KARINA LOERCHNER

Yūkyō (2023)
Karina Loerchner, 16, Waterloo Collegiate Instutute
(digital print, 3-D render)

There are certain elements of everyday objects and scenes that I find intriguing. I always try to use my skills in 3-D modeling, and the arts in general, to help others see these scenes the way that I do. I’ve always been fascinated with how light interacts with objects to build a scene, how fog can fill an area with colour, and how reflections in rain or wet surfaces can light up otherwise dark areas in the most interesting ways.

As an introvert, I feel a connection with dark, lonely places. These quiet places allow me to see things without distraction, and to experience the beauty of the interplay between the light and shadows. I create art to let people see these details in the mundane, everyday scenes that they would otherwise miss. I’ve always been fascinated by big, bright cities, particularly Japanese cities. What fascinates me most is the quiet corners in these heavily populated metropolises, and portraying these in art. I want to make the silence visible in my art, and I’d like to use it to enable others to see it from my point of view.

For this artwork, I used Blender, an open-source 3-D modeling and animation software. It allows me to build a scene the way I want it, and from the ground up, exactly how I envision it, with no limitations. It allows me to colour and create my own textures on every aspect of the model. It also allows me to set the lights and the qualities of each light to give the scene the mood that I want to portray. It allows me to make lights and shadows to give the scene life.

As you probably know, the theme for this artwork is “The Nature of Things”. To me, “The Nature of Things” refers to what’s inevitable, and what always ends up happening. For me, being an introvert, I’ve always ended up alone— but that doesn’t bother me; I have a direction, and a clear path of where to go, and I follow that path. I wanted to create an artwork that uses my 3-D modeling skills, and combine that idea with my fascination with dark, quiet environments. In a subway, people come and go, and it always ends up empty again, but that doesn’t mean it stops making progress. Like me, a subway follows the path that’s set for it, and it goes about its day, but eventually it finds peace and solitude with reminders of all that transpired that day.

I’ve seen the work of professional photographers, such as Liam Wong, who photograph quiet or lonely places in busy Japanese cities. I’ve traveled through such places in video games, and I’ve walked through some of them while traveling. These places stand out to me, and I’ve 3-D modeled scenes and animations of such places in the past. In my own work, I try to capture the unique ambience of bright neon lights, and quiet corners at nighttime. With each new artwork, I explore a new aspect of the big cities, and contrast between the busy, crowded areas, and the peaceful, quiet ones.