MOONSHOT ACADEMY

MOONSHOT ACADEMY

Chenyu Lin

Head of Art Department, Head of Fupu House

Graduated from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago; Editor for art podcast at Vistopia; Artist assistant for the artist Xu Bing.

Lin's artworks have been exhibited at the South Bend Museum of Art in the United States, the CICA Museum in Korea, and the A4 Art Museum in China. His art practice spans various forms, including but not limited to printmaking, animation, installation, and artist books.

He developed courses such as Narrative Image and Art Track within the art department and collaborated with other teachers to create interdisciplinary projects such as TA in the Screenshot and Art Satellite Club. As the Head of Fupu House, he guides students in exploring more enriched aspects of themselves and works to establish methods outside academic courses that help students enhance self-awareness and empathy.

He specializes in using mixed media and integrated materials in art, with a strong focus on interdisciplinary collaborations that extend artistic creation into diverse fields of practice. His work explores the practical use of humor in contemporary art, emphasizing how audiences react to and interpret his pieces. By leveraging humor, he aims to make contemporary art more accessible, breaking down its often-perceived seriousness and fostering a more engaging connection with viewers.

Curriculums2

VART1005: Introduction to Art

Introduction to Art is a course for zero-based learners. In this course, we will develop the ability to observe and perception in contemporary art creation. With the co-teaching of the three teachers, each learner will be able to finish the course with three complete pieces of artwork.

VART4003: Narrative Image: Illustration, Comics and Animation

Before the invention of the camera, painting was used as the primary recording and narrative tool. What about after the invention of the camera? Is a single image considered a comic? What is the difference between Japanese manga and Chinese comic strips? Besides the typical chronological storytelling, how else can we use images? What are the respective characteristics of illustration, comics, and animation in telling the same story? Welcome to the Narrative Image class to learn more.

Projects7

Perfect or Imperfect

Every time before I have to make art, write a paper, etc., I always need to spend an extraordinary amount of time thinking about what I'm going to do. That's all right, but I've always hesitated to take action because I've been thinking about a plan. Moreover, the process of thinking about "what to do" brings me a lot of pain and agony. After many similar situations, I slowly realized that this kind of "thinking procrastination" comes from my excessive pursuit of perfectionism and the fear of "not having a perfect solution". I feared it would end badly if I started without a "perfect" solution. I worry about not being perfect, being less than others, about what others think, and being unable to get my work past myself. Therefore, in this work about myself, I want to further understand and break through this state of mine. To break out of this state, I think I can do the opposite: to make some "imperfect" works, not to let myself spend time thinking about the plan, and to create with a "blank paper" state; thus came this work with a little bit of performance art nature. It is based on randomly selected ready-made works. It is a time-limited creation based on randomly selected photos from a ready-made cell phone album; by randomly selecting pictures, repeating them, creating for a limited time, and randomly choosing the medium of creation when necessary, I want to abandon my creative merits and subjectivity, in order to achieve the goal of breaking through my excessive pursuit of perfection. "Pause" means to stop overthinking and over-striving for perfection, and "accelerate" means to start acting quickly.

Invisible Pain

Invisible pain refers to the somatization symptoms experienced by people with mental illness. Experiencing mental illness myself, I find that it brings physical pain almost as much as the mental symptoms, and even more overwhelming sometimes. However, usually people's perception of mental disorders does not include these physical symptoms that cause patients to suﬀer. I want to visualize this phenomenon while making mental illness known in a comprehensive way.

Via

"Where is your hometown?" Is it the address on the Household Register, or the place of birth, permanent residence, or the place of origin. Hometown is not defined in black and white compared to the Chinese household registration system, it is too vague for us. People will pass through small and large corners in their life, leaving their own traces. Some traces will disappear with the footsteps of the way, some traces will be burned in the heart for life. After searching, there is always a place that belongs to one's hometown, the hometown of the soul. To me it is home, a place where people are loved. The Way is a series of works, including an art film and an art book. It revolves around "I" and discusses the meaning of the existence of hometown in such a society with a complex structure of Household registration system.

The -ism Project

Disciplines/Subjects: Visual Arts, English Key Themes: European and American art history, analysis, personal perspective The popularization of mainstream art history has long been dominated by the European and American viewpoint of “originating from Ancient Egypt and Ancient Greece, passing through the Renaissance and Baroque, to Romanticism, Impressionism, and up to modern contemporary art”, which tells a relatively single logic of development and values. As a form of communication common to all human beings beyond language, the history of art has always been incredibly diverse. In the artistic path of Moon Exploration, to communicate smoothly in the context of contemporary art from Europe and the United States, we will respect and systematically explore the masterpieces and the causes and consequences of the traditional narratives. At the same time, we cannot help but ask: In the face of such an authoritative framework, where do we place the movies, stars, topics, and culture that have inspired our appreciation and creativity since our childhood, and where do we place ourselves? So we drew our art history maps, turning straight timelines into spider webs, trails, mountains, and clouds, to see a more unique connection between ancient and modern art and Chinese art from our perspectives. After studying the techniques of specific art genres and combing through their development, we gradually became curious beyond the generalization of the big time, “What does contemporary realism look like?” “Does rebellion have to be Dada?” “Where are the female artists in Abstract Expressionism?” “What is unique about Chinese art history?” Information found with genuine curiosity is more memorable, and characteristics are more interesting after comparison. After an essay, or an exam, the distance between creation and research seems to be closing.

Self-Portrait

Disciplines/Subjects: Visual Arts Key Themes: Self-portrait, Collage, Found object, Art therapy Self-portraits are a recurring theme in artists’ creations. Whether it’s a realistic self-portrait meticulously drawn by observing oneself in a mirror, or an abstract self-portrait created using any materials or objects to convey personal traits, this is an essential step in art learning and creation. In the Self-Portrait unit of the Art Track, learners will start by identifying ten personal keywords and then complete three works centered on self-expression. These three projects include: Life Album (with cover) – exploring direct self-expression. Readymade Sculpture – using real objects and materials to convey unique characteristics. The Opposite of Me – identifying and attempting to approach or even embrace one’s opposite side. Following these three creations, learners will utilize their ELP time to produce a fully developed and polished self-portrait. This time, their audience will include the entire community.

Four pages comic

Disciplines/Subjects: Visual Arts Key Themes: Comics, Graphic Novel, Chris Ware Famous comic works like The Avengers, Dragon Ball, and Old Master Q are often regarded as children's reading material and thus dismissed by many adult readers. However, when we revisit the history of storytelling through images, we find many extraordinary artistic works that are innovative in style and profound in content. For instance, the graphic novel Maus, which deals with the theme of Nazi concentration camps during World War II, became the first such work to win a Pulitzer Prize, demonstrating to readers worldwide that image-based storytelling can rival even the most serious literary creations. When we grow accustomed to recording life through abstract written language, we often face the limitations of vocabulary and expression, making it challenging to fully articulate our thoughts. By turning to image-based storytelling, we might discover that our thoughts and emotions inadvertently emerge between panels. In this process, whether we quickly convey a story through concise frames or repeatedly use a series of similar images to create the atmosphere, our creative expression takes on a magical transformation. The graphic novels of artist Chris Ware show us how the mundane can be reinterpreted through images, becoming thought-provoking and impactful. In this comics unit, students who have learned about creating multi-panel narratives will take inspiration from Chris Ware’s Jimmy Corrigan: The Smartest Kid on Earth to identify moments in their own daily lives worth recording and reimagine them through their creations. This project aims to challenge the stereotypical perceptions of comics as a creative medium.

Poetry Illustration

Disciplines/Subjects: Visual Arts, English Key Themes: Poem, Illustration, Surrealism Since the invention of photography in the 19th century, the main function of painting at that time has almost been replaced. For a while, many people claimed that "painting is dead". However, the ensuing Impressionism, Cubism, Surrealism, Pop Art, and Minimalism paintings have given this form of expression unprecedented vitality. Among them, surrealist paintings are known to many people for depicting dreams, mental states, and other highly emotional ways. Poetry, as the genre closest to surrealism among all forms of written expression, can often bring readers a certain kind of unspeakable reading experience by splitting and reorganizing different images. This unusual experience always makes readers complain that "I can't understand it". Even the title of "poet" is in some cases a kind of derision rather than a description. American poet Richard Brautigan's poems often contain a lot of prose descriptions. Imaginative imagery is scattered throughout every line of his works. After the Illustration unit, learners in the Narrative Image class each chose a piece from Brautigan's Selected Poems as the inspiration for the unit and completed a surprising illustration. To let the learners' works be seen by more people, we have chosen to bring such an exhibition to you in the Little Theater. We hope you will enjoy it.

Recommend to read1

Fupu House