UTOPIA SERIES, 2016
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Artist Statement
My work explores identity and cultural displacement using my own history as a vehicle. Painting has become a venue in which to communicate my experiences of moving. I realize that migration has completely changed my life, forming many blank spaces in my soul that I could never fill up. My identity is "broken apart" and left in pieces as a result of “placeless-ness”. Bringing that concept into my painting, I use the canvas as a platform, reconstructing my identity through marks, brushstrokes, texture and colors. My paintings are an imaginary place where I explore and define myself without any limits. That imaginary place is also where two cultures come together and interweave, merge, and sometimes clash. My paintings connect past and present, Eastern and Western, traditional and contemporary. I investigate identity as a means to finding a balance between cultural beliefs and values in life. I am inspired by the unusual orientation and format of historic Chinese painting. I also carry into my studio practice traditional Eastern ink wash painting and calligraphy. Moving away from representation toward abstraction, I’ve created a transitional zone in which to express my emotions and house the metaphor for my identity. Figurative images are removed and replaced by the blank canvas suggesting the idea of visible and invisible, everything and nothing. |
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