Final outcomes thumbnails and outcome experiments:

Inspiration and references :

I gathered some references that I’d want to add into my zine including previous photos and experiments:

Experiments:

Experimenting with 3D design:

Prep work for final outcome:

My junk journaling journey and management of my hoarding habit (visual representation) :

A very big aspect of my hoarding nowadays is of scraps. Anything which i find which i simply just keep for the sake of keeping. Most of the wrapping or paper has absolutly no meaning. Some does but it’s mostly just rubbish which I’m very self aware of and can’t quite explain why but i do it. For a while, growing up, my mum would tell me off when I would hoarder these things and even if it brought me a bit of distress to keep them just loosly around my room I had to find a way which my mum wouldn’t worry about it and I could still keep it in a way that wouldn’t bring me any from of distress too.

I stumbled upon the art of ‘junk journaling’ from a youtuber called Johanna Clough, and since I already had a passion for writing in journals I started to assemeble journals of those scarps I’d always kept even if it was an excuse to keep them, but at the back of my head I knew that I still had them. (going back to the psychology of ownership and attachment theory) This time though, i found junk jornaling wasn’t only environmentally friendly but also useful in helping me wind down. The act itself was theraputic as it only entails essmbling scraps of junk into collages and sticking them down. Sometimes i would even sit down and doodle (which i don’t do enough of now). Not only that but i was always left with a satisfactory feeling of completing a page or two when i sat down and my mind felt more at piece because i was making compositions right out of my subconcious without much thinking, simply arranging what i thought was visually pleasing to me and over the years I kept this up until even now.

I find that looking through these journals often reminds me of the different moods i was in at the time i created them or what i was into or where i went or what i bought at that time too.

A few of my favourite pages:

My most recent journal throughout this project over the course of 5-6weeks:

Artists Benny Lam and Maya Fuhr:

Experiments with stamping objects :

I came up with an idea to see what i could achieve if i were to actually hand stamp the objects on display in a ordered manner like in my Song Dong’s installation recreation, and what I could experiment with when I’d be able to scan the objectys into a file and further also edit to achive different patterns.

Process:

Objects used:

During this experiment I found that the piece of cloth I had been keeping to wife any surface i got dirty with ink had an interesting texture and with the leftover paint that was on it, I was able to transfer it onto paper and create a really effective pattern with grading.

Alongside where I kept my wet inked objects to dry i found that the mark that was left from one of the cassetts onto the paper towel had a really interesting texture and decided to scan this part in along all the others to see if I could engage it somehow when editing.

I also experimented with smaller flat objects that I instead of printing I simply painted over to create a negative space out of them instead of positive like I’d been focusing on in previous prints of objects.

Raw scanned in results :

Further experiments:

As another form of experimentation I wanted to see if printing on other toned card paper would give me a different result than just white.

the paper I used was 160g and very smooth which I really enjoyed working with because the results were much clearer as the ink transferred onto it much better, leaving me with much clearer and crisp-looking stamps.

Editing :

I mainly focused on double exposure layering patterns togetehr and the colour balance of the prints.

I enjoyed playing around with different bibrancies and filters as well, especially the ones where the stamps have a rustic aspect to them.

Psychological ownership and attachment theory :

https://www.psychiatryadvisor.com/home/topics/anxiety/obsessive-compulsive-and-related-disorders/the-psychology-of-hoarding-disorder-approaches-for-treatment/

I wanted to look deeper into some of the possible aspect sof hoarding, its treatments and diagnosis to see for myself if I’d be able to find interesting fact sthat I might’ve missed before or didn’t know of.

I found that most of the facts stated I was already aware of although I learned that hoarding is a disorder which is actually not fully yet studied. There are still treatments being tested and very little percentage of people who have been diagnosed actually recover fully and have been proved to never hoarder again.

Artist study:

Song Dong: ‘Waste not’ installation :

https://publicdelivery.org/song-dong-waste-not/

Song Dong: Waste Not

Introduction

Song Dong’s Waste Not is an installation with a story behind it. A testament born of the artist’s mother, Zhao Xiangyuan’s hoardings, the installation consists of tools, plant, pots, chairs, empty squeezed out tubes of toothpaste, television sets, all collected over a span of five decades. This obsessive hoarding of items resulted in an accumulation of everyday objects. At first glance, Waste Not seems like a messy room full of used up items and rubbish. However, it has powerful message that speaks volumes of the Chinese culture, memory and how social and political changes wrought changes in people.

A message about consumerism

It is a showcase of past times when there was no cavalier attitude towards disposable consumerism, and instead, there was a ‘waste not’ approach towards life. For Song Dong’s mother, everything could be hoarded and she did. From biscuit tins to empty fast food and drink containers, crockery, blankets, record players, shoes, plastic bottles and childhood toys all of which hold memories.

The meaning of the exhibition

While the installation was initially a collaboration between Song Dong and his mother, after her death in 2009, he remakes the exhibition as a process of grieving to commemorate his mother and bring together the entire family again. He remakes this exhibition with his sister’s and wife’s help. In doing so, it is a rekindling of memories and evoking powerful emotions through rediscovering personal family objects and obiects his mother liked, used and kept. In the 2005 exhibition, Song and Xiangyuan created a neon sign facing the stars with a message to his father, “Dad, don’t worry, mum and all the
family are well.”

Analysis

Therefore, his installation acts as a way of memorializing and reminiscing. It is a bittersweet journey of loss, hardship, and resilience. Through the installation in cataloging the objects she had accumulated through the years, Song Dong’s mother was able to share her childhood memory and overcome her pain.

About the artist

Song Dong is a Chinese conceptual artist born in 1966. He is renowned for his artwork combining different styles and aspects such as performance, photography, sculpture, video and installation. He is particularly enticed by notions of transience and impermanence and this is evident in his work even as he elates everyday realities and concerns. He is widely
exhibited and graduated from Normal University in 1989.

My own dispaly of hoarding items in the form of an installition similar to Song Dong’s:

My own hoarding :

This time round i wanted to divert back to my own hoarding as this project started as an idea I had because of my lifestyle and in general, life events and part of my dads dna which lead me to come up with this project, therefore not researching a bit into my won hoarding habits would be a waste.

I took aerial photos of my hoarding here and there, mostly focusing on detail than actuyal space since I’d been moving around my whole life most of my hoarding habits have translated into hoarding things within spaces such as cupboards and other places which aren’t as visible or first hand noticable. This is mainly due to the fact I was taught since i was younger not to show that part of myself when i were to meet new people for instance especially because living my whole life with my mum who is very much the opposite of a hoarder, when inviting people over the last thing she wanted was for her house to be taken up my things her child had been keeping which were useless, mailnly beacuse it was something that is looked at as ‘unorganised’, ‘messy’, and even ‘dirty’ in some cases, even if in my case I don’t belive it to be a reflection of myself like my dad but rather the circumstances I’d been put in and lifestyle i’ve been living.

References:

Digital studies from references:

15-20min:

10min:

15min:

My dads hoarding :

As my dads deeply routed issue of hoarding for most of his life, I decided it would be an interesting point of view to research into as a lot of the time i think looking at other peoples spaces (in this case of hoarding) can tell you quite a bit about how the person feels and make you question all sorts, like what specific objects they chose to hoarder and if there’s a specific reason as to why.

Digital sketches :

i wanted to continue in this blotchy style as I found that I was able to create faster digitally and without having the feeling of permentantly messing up if i did with a colour or the composition. And actually, by doing these studies digitally i realised i felt more free in doing mistakes because i knew that at the back of my head i could always go back if i wished so (although i tried not to, so that i could get a feel of a raw drawing which also has its own mistakes), than if i stuck with painting or drawing these studies traditionally with paint or markers etc.

15-20min:

5-10min:

40-60min:

15-20min:

Time laps

Digital studies of hoarding references taken in second-hand shop:

One of my favourite studies I did is of this statue and overgrowing plants. I don’t think it really matches that well in what I’m trying to portray within this project other than I really like the aesthetics and the colours I’ve chosen to use within it. I also quiyt elike this style of sketching and colouring digitally, giving it that ‘unfinished’ perspective.

Within this study I really enjoyed working with a minimal colour pallete which allowed me to focus more on tones of the objects other than their precise shape in detail. I also really like the stacked up composition in this study which I want to continue experimenting with.

Photos collected from family and friends who hoarder:

After my reserach I was able to ask some family and friends who were comfortable sharing their hoarding spaces with me to further investigate not just my own space and my dads but also people who i know around me.