Julia Zhu
Just Looking
The lost pastime of badly covering school books with cut out pics and Duraseal
Drawings of Youtube music vids, Instagram messages & Netflix shows
Growing up in the early '90s, I can remember magazines that came with posters and stickers of boy bands and actors from TV shows; posters covered bedroom walls and stickers over old furniture, and magazine cut-outs collaged school books backed in clear Duraseal.
The female gaze and fangirl-like sensibility of using crafts and stationery in tribute to the subject of their attention is the essence of my practice. 'Just Looking' responds to the impact of the digital age upon notions of looking. The research seeks to breach and broaden the boundaries of contemporary art by engaging with pop culture and seemingly trivial visual content that is dismissed or considered unimportant, and which struggles for recognition and presence.
In an attempt to find common ground with valued and accepted academic art, initial works focused on explorations of ancient Greek nudes and topics around 'The Gaze'. My process of figure-drawing uses imagery derived from experiences with online media: 'modern life' drawings of people of interest, from nudes sent in private Instagram messages and visual content of musicians and actors from Youtube music videos and Netflix shows.