formalizes this physical dualism. By contrasting a refined, protective material with raw, vulnerable content, my work places itself within a tradition of self-expressive design, proving that the material choice is the primary message. This grounds my conceptual practice by demonstrating how personal truth, once intentionally materialized, can sustain profound creative growth.
The CTS B module provided the necessary theoretical framework to examine and synthesize the world beyond art and design through a critical lens. From exploring traditions and societal lineages to crafting and revising my artistic vision statement, I have learned to re-engage my creative practice with everyday themes. The refined vision is therefore grounded not only in concrete professional goals but also in a deeper understanding of how critical reflection and material practice work in tandem to define the designer I am becoming.
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Works Cited
- Adamson, Glenn. Thinking Through Craft. Berg, 2007. P. 3.
- Csikszentmihalyi, Mihaly. Creativity: Flow and the Psychology of Discovery and Invention. Harper Perennial, 1996. P. 123.
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ALTDavid Carson (b. 1955)
ALTRay Gun Magazine, Issue #3 (Bryan Ferry Interview) (1992)
ALTThe End of Print: The Graphic Design of David Carson,Book Cover (1995)
ALTNine Inch Nails, And All That Could Have Been Album Packaging (2002)
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Anish Kapoor
Anish Kapoor, My Red Homeland 2003 Wax and oil-based paint, hydraulic motor, steel block 12m in diameter Installation view.
Anish Kapoor, through the continuous motion of 25 tons of red wax, transforms personal pain into a ritualized material landscape. This idea deeply resonates with my project Broken and Flowing, which also seeks to materialize invisible trauma through the physical behavior of materials. In Kapoor’s work, the endless circular movement of the red wax—driven by mechanical force—embodies the notion that trauma is not a static inheritance, but a dynamic and evolving process. Similarly, in my practice, the fluidity of watercolor and the recomposition of fragmented limbs reflect the ongoing transformation of pain and memory.
For me, red symbolizes both life and vitality as well as violence and wounding. In my collages, I use red threads to suggest the suturing of trauma, making visible the tension between rupture and repair. Kapoor’s repetitive gestures and monumental installations create a ceremonial sense of healing in space, while my own repetitive acts of cutting and reassembling become a meditative process—one that explores the many ways trauma can be repaired, redefined, and ultimately reconciled.
Artsy.net. “Anish Kapoor | My Red Homeland (2003) | Artsy,” 2016. https://www.artsy.net/artwork/anish-kapoor-my-red-homeland.
Lempesis, Dimitris. “ART-PRESENTATION: Anish Kapoor-My Red Homeland – Dreamideamachine ART VIEW.” Dreamideamachine.com, 2015. https://www.dreamideamachine.com/?p=6295.
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Rachel Whiteread
Rachel Whiteread, House, at 193 Grove Road, London E3, 1993.
In House, Rachel Whiteread cast the interior void of a building in concrete, capturing its negative space and transforming absence into a solid, monumental presence. By giving form to the invisible, she endowed emptiness with material weight and commemorative significance. The work’s surface preserves subtle traces of domestic life—textures of walls, imprints of furniture, and the residue of human touch—allowing the material to speak of presence through absence. In doing so, Whiteread created an enduring surrogate, one that occupies the site of what once was, resisting erasure and forgetting through permanence. This gesture embodies a symbolic form of repair—an acknowledgment that while trauma cannot be reversed, it can be transformed into a lasting material memory.
Similarly, I approach my own practice as a form of archaeology of memory. Through collecting fragmented images of the body, painting and layering watercolor textures to simulate scars and traces, I excavate the psychological and physical residues of lived experience. Like Whiteread, I seek to translate personal histories into collective resonance, transforming private wounds into shared meditations on absence, remembrance, and resilience.
Cohen, Alina. “Rachel Whiteread’s ‘House’ Was Unlivable, Controversial, and Unforgettable.” Artsy, September 24, 2018. https://www.artsy.net/article/artsy-editorial-rachel-whitereads-house-unlivable-controversial-unforgettable.
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Peter Callesen, Human ruin, 2008, Acid free 120 gsm paper and glue, 256 x 144 x 25 cm.
In Human Ruin, Peter Callesen uses a single sheet of A4 paper—the most ordinary and fragile of materials—to create a figure struggling to rise from the ruins of the paper itself through precise cutting and folding. He demonstrates that fragility can hold immense expressive power. The delicate, ephemeral nature of paper becomes a perfect metaphor for the vulnerability and transience of human existence. A sheet once destined for disposal is transformed by the artist’s creative hand into a monument of tragic beauty and philosophical reflection. Callesen carefully arranges the cut-out fragments around the hollowed silhouette, allowing the removed negative space and the remaining form to together tell a complete story of loss and remembrance. This directly resonates with the voids and gaps of memory in my own work, reminding me that absence can be made visible and tangible through the shape it leaves behind. His practice reveals that true strength lies not in concealing fragility but, rather, in showing—through the most meticulous craft and gentle touch—how vulnerability can become a foundation for resilience, and how fragments can form the most complete narrative.
CALLESEN, PETER. “PETER CALLESEN.” PETER CALLESEN , 2019. https://www.petercallesen.com/human-ruin.
Colossal. “In States of Ruin, Architectural Sculptures by Peter Callesen Spring from a Single Sheet of Paper,” November 24, 2021. https://www.thisiscolossal.com/2021/11/peter-callesen-sculptures/.
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Drawing figure/ground, documentation of work in progress. by Russell Moreton
Via Flickr:
russellmoreton.blogspot.co.uk/
Meeting Place
Studio Space
Site based drawings and inquiries.
Consciousness
Body
Space
Material
Creative Vocational Research
Life “drawing” trace on paper with water and field chalk. Work submitted to Interfaith Group Show at the Link Gallery, Winchester 2010.
“This particular event invokes for me the notion of simple material relations and collaborative gestures that underpin human agency.Art space/practice can promote these working intimations that enter into the realm of beliefs.”
Artist’s Statement (archive) 07.12.2009.
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Over Layering/Accretions : Asperity~Inhabitation~Urbanism by Russell Moreton
Via Flickr:
Of interiors, constructions and deconstructions into and around the ruinous. White (bleached) and soot fumed stains, textures, patinas of process and time, usage and possible shelter. Urban vessels poetically conveying a visual, tactile complexity, that of built and lived in spaces.
russellmoreton.blogspot.com
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WOII: WEEK 5 AND 6 - WORK DESIGN & FIELD TRIP
WEEK 5
An item that I choose that’s handcrafted would be these press-on nails that I created myself from scratch. This item is especially memorable to me since I am part of the creative process and I run this nail business for more than 2 years now. Design analysis is broken down into 5 frameworks. As an independent business owner that works really closely with design and my clients, I have found out which medium works best for my creation, and to also understand what my clients wish to receive. Usually, my clients will send me various pictures and moodboards for me to design and depict my own style onto the medium used (fake nails). It’s amazing how I am able to use different colours of gel paints, the different viscosity and other materials such as charms or beads (which I will consider as the raw materials) to create a creation that is functional and usable as a form of fashion statement/ expressing each individual. I always aim to be purposeful with my designs and creation by going through each frameworks with intentions. I believe the reason why my business is still ongoing and still running is because of the effort and craftsmanship I put into my works. But also not forgetting the trust and loyalty that my clients have for me, I am always grateful to have an outlet where I can express my own creativity.
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WEEK 6
The theme that I chose that could be an extension to the item that I brought would be “materiality”. The satin material and beads that I captured are items that are material and raw on their own. But the beauty in it is, it is able to create into a greater creation. The satin material could be used to create a beautiful satin dress, and the beads can be used to create handmade bracelets. I chose the topic materiality since I worked really closely with materials and products. It’s about experimenting with different materials and choosing what works for me best. What worked for others could not work for me, and these come with experiences that I cherish as it makes me who I am to this day. To me, materiality is not just about identifying what something is made of. It’s about understanding what shaped its properties, usage, meaning and the impact it has.
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WOII Compulsory: Week 5 & 6 - Design Analysis and Field Trip
When I was tasked with analyzing an object for this activity, I knew that I had to take my time to observe my chosen object that I have brought to decipher. But it was hard for me as I took it simply as it is and found it hard to have opinions of it, the framework behind it.
Though by using the Design Analysis Framework, I have a step-by-step guide in breaking down the object so I could observe its details.
The activity where we had to share our objects, we chose materiality and memories as our themes, although these are goods that can simply be brought, I was reminded that people took time to study the craft of crocheting and using yarn and their effort to such objects, so their value as handmade objects plus the memory of receiving such crafted goods from someone made me see connections to the themes we chose.
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ALTFor the second part of our assignment, we had to find new places or objects to group under a new theme. So, I decided to go with consumption.
There were a lot of Singaporean paraphernalia with a lot of items depicting popular landmarks like the Merlion or the Marina Bay sands. However, I wanted to focus on the over-consumption of these sorts of souvenirs as there was a surplus of goods that doesn’t meet the demand of what people would normally wish to purchase as a souvenir as these goods were garish and typical.
Something more suited for young children as based on the aspects of the merchandise, the quality was decent enough and had really colourful and cute designs.
The design analysis framework was useful for helping me break down the elements in my studio module, when I had to analyse my chosen designer’s work for recurring elements that showed up often in his work and the design principles behind it.
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Ningbo Historic Museum
Wang Shu, Amateur Architecture Studio, 2008
(Ningbo, China)
Photo: Iwan Baan
[[MORE]]Decisive, sharp cuts and the layered facade represent man’s footprint on the building/mountain, either as relics or as the new manifestation of a vital city structure.