Tapewo is my conceptual system based on dysfunctional, graphical, and symbolic tape. At its core is the interconnectedness of everything in the 3D world (our real world). “Wo” is my abbreviation of the world, and the pronunciation of “wo” means “I” and “me” in Chinese. Tapewo can be seen as tape + world, and can also be understood as the relationship between thing and me in Chinese semantics. It has become a way for me as a creator to explore the spiritual world and the real world in an artistic way.
Currently on the Graduate Diploma my moving image works visualise the transition of the tape in different contexts through animation making:from abstract to concrete and finally back to abstract. There are five phrases :kong (nothingness), li (order), xiang (image), jie (being), xu (nihilism) in my film. As the viewer follows the changes of the image into the tape system, it will lead them to a spiritual tour. It represents the way I see and structure the art world. The idea of this project comes from my personal art education background. RUICONG XIE I studied printmaking in contemporary art for four years as an undergraduate, which was based on the reconstruction of visual graphics. I have researched and applied ‘’using collage thinking to make art‘’. I discovered that tape, which is functionally connected to the process of collage, can also be used as the subject of artistic creation. The moving image can also be seen as a collage on the timeline. In the end I combined the two to create Tapewo: a double collage.