10 Questions with Jasmine Zhu

Jasmine Zhu graduated from NYU Shanghai with a B.S. in Mathematics and double minors in History and Urban Design and Architecture Studies. She worked in real estate consulting and quantitative hedge funds after graduation. She went to UC Berkeley for a Master's in Architecture. She's been practicing as an architectural designer in New York City after graduation. Though working as an architectural designer in the residential sector, especially in the multi-family residential sector, Jasmine practices art during her leisure time. Jasmine's works range from sketches and drawings to large-scale ink paintings, as well as architectural drawings. She worked as a freelance translator for architectural and art-related contexts for both social media and onsite exhibitions.

As an art enthusiast and designer with a STEAM background, she's impressed and amazed by the phenomenal graphics and abstract forms generated in the science books and from the construction sites. Her past education experience also inspires her curiosity for the unknown and possibilities in the practice of art. Studying at NYUSH, learning traditional art taught by both American and Chinese professors, with international students as classmates, has become one of the most interesting experiences she has had. Interdisciplinary practice and the collision of Chinese and foreign cultures allow her to construct a measurement of the relationship between traditional art and contemporary art in a relatively less formal and more interactive environment.

@jasminejulovestotravel

Multi-Landscape | Project Description

The Original design inspiration of this series comes from the mandatory mathematics course multivariable calculus, which involves the graph recognition part of partial differential equations. This work has gone through several iterations. The first as ink on rice paper, with blueprint free hand lines as the background, and the second iteration as a digital and spatial reimagination.

As a student majoring in mathematics, while struggling to understand graphs using partial differential equations in Matlab, the author was also attracted by the abstract space between patterns and thus began to imagine the concept of "multi variables" in the mathematical and spatial dimensions. The blue manuscript in the painting implies the tortured order and rigor of mathematical logic, while the traditional ink brushstrokes give the graphics a chaotic sense of space. It lays the foundation for further diversified spatial imagination. Rationally, these two-dimensional schematic diagrams cannot represent the true form of PDE, but perceptually, these abstract "screenshots'', integrated with traditional Chinese ink painting techniques, can create the illusion of space with the contrast of ink.

The Urbanscape and Landscape collections were generated with a second round of iteration. With diverse content added, the collection has multilayers of scenes, backgrounds, and human and natural activities, becoming the combination of imagination of virtuality and reality.

Multi-Landscape series (Showroom, 2016) © Jasmine Zhu

INTERVIEW

Can you share more about your educational journey, from studying mathematics and urban design to pivoting towards architecture and visual arts? How do you believe this diverse academic background informs your artistic practice?

I went to New York University Shanghai Campus, spent one year in New York Campus, and graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Mathematics and double majors in Architecture and Urban Design Studies and History. I'm always better at arts than science growing up so I decided to challenge myself and guarantee a STEM degree when there's a chance.Therefore, I only fulfill all the major requirements for a math degree while taking as many history, art history, architecture, and landscape survey classes as possible.
I think the years at NYU were especially special for me because I was able to receive professional artist's instructions, and the whole class was full of "amateur" instead of trained professionals. However, the class was very serious, educational, and informative, with rigorous theories and plenty of assignments and projects, during which I was impressed and surprised by how interesting, stylish, and even avant-garde some of my classmates' projects were. Most of us had just started drawing classes and ink painting classes at university while we majored in Computer Science, Mathematics, Business, and Finance, and very few Interactive Media Art. Having one foreign professor and one Chinese professor to teach traditional Chinese art painting at an International University in Shanghai is even more culturally and artistically interesting. There, I found how bold and unrestricted my international classmates were when starting their own project creation, especially in the theme they chose and the shape and strokes they preferred. Though very different from traditional Chinese aesthetics, it did shed light on the possibilities of interpretation in modern arts. Luckily, most of my works were selected by professors for shows and exhibitions inside and outside school, and I was encouraged to try artistic practice as a sidekick.
My love for architecture, especially residential plans, starts from a very young age as well. I found myself naturally curious about the urban environment, how the buildings work, and how people use and occupy the space. During my year in New York, the Dean of Architecture and Urban Design Studies, Ms. Mossette Broderick, encouraged me to apply for summer school in GSD and spent six weeks in Cambridge for a general understanding of how architecture education was in the States. Afterward, I prepared my own portfolio of my past artwork and assignments in summer school and enrolled in UC Berkeley, which I later found was indeed my perfect fit.

Multi-Landscape series (work in progress) © Jasmine Zhu

Your transition from real estate and hedge funds to architectural design is quite intriguing. How did these experiences shape your perspective on art and design, particularly in urban environments?

To be honest, I don't think it's a big transition. I'm actually enjoying my work in Real Estate Consulting and Hedge Funds. I'm fortunate enough to have gotten jobs with my mathematics degree and to have worked in multiple industries. I went into the Real Estate Industry because I was curious about the grand picture of how the building industry actually runs from the start: policy orientation, bidding, purchasing land, financing, etc. As I've learned in drawing class, it's always important to first set the tones and proportions right rather than focusing on polishing the details. (As a result, I was toldmy mindset was actually more "developer" than "designer" in a lot of interviews with architecture firms during the hiring season). Similarly, I don't think the hedge fund experiences any waste of time in my personal and professional life. I was fortunate enough to work with a bunch of ambitious and talented people and learn a lot about the stock market and macroeconomics.
Though life was really good in both firms, I realized that though I was really good at soft skills, communications, and marketing, my technical skills were far from enough to profit the company, and thus, I don't feel myself producing anything useful or profitable. Besides, I found myself having a physical creation/work/design piece to be more rewarding than the climbing numbers. Both jobs gave me an excellent chance to read about the larger landscape of the whole urban environment, from how development is made to the influence of interest rates and policies to computational methods of analyzing and utilizing urban transportation and human activities.
In short, these experiences significantly influence my mindset and logic of design practice (not necessarily correct), from the research of the topic and trial and error of methods to the execution and promotions of certain artwork. However, that really played a villainous role in my first year in architecture school, as I got really frustrated to get ambiguous and uncertain answers when asking my instructors what the point of this weird opening was and what they really wanted from me during the design studio that focused on form.

As someone with such a diverse background, how do you integrate elements of science, technology, and mathematics into your artistic process? Do you find that your mathematical expertise influences your approach to composition or form?

It highly depends on whether it's in architecture or artwork. I'm a huge supporter of BIM systems and computational methods in architecture design, but I'm not enthusiastic about curvature shapes and constructions. I'm a quick learner and supporter of the BIM (Building Information System) and parametric methods in building construction. When it comes to creating shapes based on scripts or mathematical curves, the training in mathematics definitely enhanced my "concept" of what such shapes might resemble, hyperboloid, for example, and what curves they might be. I appreciate the curvature shape, but I don't think they are architecturally efficient. They are worth the trouble if it's a significant flagship landmark that boosts the image of the related urban area; otherwise, the energy loss, construction waste, and unnecessary difficulties in structure and all the coordinations are not economically sustainable and environmentally friendly in a grander picture.
However, when it comes to a smaller scale, paintings, graphic design, sculpture, and arts and crafts work, I think geometry, especially 3d functions, and differential geometry, definitely gives me graphic inspiration all the time and broadens my eyesight of the possibilities of "abstract" shapes

Let's now focus on the Multi-Landscape series. Could you walk us through your creative process for this project?

The original prototype of this project was a final project for the class "Introduction to Studio Art - Chinese Traditional Methods in Contemporary Art," where I took inspiration from the calculus book and then combined the two together. So I first generate a function, capture the screenshot of an "ideal" angel, and paint the shape down with ink to give the basic shape and fluidity of this piece. Then, I add lines with fine blue liners to represent the grid, contour, and logic of the shape. I got the comments that the paintings had the essence of traditional Chinese landscape drawings during the exhibition, then I decided to add elements to represent this side of the quality several years after the exhibition digitally when I was in architecture school and had a better understanding of landscape and urban design.

Your artworks combine traditional ink painting techniques with abstract graphics inspired by mathematics. Can you discuss the significance of this fusion of traditional and contemporary elements in your work?

I will give the credits to the class of "Introduction to Studio Art - Chinese Traditional Methods in Contemporary Art ",where my professors and fellow classmates inspired me. If not for this class, I would never have thought of "challenging" the traditional concept, methodology, and themes of Chinese painting creation because it somehow looked unprofessional, informal, and even ridiculous. However, during this class, my orthodox idea of the "traditional techniques" stayed as "antiques" got turned over, and I believe there should be more elements, topics, and objects being combined with traditional art. We were encouraged to paint whatever that came into mind, or whatever we wanted to convey at the time, using the techniques we learnt and not necessarily needing a perfect set of techniques(which was also impossible). I still consider this fusion very personal as it was an instant representation of what I was learning at that time and what visual image I was influenced by on a daily basis during that time. As art forms, styles, and techniques are evolving through time to stay "fresh" and "alive," it is worthy for traditional art to combine with other disciplines, regardless of mathematics, physics, biology, etc., to test the boundary and keep itself interesting for the current generation of audience. We also have fellow classmates who present a live show of dancing with ink on rice paper and record the whole process of these unique and memorable art projects. The fusion also brings more possibilities and a wider scope of attention. Though the delicacy of ink painting, or any traditional art, is always mesmerizing, trying to chase the excellence of past giants is not necessarily how art and artists evolved with time.

The Multi-Landscape series underwent several iterations, from ink on rice paper to digital and spatial reimagination. What motivated these transformations, and how did each iteration contribute to the evolution of the series?

The first iteration of ink on rice paper was my instant inspiration from the class I was taking at the time, which was very personal, authentic, and logically generated. I do think the iteration is very interactive as I received multiple comments from professionals and amateur fellows that the shapes remind them of the essence of the fluidity and poeticness of traditional Chinese Ink landscape without seeing the landscape. I also took several urban design and landscape survey classes later and thought about testing out the spatial possibility of abstract forms by adding human activities inside. Though against the pursuit of "abstraction", the result turned out to be interesting and relatable in a dynamic way. These multiple interpretations add to the multivariable calculus diagrams and the multiple uses of landscape or urban space in reality.

Can you elaborate on the conceptual underpinnings of the Urbanscape and Landscape collections? How do these collections expand upon the themes explored in the Multi-Landscape series?

These are both tryouts of how graphic elements, together with relatable imagination, can inspire the audience to view some abstract form as something relatable. It's an exploration of how elements of different scales can influence the masses and dimensions of an abstract form. These frames of reference, on the other hand, can determine the size of the abstract form, thus showcasing how "multi" can be reached, rather than multi variables mathematically, but also multi frames of reference.

In your artwork, you explore the intersection of virtuality and reality, as you mention in your statement. How do you navigate this juxtaposition, and what themes or narratives emerge from these combinations?

This theme first comes from the visual illusion of "depth" when the contrast of color and the intensity of the ink can create an illusionary space, which, in reality, does not exist. All the graphic functions generated are actually surfaces rather than volumes, and they are incomplete captures of that function, which only represents a region of the graphic. That's to say, allthe depth and columns are virtual while, in reality, they are imagined and interpreted based on one's experience. This ambiguity and space for reimagination and reinterpretation by the audience are what I believe is the power of modern art and abstract form. One can consider him/herself appreciating art as an artistic form of a mathematical function, a somehow familiar mountain or lake, or an urban setting of canopies and shades.

Multi-Landscape series (pads) © Jasmine Zhu

As an architectural designer and an artist, how do you balance these dual roles in your creative practice? Do you find that your architectural work informs your art, or vice versa?

As the two roles separate from each other most of the time due to my specific sector of multifamily residence design and development, there's not much to balance. It's interesting that a lot of interviewers were surprised to see my artistic work in the portfolio and were happy to see this side of me other than the construction drawing sets. I think they are very relatable in a way of graphic presentation, and I think they influence each other mutually. For example, when it comes to art creation, my first mindset is very similar to what we do in architectural design, that is, master planning, about how many works, what the location is, how the whole drawing set is organized, the relationship between each art piece, or the relationship between the elements in the one drawing and etc.

Lastly, what future projects or artistic explorations are you excited about? Are there any new exhibitions or projects you want to share with our readers?

Not for the time being. I had one set of illustrations for my Maste,r's thesis, which I'm planning to develop further, and I tried to use Ink painting or other traditional or digital methods. It's a series of my daily observations of the relationship of people in residential and commercial spaces in urban environments and how I believe museums and exhibition spaces are also becoming a space for the audience and visitors to dress up, express, and enjoy themselves. These new forms of interaction will also influence how public architecture should be designed and organized.

Artist’s Talk

Al-Tiba9 Interviews is a promotional platform for artists to articulate their vision and engage them with our diverse readership through a published art dialogue. The artists are interviewed by Mohamed Benhadj, the founder & curator of Al-Tiba9, to highlight their artistic careers and introduce them to the international contemporary art scene across our vast network of museums, galleries, art professionals, art dealers, collectors, and art lovers across the globe.

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