Among Stars, Echoes Linger by Willow
Fine Art Collection March 29 2024
Hysteria by Willow
Fine Art Collection 2021
Intro
“The mechanism of hysteria is due to the suppression of a memory (object image), which makes the emotion linked to the image detached, unable to be removed, and converted into physical symptoms.
Therefore, the suppressed representation is retrieved through recollection, and the representation is linked to the literal representation by turning it into words to reverse the formation mechanism of hysteria, so that emotion can be eliminated through language.”
Interview
Who do you see the protagonist of the story as? Yourself?
“Myself, myself in that specific time. It’s hard to say if it is my hysteria or not, but that’s the first time I find most of my own symptoms can be concluded and named in a word. That’s the closest word that can hold my feelings together at that time. So, yes, myself in my hysteria.”
What kind of texture or feeling in your hysteria are you trying to represent?
“I’m not trying to use some specific texture to represent my feeling in hysteria. I’m using actions and behaviors with different tools to create textures.
Those behaviors are the behaviors I always do or want to do or I feel be treated during that time. The texture can be understood by the result of performance. The texture holds those feelings.”
“Here is the original verse:
Los sueños nos separan
y la sangre nos junta:
somos un río de latidos.
They come from Antes del comienzo, Octavio Paz. As I said in the introduction of this project, the painting is my understanding of verses. But I read the poem in Chinese first, so the most touching I feel is from that translation. I found the original poem and English translation, trying to understand them in different languages”
“Here is the original verse, from Olvido, Octavio Paz:
En esa sombra líquida del sueño
moja tu desnudez;
abandona tu forma, espuma
que no se sabe quién dejó en la orilla;
English translation:
In that liquid dream shadow
bathe in your nakedness,
surrender your form, your foam
(no one knows who left it on the shore);
Based on the words “liquid”, “bathe”, “nakedness” and “surrender”, I chose to use fresh colors here. And combine these words, make me think about the skinless human body, and I try to bring that feeling into the character here.”
“Here is the original verse, from LOS DORMIDOS, Vicente Pío Marcelino Cirilo Aleixandre y Merlo:
Un cielo herido a luces, a hachazos, llueve el oro
sin estrellas, con sangre, que en un torso resbala:
English (I cannot find English translation in that time, so I translate this by Google translation):
A sky wounded with lights, with axes, it rains gold
without stars with blood, that slips on a torso;
I feel struggle and syncope in this verse. Presence and absence being at the core of the state of syncope, among the seven possibilities for the soul to escape the materiality of the body. This poem is from Sombra Del Paraiso (Shadow of Paradise). “A sky wounded with lights, with axes” symbolizing the birth of Dionysus. The people in this poem refer to the person who is trapped by reason in real life and has lost the syncope of being able to perceive art. That’s one of the situations I’m facing and struggling with during that time. That’s why it's painful and colorful.”
For the full series, here.
Outro
Looking back at Hyseria, what does it make you feel now after 2 years? How do you see the fact that you used a lot of words in this series, what role do you want them to play? A Narrator?
“I feel peaceful, and I’m glad I have a good start in my art journey. Even now, if I critique myself at that time, I will say I’m making art at that time, not just doing self-expression.
It’s the first time I try to combine writing with image in an art way. I want to use words to create an aural environment, sort of like the background music of someone reading the words when the audience is reading it. But I don’t think they play as a narrator. Both text and image play as a narrator, telling the story.”
PHYSICAL AND PSYCHOLOGICAL by Willow
Print Making 2021
In Merge And Loom, something seemed to start transforming, what does that look like to you?
“Uncontrolled spilled emotion.”
If there's a meaning to emerging, and finally coexistence, what would be the reason to start this process?
“The starting reason is “I have to spill out something to let me calm down.” I finished this series in an overnight continuing printing. It started with an uncontrollable emerging urge and ended with I finally coexisting with it.”
THAT WAS THE HOLIEST ONE OF MY THOUSAND DRUNKEN TIMES, ANCHOR, RABBIT, SAILING, QUIT, THE DAY & HOLED WIND by Willow
Fine Art Collection 2022-2023
Intro
“Working with painting, drawing, printmaking(monotype, lithograph, intaglio), and ceramic.
Start working with ceramic.
Focus on founding and constructing the logic of my visual language system, and the relationship between different materials that I'm going to keep working with.”
THAT WAS THE HOLIEST ONE OF MY THOUSAND DRUNKEN TIMES
The color you used in this painting is very interesting, like deep down in a swamp, is there a reason why this tonality is selected?
“In my first loss of consciousness experience, I saw a vaguely foggy light golden space, with pale white fog, then changed to a pale green color, then fading to darkness. That’s the first time I can remember I felt I’m not exist in the world, and feel so fake with my existence. This painting is about a dream that gives me the same unreal feeling when I awake - I cannot feel and believe I’m really here and exist. So I use that color palette.”
Oil on Canvas, 72 x 108 inches. 2022. Full poem here.
ANCHOR
Oil on Canvas, 84 x 144 inches. 2023. Full poem here.
RABBIT
Oil on Canvas, 36 x 60 inches. 2023.
****** would not stop Rabbitting!
****** ******** **** * ** ****!!
** *!!!!
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !
**** ************ ******** ** * *****
SAILING
Oil on Canvas, 36 x 48 inches. 2023.
What are arrows made of?
Triangle with a line.
What are sails made of?
Triangle with a line.
The stability of the triangle is unable to be established in the triangle of arrows and sails. The direction of the boat moving forward is unknown, it depends on the ocean current.
Without anchor, boat itself is a marker that is always drifting, always moving towards something, but never reaching the end. The boat will be anchored briefly to the shore. But the other shore does not exist.
QUIT
How do the numbers correlate to the poem in this work?
“The numbers mainly correlate with ages, dates, days, and names. And ages, dates, days, and names correlate to my experience, and what I perceived in that experience. Then I transform it all as a story into a poem.”
Oil on Canvas, 84 x 151 inches. 2023. Full Poem here.
THE DAY
Oil on Canvas, 96 x 60 inches. 2023. Full Poem here.
How does the theme “changes” applies to this work? We see arrows, we see results, we see changing numbers.
“What is the meaning of numbers? What is the meaning of fractions?
The meaning of a fraction is a numerical representation.
Fractions disassemble the concept of one, and make a part of the whole to exist as a whole. It is a symbol of wholeness and portion.
How many portions can a number be divided into? Divide it into 3 equal parts or randomly split it up? What difference does it make if I choose divide or split?
What do fractions mean in two-dimensions? What do fractions mean in three-dimensions? How does one represent a fraction from two-dimensions to three-dimensions, or vice versa?
The answers to these questions relate to the area. The numbers and the fractions’ meaning in the area, the area in the space, and the area in the time.
In a logical way, the area in two-dimensions means the coverage rate of layers - not only the area of color layers, but also the figure area - the area occupied by an object when projected onto a plane. In three-dimensions, the area means occupied space.
In an emotional way, they mean the moment.
3/7 means the third day in a week, so it’s Wednesday. 1/5 is Monday, because it’s the first day of the weekday. The numbers and fractions function as a timestamp, pointing to the moment or the day or the date in that experience.
Arrow functions as a representation of a stroke or strokes. It shows the direction in which strokes are going, the current of the painting, and the present of the thought, which is as same as in the calligraphy.
An arrow as a symbol has a starting point and direction. Does it have an end? No, it just points to a place. Is the place that it points to the end? No, it just points to a place to go. Where to go does not represent the end; where to go is just a direction.
Arrows are certain uncertainty, linear nonlinearity. They point to a place that doesn’t exist, a place that can never be reached. It is a marker that can never be approached.
That’s why it's changing.”
HOLED WIND
Ceramic, 8.25 x 3.625 x 3 inches. 2023.
In HOLED WIND, how is the form of ceramic designed to capture the shape of wind in this work?
“When I started learning how to work in ceramics, I was told that, no matter what, there is a hole somewhere on the ceramic sculpture; it cannot be solid. Digging holes and creating hollow structures prevents the kiln from exploding during firing. I understand this is unavoidable, but I find it annoying to create holes that are only functional and lack meaningful aesthetic intent. So, I began to contemplate: if the purpose of creating holes is to allow airflow, how can I integrate this with my concept of arrows? What are the traces of airflow? What can the traces of airflow create?
This led me to think of one of China's oldest wind instruments, the Xun(埙), a clay-fired musical instrument. Its invention was inspired by the whistling sound produced when ancient people threw stones with natural cavities at prey. The cavities in the stones produced a whistling sound due to the flow of air. The difference between Xun and Ocarina lies in the fact that Ocarina have a mouthpiece, but Xun does not. Xun only has sound holes. Simply put, they are holes, and sound is produced as air flows through them. Therefore, the playing technique of Xun mainly involves controlling airflow, with the urgency of breath and the angle of blowing affecting the sound. Although Xun is traditionally egg-shaped, fundamentally, it can take any form.
Actually, I wasn't designed to do that, I tried other forms with similar structure, but this one is the only really functional work, which means it can really make sound, although it’s weird sound. But it gives me the certain meaning of making holes or building not closed form in my ceramic practice. After this, those holes or windows on my sculptures hold this specific metaphor meaning-the sound of howling wind.”
For the full series from Willow in 2023, here.
Outro
“After today is today.
I’m devoted to art alone.“