The Chinese thematic title of this exhibition is “思緒” (Thoughts and Emotions). In bronze script, the upper part of "思" is “囟” (today’s “田” – field), which refers to fontanelle, and its lower part is a "心" (mind or heart). When we say somebody is "emotional" or “moody”, we mean that he/she does not use the brain to think rationally, but being too mind/heart-focused and sentimental – thus would follow his/her heart to do what he/she merely wants to. Nevertheless, eventually one should put heart and soul into things one desires to do. In this exhibition, the two artists use different media to express their deeper inner personal emotions and thoughts about the world, as well as social limitations and bodily changes. In a mixed use of multimedia such as video, printmaking, photography and installations, they present an exhibition focusing on spatial concepts.

 

Liu Yan's video works 249 and 155, involving daily small movements/gestures such as scratching paper and plucking eyebrows, show simple, straightforward images with self-repeating movements and numbers of the repetitions counted, but are quite heart-rending, for it will be emotionally disturbing if an absolutely simple movement is generated by someone who is fully concentrated and serious and repeats it unlimitedly – just as Liu says in the Work Intro, "These films may cause strong emotional reaction among viewers, such as anxiety, suspicion, confusion, hope, feeling of loss and sorrow – all these sorts of emotions and sentiments."

 

Another work, Knitting, illustrates a heavier consciousness. Here Liu takes up two roles, one to tie the knot and the other to untie, and it seems the knot can never be untied. It is like a Sisyphean task in an endless repetition. But is it not true that our life is also a never-ending useless task?

 

The Unbearable Lightness of Being uses light feathers to symbolize the triviality of life. However, after gradually accumulating it becomes inescapable and will eventually suffocate us. With her keen senses and using images Liu Yan turns daily life issues into creative motivation and inspiration. Shawl is a gift from her mother, who often knit for her. At the exhibition opening, Liu unties the knitted burgundy shawl in a gentle yet powerful way, expressing through a live performance the gap and love between two generations. Using simple images her works seem gloomy yet defying, self-contradictory but tactful, so at a glance viewers can understand her predicament and the deep emotionality.

 

Catherine Cheong works reflect the changes in her body. The more she tries to avoid society, the more issues she finds, many of which are unfathomable. No matter how she tries to take them in societal perspectives, the more she ponders, the more helpless she feels. Besides, entering middle age, she experiences many subtle changes in her body. Therefore for this exhibition, she takes on the changes in the body, namely in her face and hair, to present her queries and reflections on various daily thoughts. Hair loss was the first condition realized by Catherine as a result of internal and external factors. Hence her photo and video work Thoughts and Emotions captures hair loss during hair washing along the years and she simply takes it as a beautiful scene, accepting the situation as natural.

 

In the installation work Daily Consumerism, she presents printmaking images of the brain and fingers on shopping receipts, joins them using hairs to form a ring that goes in circles evoking endless consumerism, and invites a rethinking: before each shopping act, shall we pause and think whether “we buy because we need it" or “we buy because we want it”?

 

The video work Three Thousand of Brain Hairs shows black and grey hairs felling off one by one until they fully cover the screen; as the hairs keep falling, turning from black to grey, a dread feeling is conveyed. Here, Catherine raises the topic of body vs. lifespan: as we know that clinging to the body/physical form turns people unhappy and afraid we should accept the changes, and think of impermanence and death and finally we’ll realize that all these changes are not a problem but the way of Nature.

 

Cora Si Wun Cheng

Curator

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