Hey, Girl! To face this complicated world, the reality that you actually live in, what kind of face would you choose?
Like the blooming flowers that Im Juri paints—shameless, swift, and proud. Or as Mo Di’s girl, immersing in her own sad but dreamful world. Or being carefree and individual as in Wang Tingting’s work? Which one is the real you, or has every fragment once been you.
Happy, sad, unruly, self-mocking, angry, every face is a gesture to deal with this world. The exhibition: “Look! My face” is the self proclamation of three contemporary young female artists: Im Juri -from Korea, Mo Di-from Guangzhou and Wang Tingting-from local Shanghai. They use their art to express and figure out their independent female attitude through a unique female view point.
The decade of 1960’s saw an explosion of liberation among which a new force was quietly sprouting, Simone de Beauvoir’s vision was realised with her work Le deuxieme sexe (the second sex). The heavy hand of patriarchal society was questioned and this brought a strong and powerful declaration of change and then gradually spread new ideas and concepts of Feminism. The trend was to spark a revolution and inject an unprecedented energy into women’s art. Nowadays female artists have redrawn their coordinates in the world, independence and liberty, which are the way they attempt to find identity.
The theme of flowers always runs through Im Juri’s art works, like a mirror it reflects her past and recalls the desires of life. In Im Juri’s opinion historically the male, based on his desire for the female form, determines the way in which the female is perceived, thereby reducing her role to one of passivity and pleasure. Because of this idea Im Juri creates an image of an independent woman. She constantly keeps juggling and splitting herself into two halves in reality, as “the subject seeing” and “the object being seen”. The combination of flower face and female body that she uses are to some extent showing an alienation of self and world. The pain and self-awareness in this process is repeated. Meanwhile her works reveal her own understanding of love; like a self portrait; “I’m a flower, I’m a flower with a short-life, Beautiful but brutal, I’m a flower with a short life, sinuosity with fragrance, in disapproval of one’s weakness, I’m a flower that is brutal and furious, fading in vain, I’m a hopeless flower. ….So do love me.’
Mo Di, in contrast to Im Juri’s flowers, uses the tree as a media to tell a story of injury and comfort. The works in a group formed by four oval shaped paintings show a wounded girl hiding her fear under the pine needles, although suffering brought tears another part of this girl still has the courage to go out and face her world. It reveals, happy does not equal happiness, pain does not mean misfortune; the real brave soul brings the power of comfort. The girl in Mo Di’s painting finds herself in unhappiness she finds hope in the face of adversity. Understanding and honest are the way modern females face inner-self and outside world and is also the theme in Mo Di’s works.
A new Wang Tingting with a changed style for this exhibition brings different elements to the viewer. A set of simplified portraits reflects the status of young women in our modern society. Some of them restrained proud and unruly, some gentle and tender, some cheerful and lively, some revealing personality and individuality. Each one promotes a Chinese girl in an independent attitude to life. While in another group of watercolor works, girls are the embodiment of the wizard appears in the dream. They have bleak and covered eyes and the determination of against to the world. It implies girls’ particular sensitive. By another hand it showing girls open mind, they share the inner-self and bravely face the cruel but wonderful world.
Im Juri, born in the 1980, Seoul, Korea obtained a sculpture MFA in Women’s access university of fine arts. She held solo exhibitions in PYO Gallery and Gana Art Space, she was also involved in the Gwangju Biennale and had over 30 group exhibitions in Korea and China. Mo Di, Born in 1987, living and working in Guangzhou graduated from the oil painting department of Guangzhou Fine art institute in 2009. Now she is doing a MFA there. She has had exhibitions in Hong Kong, Guangzhou and Shanghai already. Wang TingTing, born in 1981, Shanghai graduated from Shanghai Normal University, Academy of Fine Arts in Professional custom painting and oil painting Master degree. This is the 4th time her works have been shown in FQ Projects.
