Author: Pinhui Chen

To be honest, I have never done anything close to these cool workshops before. So, everything happened so suddenly and I entered this new world of art and design without any mental preparation.

In the past few weeks, I’ve done the thrilling and technique required screen printing, fun and variety of methods available printmaking, letterpress, which is much harder than I expected, and my favorite photography(simply because I like photography), also the useful and fun 3D workshop. Although all I learnt in these rather short courses is basically what are those weird looking machines and what do they do, but it is a very good start of working and studying, as well as doing experiments at school in the future.

What’s more, attending these workshops changes my opinion towards creating art. I always focused on the concept when I try to do work—I mean, concept is important as well, and to express our feeling with the art work is kind of a final goal. But we can’t just concentrate on building the big concept without doing any specific work. And doing the workshops made me realize that except learning theory and thinking, it’s important to do practice as well. And obviously I have much to learn in terms of that.

Apart from gaining some technique and experience from the workshops, I also met some interesting people. Simon in the screen printing workshop is so caring, always checking if we’re handling the work and if we had breakfast. And I was very lucky that I got to screen print his excellent art work. (Also he didn’t get mad when I ruined it) Richard in rilef printing is so humorous and having class with him is more of a pleasure than a hard work. Weeks had past but I can still recall his dramatic face when we got our works out from the press and the funny “good danmmm!” It’s very cool to work with these people.

So looking forward to working in these workshop in the future!

 well I actually ruined them… Anyway it’s really fun doing it!

Mr.BO was standing on the stairs.

He looked down.

Then he fell off from the stairs.

He found the entrance of a new world.

He entered the new world.

 

This is the first time I’ve got the chance to see a film in film festival, I kind of swore to myself that I have to see at least one film. I booked the ticket to El Angel almost a month ago because this story caught my eyes as soon as I saw it: a beautiful teenage boy becomes a thief, then falls in love with robbery and killing.

Before I heard about this story, I’ve seen quite a few films setting bad guys as the protagonists, also I’ve seen people arguing about it, saying that it’s the beautify of people who did the bad things and caused damages, and we should stop making crimes look romantic in the films. That of course, really make sense. It looks exciting when people fight, kill, smash things in the films, but we don’t actually want that to happen in the real life. And too much scenes of crime and violence on screen can bring negative influence to teenagers. However, what if the criminal is an angel? I mean, people are always judging others by their looking even if we know that’s not fair. How would people think and react in that case? How would I think?  Will I feel sympathetic or even empathetic to this boy?

Now that I’ve seen the film. Walking out from the cinema, sunshine was blinding, but that’s fine, because those images of the film still stayed in front of my eyes: the boy’s big round shining chestnut eyes, rosy cheeks and lips looking like petals, driving fast like crazy with music in the tunnel, burning car in the field, stupid high neck crop top in all kinds of colors, the dancing in well-furnished or ratty empty rooms… The film is full of colors, music, too sweet and beautiful for a crime story, but I love it. What about the boy? The killer, the criminal, the evil angel? Do I hate him as I should feel about who his is?

The answer is that I don’t know. In this film, there’s no clear explanation of why the boy started to do all these bad things. In some stories, the criminals often have bad parents or had been through some terrible things that cause trauma. The boy in this film, Carlitos, has none. However, we can see that’s he’s not just purely evil. He takes things from others not for money, he tells his little thief pal to slow down when robbing the jewelry shop, then put on a pair of earrings and pretended to be Marilyn Monroe, he dances when police are hunting him down, even in the scene which he drove the car into the car from opposite direction and killed his friend, it’s more like he’s doing this in honor of their friendship(in some way their love) instead of committing a murder. Is he crazy? As far as I’m concerned, he is. No normal man can still look at others with such innocent eyes, or talk to who he killed like they’re playing some games. What he did is evil, but he’s such a sweet angel, not just how he looks, it’s in his personality somehow. And that makes the everything happened very ridiculous but also such a tragedy.  Also–I’m not sure if everyone feels the same, it’s actually hard for me to judge a person once you know him or her well. I spent 2 hours with Carlitos in his sunny colorful world, went through all the love and betray with him, I can’t just simply decide whether I hate him or not.

Did I failed in this test of judging people by their appearance, as well as treating the crime in the film like an actual crime instead of something romantic and thrilling? (especially this film is adapted from real story) I don’t know. I actually started to doubt if that arguing really makes sense. Maybe it’s time to stop these moral arguments about films, all we want is a little bit of romance and craziness we don’t really allowed to have in the real life!!! Right, I need to stop talking because it’s obvious that I’m brainwashed by this film right now and couldn’t think straight with all the bubbles in my head.

 

Guess that’s how you’ll feel when you find your film.

 

 

 

I was supposed to write this down a month ago, however I’m not that kind of person who’s good at writing diary and documenting things and feelings… I’ll try my best.

For most of students, the life in elephant&castle probably started after 10th September, or even later. But I moved into a n Air bnb flat around e&c on 30th August and started my in London there. For the first few weeks, E&C looked not as attractive as other places in London. I mean, there’s no historical buildings or famous attractions, and as the junction of many roads, the place is just so confusing that I always got lost.  Sitting on the floor of my little bnb room, watching the show Human, constanly hearing the sounds of motorcycles and ambulances, thinking about what to get in the Sainsbury across the street … That’s my daily life in the first few weeks. Strangely, when I finally moved away to the student house, I kind of miss it. Well, I’m being sentimental. Probably because of the music.

Anyway, I still have to go to E&C everyday because the big hero of the story–London College of Communication is here! Actually, the E&C I see is a bit different after entering school. My active range enlarged, not just the bus stop and Sainsbury opposite, but also Longdan oriental supermarket, the sport centre of South Bank University(I attended an interesting dancing class there), Manna Ash student house(where my friends live) and don’t forget Mercato Metropolitano! I’ve only been there once when going out doing sketch but I’ve never forgotten this lovely place. And there’s so many places that I haven’t  got chance to explore. Now E&C is full of possibility and excitement for me.

After 1st October, all the students in LCC started school, meaning a large group  of cool people is pouring into E&C, which makes the place more interesting. Let’s see if my impression of it will change a month after. (I know this is not a good ending because it’s not the end at all!)

 

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